MLA complains summer student hiring delays are ‘pervasive’ at GN
George Hickes says students waiting for weeks to start jobs; GN spokesperson says ‘no known delays’
Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes pressed the government for answers Tuesday on what he said were summer student employment delays. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
The GN’s summer student hiring program is delayed in every department, says Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes.
“It’s almost pervasive,” he said during his members’ statement in the legislative assembly Tuesday.
The Summer Student Employment Equity Program runs from April 1 through Sept. 30 each year. It provides employment to Nunavummiut students in different departments of the GN and some private companies.
An overview on the GN website said the program “encourages continuous learning and fosters career and workforce development.”
Hickes said he knows of one student whose start date has been delayed six times.
However, a spokesperson for the GN’s Department of Human Resources said Thursday that “there are no known delays in the hiring process of the summer students.”
Irma Arkus said the GN has received 78 summer student applications and expects to get more after the end of the school year.
As of May 27, Arkus said, 28 students have been hired.
The deadline to apply for the program is July 12, and gives priority to Inuit students and people who lived in Nunavut for the past 12 consecutive months.
In an interview, Hickes said constituents have approached him in recent weeks to say their kids have been home since the middle of April and are still waiting for the program to start.
“A number of them have active job offers and their paperwork is all signed, but then the date keeps getting moved up,” he said.
“We have students specifically here in Iqaluit that have been in town for nearly six weeks, are still waiting for their summer positions to start.”
The summer employment program is “quite lucrative,” with students getting $1,000 a week for their work, Hickes said.
“Starving-student syndrome is not just a figure of speech sometimes. I think it’s a very advantageous program.”
Wait til he finds out about delays in hiring real actual staff, not summer students. (Drumroll please.)
“The summer employment program is “quite lucrative,” with students getting $1,000 a week for their work, Hickes said.”
$26/hour is ok. I wouldn’t say it’s “quite lucrative”.
Seeing as that’s more than the average camadian makes, it’s quite lucrative for a teenager with no credentials. $1000 a week for most likely scrolling Facebook and tiktok 8 hours a day ain’t too shabby
Training for unionized government gravy trains.
$26 an hour is pretty nice when you’re living with mom and dad and don’t have to pay mortgage/rent, utilities, property tax, home insurance, auto insurance and gas, groceries. and however many other things you have to pay for as an independent adult/parent. Costs me about $26/hour over the course of a year just to pay for an maintain my home, not including my car and food.
Not paying a share of the household expenses is a parental responsibility. My kids were required to turn over 25% of their cheque to me for room and board. They need o learn immediately that there are things they need o budget for when they grow up.
Sheister
26 hr isn’t lucrative, totally out of it George, what’s lucrative is your pay and pension, and if you want to talk lucrative, start doing your job and start looking at NCC construction costs.
But it is lucrative if you are a student with no experience working for the summer to help fund your education.
Please ensure that all summer students are residents of Nunavut. The majority of summer students hired in Iqaluit are non-residents and have never attended school in Nunavut.
Ummm, that is completely not my experience. If anything, what I’ve seen is lifelong non-Inuit Iqaluit residents completely left out in the cold.
Delays? GN? NU? I would never…
As someone who hires a new summer student every year and whose summer students return again and again, I have this to add. Good summer students are worth their weight in gold. They tell you they are good right from the get go by being prompt to respond, return emaills, complete their paperwork. But for every student I’ve hired every summer, I contact at least 9 more and in the end the hired student is the one who responds, who shows keenness and motivation. Sadly, not everyone who applies to the program wants to work. They may just be doing what their parents ask them to but would rather have the summer off to chill than help hold the GN fort over the summer.
Very enlightening comments. I know exactly what you allude to. There are smart, compassionate and brave people ready to take over the extremely difficult positions dropped by our compatriots. I’ll be in the background supporting them.
They start out enthusiastic and working well… showing up on time and genuinely concerned about their work performance. Until they see the reality of their workplaces and begin having to support the economic and emotional weight of their extended families. They start asking questions to themselves like why should I show up on time daily and put in an honest day’s work when 75% of my coworkers don’t show up, show up consistently and significantly late, always on smoke breaks and literally do squat. Then, they themselves take on those habits and before long they are showing up 2-3 times a week to play Candy Crush in their work stalls. Sad.. sad… sad…
Thanks, ‘They do mean well…’; sadly what you say is true.
One of the potential benefits of student summer-employment is to have the opportunity to learn work ethic and soft workplace skills from the regular full-time employees. Unfortunately that is NOT how it pans out.
What you describe is the norm in the Nunavut government workplace: summer work-placement students arrive on their first day filled with enthusiasm, dedication and gratitude. By the end of the first week they have been trained to be indifferent, apathetic and ungrateful.