Baffin chamber sets up board for job seekers

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Baffin job seekers and businesses with jobs to fill now have a new way of hooking up thanks to a Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce initiative.

The chamber, along with Human Resources Development Canada, has launched a new job board for young work seekers here in Iqaluit and throughout the Baffin Region. But the project’s mandate goes beyond posting individual job openings.

The chamber of commerce wants to help Baffin employers train potential employees. The chamber will store information on job-training programs funded by government and other organizations.

The goal, said Colleen Dupuis, the executive director of the chamber, is to ensure jobs throughout Iqaluit and the Baffin don’t go unfilled.

“The past couple of summers, there have been positions that have been difficult to fill,” Dupuis said.

Project co-ordinator Joe Boisvert is contacting individual businesses in Iqaluit. To date, he has found 43 jobs in Iqaluit. Of those jobs 14 are full-time.

He is now contacting economic development officers in the Baffin to find out what jobs exist in each community.

Boisvert’s work proves there are jobs out there, Dupuis said. But sometimes, students and other job seekers don’t know where to look for jobs. Or employers don’t have the money needed to train a new employee, Dupuis said.

“A lot of times when employers go to hire someone, they would be a lot more willing to hire someone that needs training if they came with a little bit of money for that initial learning curve,” Dupuis said.

Money is out there, but right now, employers seeking those training dollars often face a maze of bureaucracy. And available training dollars can end up unspent.

“There’s so many places that you can go to (for funding) that if you’re a small business man and you don’t know how to negotiate through the red tape it can be very difficult,” Dupuis said.

The chamber will create a list of all job-training funding programs available to private business. The list, along with contact names, will be mailed out to businesses.

For job seekers, the board is expected to provide a starting point for job searches. Iqaluit’s job board is located in the Brown Building near the Department of Education’s offices. Another board is also available at the chamber of commerce offices.

Economic development officers in other Baffin communities will display job postings where appropriate, Boisvert said. Jobs range from full-time positions to seasonal work, to jobs aimed at students.

The job board comes down after August 27. The program will then be evaluated and may be revived next year.

HRDC will keep the data on business’s staffing needs and the chamber of commerce will continue to make available information on funding for job training throughout the year.