Cape Breton Regional Municipality seeks to fill job vacancies with recruitment blitz

Cape Breton Regional Municipality hosted a jobs fair on Thursday.

Finding a good job in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) isn’t always easy, even for some people who are well-qualified.

“I have two degrees - one in chemical engineering and another in petroleum engineering at CBU,” said Jaskian Singh Chauhan, who has lived in the area for seven years.

Singh Chauhan was among those who attended a jobs fair on Thursday to find a career better suited to their skills.

“In the water treatment plant, there is a position opening there that I applied for that one, too,” he said. " I hope that they will call me for an interview."

In other cases, finding people willing to do certain jobs has been difficult.

“You know, right now it is (challenging),” said Const. Gary Fraser of the Cape Breton Regional Police. “People seem to not want to be cops.”

The police force has been trying to hire people for months. Fraser said they are currently down about 15 officers, and recruitment efforts on the Island and on mainland Nova Scotia have not been as successful as they hoped.

“If it’s the internet, YouTube, stuff they’re watching, the way police are being portrayed,” he said. “That’s all we can figure.”

The municipality said it is holding the recruitment blitz due to the job openings and to get ahead of anticipated vacancies.

“We do have some administrative jobs,” said Jenna MacQueen with CBRM communications. “We also have jobs for people that maybe drive heavy machinery. There’s transit operators, there’s jailers, 911 call centre.”

MacQueen said the municipal fire service may soon lose workers to retirements and attrition.

“We actually just had a great hiring with fire, we just had 10 new officers join,” MacQueen said. “But there’s obviously a need, knowing that we do have a lot of baby boomers in the work force and soon more people will be retiring.”

Along with Thursday’s job recruitment session at Centre 200 in Sydney, the CBRM is holding another one on Sept. 4 at the Emera Centre in North Sydney followed by a third session on Sept. 11 at the Miner’s Forum in Glace Bay.

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