Nothing researched, all pretty much off the cuff.
I have a couple draft posts I haven’t touched in months, since my paying work has taken off.
Felt I had better post something, as the site still receives it’s loyal following of spambots, and maybe more importantly, I still 7 months left of this domain being paid for!
I’m hearing from a lot of people that things are “slow” on the residential side, and even slower than last year (“..and the year before at this time). These are residential guys, mind you.
Not sure about commercial. I haven’t looked at data, haven’t tried to analyse media reports.
It seems to me that things keep on keeping on. Not too high, not too low. Typical Nova Scotia.
Of course there are several larger projects going on in the city, and the Federal government is going with the budget that’s pretty much status quo as far as matching provincial and municipal funding levels on infrastructure projects and such.
Half through the fed’s current mandate, with the conservatives still drying to duck the F35 heat, and content to let the media focus on the Liberals and Justin Trudeau for several months, I expect it will be a bit before anything dramatic shakes things up.
My hunch is that the initial speculation and bustle of residential activity in the wake of the shipbuilding announcement is beginning to wane somewhat, but the commercial stuff – which tends to drag out over a few years – as far as large projects are concerned – seems to be steady. I want to look into commercial starts soon. That will tell me a little more.
Still no final plans for these ships nags a bit. When will steel be cut at the shipyards?
I’d love to see what comes out of the Cogswell interchange forums and debates. A nice thing for our fairly new Mayor to focus on, lets some time pass while he adjusts to the gig, and generally will only get passing interest from the majority of citizens. Maybe gets a chance to make a few people happy, whilst avoiding pissing off thousands.
All I know is spring better arrive soon. I bought an old beater with a sunroof, and I’d like to open it without requiring the heater soon.
There has been much news recently concerning employment and jobs in Halifax..
Teachers laid off.
Shortage of Skilled Labour.
Ship Building Contract.
Ship Building Workers laid off.
Reduction in services and civil servant layoffs.
Average age of Nurses rising, retirement ages pushed upward.
The list goes on, and more is added to it every day. What exactly is happening, and why? What will it mean going forward? I’ll take a crack at it..
Feds:
Actions occur on a national level – be it civil servant or large corporation layoffs. Those actions have lasting repercussions here – The local economy simmers down. The flow of money into provincial and municipal coffers slows. That leads to provincial government layoffs, local business suffers – The potential for real, long-term difficulty exists.
It’s hard to say if the federal Conservative government is responding logically to the economic crises of a few years back while trying to re-balance the budget; or if they are merely following their well-known preference for small government and out-sourced (privatized) services. Probably both.
Whatever the reasons, the results are the same, jobs are being shed. One recent example being Fisheries layoffs, with nothing apparently off-limits as you can see here.
Nova Scotia Gov’t:
Provincially, the NDP have made some interesting choices lately. Loaning Irving $304 Million Dollars, but not saying why. Then Irving lays off 44 workers. Certainly it’s been shown that the work on the shipbuilding contract isn’t going to start immediately, but those two events combined certainly haven’t gone over well with Nova Scotia taxpayers. Hopefully it doesn’t foreshadow future disappointment.
Halifax:
Here in Halifax, we have the news that the Halifax regional school board is cutting 154 teachers, due to provincial and municipal funding cuts.
With increasing numbers of students requiring individual program plans and curriculum that continues to evolve – among other things – our education system needs more resources and teachers, not less.
I think it’s worth noting that these type of actions don’t happen in a vacuum. Just as the actions the federal government takes affect us from the top down; now we have actions that will rise from education cuts to potentially hurt us in the long term.
The means to educate and prepare young people for an increasingly competitive workplace is compromised.
The stories coming out of Capital Health aren’t encouraging either. No funds to hire additional nurses, while their average ages increase. An interesting glimpse here at overtime costs.
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So the makeup of the local job market is in flux. Government funded jobs (from all levels) are on the decline.
On the other hand demographics show there are demands in other areas, with the retirement of boomers. The 2011 census shows Nova Scotia is the “oldest” province. More on that here.
There are simply not enough young workers in skilled trades to replace those who are close to retirement.
The provincial government is negotiating with federal counterparts to increase the number of skilled immigrants they can allow directly. The feds want N.S. to modify it’s immigration programs to better reflect the skilled-labour and professional needs; while they are revising national programs and policies. The bottom line, is that NS won’t be able to increase the number of immigrants which it needs to fill holes in the labour market in the short term.
Looking at Temporary Foreign Workers:
The TFW program doesn’t afford it’s workers the same rights Canadian workers enjoy. They often fill jobs that many citizens won’t, due to low wages or due to their seasonal nature. A statistic worth taking note of: Temporary Foreign Workers account for 29% of all full time positions created in Canada over the past four years.
This is worth watching.
In both the U.S. and Canada, actions have been taken recently in the name of fiscal restraint and managing the fragile economy in recovery.
Problem is, many of those actions seem to have come down at the expense of the very workers we need. Back to work legislation seems to be an automated response by governments, and many jurisdictions (mainly in the U.S. to this point, mind you) have been passing legislation that weakens unionized workers.
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After looking at these various points, a conclusion isn’t so easy to draw. Adding it all up however, I am not convinced that we are going to experience a major boom here in Halifax, or in Nova Scotia overall. We’re not going to look like Alberta – or St. John’s for that matter – anytime soon.
I feel skilled trades might be the only sector of employment that will remain healthy in the short to mid term. Yet I also feel that we’ll be lucky if wages and benefits for those working in trades keep pace with inflation. If they do, it may be because the construction demands in Halifax lead to higher wages being paid to attract or keep workers here.
..but will that be the case if demand is met with temporary foreign workers who aren’t afforded the same levels of pay or the same rights as Canadian citizens? No mention of what’s on the horizon for citizen and worker rights – that would just be depressing.
If your son or daughter isn’t training to be a doctor or a lawyer – willing to take the “hometown discount” (after paying the highest tuition in the country) I might be nudging them towards a skilled trade that is experiencing a shortage.
Might be the best way to make a living here in the not-too-distant future.
It’s been six months, since the awarding of the shipbuilding contract to Halifax, on October 19th 2011.
Sure, “Ships Start Here” – but just not in a big way any time soon. Most reports show the first ships under construction will see work start in 2013.
For the jobs that are expected out of this, info on the Ships Start Here website shows that we aren’t supposed to see the peak of 11,500 realized - a tenfold increase over current staff levels - until 2020. There are in fact only modest increases until 2019. As of January, there were already 7,000 job applications received at the shipyard. That is for about 2,800 jobs the shipyard projects to create in 2012.
I can’t imagine Irving is complaining, being able to cherry-pick the best qualified out of such a large pool of applicants.
As for longer term thinking, maybe parents can nudge a wayward child or two (who might not seem so interested in post-secondary education) into NSCC’s welding program with the promise of working on “cool” warships.
If that’s the strategy however, I’d look just as closely at programs offering things such as Construction Management, Carpentry, and Electrical if trying to take advantage of career opportunities in Halifax.
Why consider trades? Well who are the main employers are in Halifax? Government agencies/Crown Corporations, Educational institutions, and Health Care. Now what state are they in?
My pessimistic side has allowed me to wonder a couple of times – both before and after Halifax was announced as winning the bid – if it’s awarding might merely serve to keep the town afloat. In the face of the decimation of jobs in other fields that occupy larger portions of our workforce than building fancy boats – it’s a fair consideration.
Announcements of cuts are coming daily it seems, since the recent federal and provincial budgets were handed down.
Outside of that, factor in the demographics of boomers retiring, and a shortage of skilled workers to replace them, and there’s a case for working in the building trades. They might be the only jobs to be had in couple years. Blue collar jobs, building housing for blue collar people moving to town to .. fill blue collar jobs.
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Where does this leave Halifax right now?
There are plenty of building projects – residential and commercial – taking place in Halifax these days. Some of the projects that developers are pushing through are no doubt related to or at least encouraged by the shipbuilding contract; whereas others had been in the planning stages for years before the announcement.
Canadian Home Mortgage Corporation (or CMHC) data is very useful for getting an idea of what kind of construction is taking place, at least as far as the residential sector is concerned. The bottom line is that there are more residential projects in progress here – about 20% higher than average. A helpful analysis of that data was reported in the Chronicle Herald in late February.
It’s harder to find data on Commercial and Industrial projects and starts, as there isn’t a government agency such as CMHC reporting on them. In fact, if you ask CMHC about it – which I had an opportunity to do recently – they will point you in the direction of CBRE – only the world’s largest commercial real estate firm.. They do have an office in Halifax. Their most recent report, released in late November 2011 details transactions and starts in the Halifax area, and also projects “sustainable” growth.
Having said all that, if you travel around HRM to any extent, perhaps you’ve noticed the numerous projects under way in the Burnside Industrial Park, and in Bayers Lake. The data only supports what one can see about town.
Maybe if City Hall can stop pissing off developers and residents alike with it’s waffling on “HRM by Design”, even more exciting development can be encouraged downtown, to help increase density, contain sprawl – and give more people a reason to want to be on the peninsula. I spoke about this and more, in my first ramble on development in Halifax here.
Since that last post, gasoline has risen over 20 cents a litre. Glad I’m not commuting from Mount Uniacke anymore. Allan Street with my 30 mpg average (realized, not advertised) runabout is still doing me just fine.
Patrick Leroy of United Gulf Developments may be on to something here. Mixed, affordable housing with integrated commercial space downtown, where people can be encouraged to leave their cars parked as often as not.
So far, the points raised this time around have taken the local economy into consideration, as well as the effects of fiscal constraint on the provincial and federal levels. Nothing much as changed in the international economy either – The U.S. is still struggling, as is the E.U.
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Six months after the announcement, I’m not as convinced that we are about to realize some “upward spiral” or catalyst, but maybe I’ll settle for the typical Halifax economy, insulated from the highest of highs,and from the lowest of lows as the world moves on around us.
For now, I wont lament the fact I haven’t quite landed in either journalism or education.
I probably could use a writing course or two, however.
Thanks for reading.
I was born in 1978, a time when North American society was experiencing the start of the personal computer revolution. By age eight I was plugging away on my Commodore – still with cassette drive – learning the ropes of BASIC. By 18, I was marvelling at Windows 95, and the impact the revised Microsoft GUI had on my labouring Pentium 90. Age 28 saw me finally get a laptop – a rugged Panasonic Toughbook (used). Those close to me can attest to my clumsiness; I never trusted myself with devices so seemingly fragile. Here in 2012, the Internet, with moderate bandwidth has gone on to replace cable television in my home. The latest and greatest iPhone does the rest of the work these days, but that’s another story (I will say I pine for Siri to be as generous and kind to her Canadian suitors, as to those south of our border).
Beyond my early adventures line-entering and tinkering with the BASIC programming language, I never seriously pursued any programming efforts. I did however focus intently on the hardware aspect of all of my various machines over the years with great zeal. I remember getting an IBM clone 286 16Mhz machine as a birthday gift somewhere around 1990, with explicit instructions not to take it apart. There wasn’t an abundance of money to indulge my computer interest when I was a child. That led me to operate a few years behind the curve as far as systems or hardware were concerned – and with money they invested, my parents – knowing full well of my tendency to dissemble everything I got my hands on out of curiosity – demanded I leave the Acer 286 alone. I actually did abide by that for several months, until I opened it up to install a game card.
I considered then, and still consider myself a power user. I was the kid you called when your computer ran slow, was full of viruses, wouldn’t turn on, was used to look for too much Internet porn – you name it. I did some work for a hardware wholesaler who built clone PC’s to suit for various commercial clients. It was almost fun, but it didn’t pay as much as my construction trade jobs – so I didn’t stick around too long. That’s where I was on Sept. 11 2001. I’d just gotten the job in Halifax when I heard the news.
These days I have a five year old business class laptop running the Ubuntu flavour of the Linux operating system through a docking station tied into a Plasma HD television. This arrangement takes a central role in providing office, writing and organizational capabilities and also drives my entertainment system in concert with a Sony PlayStation. It also manages my iPhone backups and content. There are various examples of inter-connectivity amongst the four devices.
On the way to this point in my life were many hours of tinkering, chatting, building, troubleshooting, and improvising. Not having the latest hardware but wanting to squeeze out every drop of performance in order to run newer software was the context within which I typically operated. Now it’s simply my instinct. To this day I have never personally purchased a brand new system. Upgrading is something I approach as required, and certainly not for the sake of having the newest hardware. The specifications of my phone and the Play Station certainly outdistance the laptop.
34 years into this existence surrounded everywhere by digital devices, I’d have to say honestly that I’ve spent more hours working on computers in one form or another, than I have on just about any other activity. This includes my working career. In fact, I’d say that it’s not even close.
This is where I leave the moderate techno babble I’ve peppered this writing with behind, and finally get to my theory.
Other than recent years of outdoor work slowly giving me crows feet, and recent relationships giving me a few grey hairs – I think I may just have existed in some form of stasis or enchantment. Might someone identify with this? How many have spent time working on computers in one form or another, or even just spent time online chatting with people – only to discover – hey, it’s 3am – I gotta get the hell to bed!
As a child were they booted out of the house on a sunny Saturday afternoon, because their parents thought they spent too much time indoors on the computer?
I figure to be a late bloomer in many respects. I only have two years completed towards my B.A, (don’t ask), I rent a flat with used or second hand furniture (again, don’t ask) and I’ve never married, no children. But beyond all of this, I even look younger than my age – or at least through to age 30 I did.
Interestingly enough my metabolism finally slowed, and I started to put on weight over the past couple of years. My perennial 135lbs finally worked up to 185 this past summer, in a process that didn’t begin until well after my 30th birthday. Just this past year I finally was able to grow enough facial hair that I began to sport a modest moustache and beard. People with real Moustaches and Beards secretly laugh at me though I’d imagine.
"Movember" 2011
Now for the correlation – it was around the same point in time where my interest in technical and hardware troubleshooting, along with marathon chat sessions began to wane. My computer use began to resemble something somewhat ordinary outside of those who actually make money for their time using computers and related technology.
Maybe it’s because it was during that same relatively recent time-frame that I stopped beating myself over the head with Windows, and moved to the much more svelte and fluid Linux operating system. (This also required tinkering, troubleshooting and a later evening or two to accomplish, to be fair).
Was I in stasis? Did my electronic overindulgence for 20+ years help to slow my biological clock or even my cognitive development? It certainly slowed my social development as a teenager..
I only write this half kidding. Surely there’s an overbearing, pretentious absurdity here at first blush, but is there more to it?
I’ve long pondered the various cultural, sociological, and behavioural impacts of the computing era on our beloved humanity from my jack-of-all-trades / layman’s point of view. But what about the biological consequences? I would have thought that -if anything- that result would simply be to render me sterile from all the radiation (again.. half kidding), but could there be more effects?
I wonder if all of the time spent processing information, or troubleshooting conflicts and various malfunctions, while in an otherwise sedentary mode ends up being akin biologically to some kind of relaxation technique or meditation. Perhaps in this mode of existence, the effects of damaging biological forces are somehow mitigated – and thus ageing and physical development become delayed.
I tried to write this with an air of levity, generally enjoying the process of poking fun at myself and even with some spirit of finding like-minded (like-bodied?) souls out there. But if you care to use this as some inspiration for a research project or amateur science experiment even – don’t leave me out!
Thanks for reading.
First composition: Sep 12 2011, Revised Mar 5 2012
I like to think that I’ve been very fortunate over the years to earn a reasonably broad range of skills and experience.
Few of those experiences gained have been as rewarding as my time working in the film industry over the past decade. I owe many thanks to a good friend who introduced me to the business in 2001 (thank you, Matt).
Since that point, I’ve worked on about ten features, television series, shorts, commercials as well as independent productions. All of this work has seen me travel to Vancouver, where I have either lived or travelled to in order to work on productions. This has occurred at various points in my life since 1999.
These days I’m settling more into living permanently in Halifax, but the occasional project may lure me away for a few weeks…
My industry work has consisted of various roles within the Art / Construction Departments of productions. Mainly it has been as a Carpenter, but I’ve also worked as a Construction Driver, Welder, Crane Operator and Labourer.
I’m fortunate to have been able to apply myself at my highest levels to the various productions I’ve worked on, and to have earned responsibility and trust that’s proved to be invigorating.
Without hesitation, I’ll say that some of my very best work outputs – whether it’s in the quality and precision of pieces I’ve built, the performance in demanding environments and conditions, or the results when changes were needed (and fast..) during a shoot – have come from my industry work.
My time spent owning a small business for residential general contracting; and currently working in commercial construction as a Carpenter and Glazier with a reputable Halifax company – have been the other environments that have and will continue to push my limits.
The day we stood “The Wicker Man“, August 26th 2005 – 60 feet tall, two months to produce, transport to location on Bowen Island, B.C. and assemble.
The head was large enough to house Nicolas Cage’s character before his ultimate sacrifice. I spent a week alone working on the interior of this, 63 feet above ground.. quite a view.
B.C. Place entrance, before our work to make it appear to be the entrance of a train station.
Production: The Butterfly
Building the pieces that will become the “Metro Link” station entrance, and installation work.
..and (below) you can see in this shot that the exterior appearance of the various sets is all business. This was taken at the main studio set build for Endgame (2011). I was waiting for my turn to rip some wall “skins” at the table saw.
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These are just a few shots from various productions. My resume for the industry details exactly what work I’ve done, and now it’s time for me to see what I can generate in my hometown.
Thing is, Halifax has seen a boom in recent years in Film production, and I’m keen to get involved.
That will involve going through the motions with the IATSE local here (849), and possibly the CMG to gain membership and potentially work on maritime-based productions that involve those unions. The verified work I have already done in B.C. will qualify me as a member in one of them here. I hope the local production schedule will remain busy enough to allow me a shot at it.
The other avenue I’ll follow involves the CBC. I’m a huge fan of various CBC offerings – even if it’s more Radio One.
I’m ready to volunteer my time on either front to see what connections I can make here.
The results of which I will detail in part 2 of this post.. here’s hoping!
Thanks for reading.
Now that my time in Natuashish is over, I’ve wondered how best to start my final words on the subject.
I’ve been very humbled by the amount of visitors my first post on the subject generated. Being picked up by the folks over at Labrador Wild was something I certainly never expected.
Thanks to all who have dropped by and for the private messages I’ve received. I’ll try and do this follow-up justice.
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Right, so here again is Natuashish – in answer to complaints that I wasn’t very specific concerning it’s location. It is at 55 degrees latitude, not quite the arctic circle, but certainly farther North than I’d ever been, a roughly 10 degree increase in latitude over my home in Halifax, N.S.
Labrador uses Atlantic Standard Time, which was convenient for me.
My tenure there ran from Oct 25th to November 18th. Those of us sent there were working on a new Recreation Centre for the community. The hours were long – 13 hour shifts typically, and we worked every day.
That stretch was nothing nothing to some of the people the company sent there.. The original group were there for a total of 10 weeks – and save for the occasional sick day here and there, they worked every single day of it. My hat is off to them.
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Two recent developments have added poignancy to this post for me, both of them ongoing.
For one, the ongoing story in Attawapiskat (summarized well here) relates in several ways to what occurred to the Mushuau Innu in Natuashish – and the Davis Inlet community that preceded it. There are many relevant and poignant stories to be found using terms like “Davis Inlet” or “Mushuau Innu” in the search engines. Two difficult to imagine, yet important ones for better understanding can be found here, and here.
While I will say that it is my belief that the problems Natuashish – and many other indigenous communities in Canada – face are directly related to promises that the Canadian and/or provincial governments broke (or didn’t deliver upon fully), I really prefer to focus on the positives that I saw first-hand.
Some good things are happening for Natuashish.
As in so many other challenged regions, a large focus has to be upon the children. Seems to me that if you give them something constructive to do, some viable options for them to spend their time upon, you might be able to help break the cycles that damaged previous generations. I’m not exactly qualified to weigh in on this too much, but thankfully professionals of all variety are on the ground there working with the community to improve things.
While the schools built in Natuashish face ongoing challenges, I did meet dedicated teachers there who want to make progress. Adding to that, there are other projects under way which will help provide the amenities and recreation that we enjoy in most typical Canadian communities.
Completed a few years ago, a decent Ice rink exists in Natuashish. It contains all of the facilities you’d find at a typical community arena. There are local teams, and two coaches come into town on a rotation to help build skills. There is a league from what I understand, and the team hosts, as well as travels to other communities for games.
The rink is part of a larger recreation complex, an addition to which we were working upon during our time in the community.
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Lots of sand in Labrador..
There is an outside chance that I will return to Natuashish in 2012 to help on a project to build a number of new homes. I’ll certainly comment more on that if the situation does come about, but now I’ll speak a bit more about the experience of being in the community itself.
First of all, there are only two ways into Natuashish, by air and by sea.
Bulk cargo, supplies and fuel are shipped into the town’s port, while smaller cargo, residents and visitors fly into the local airport.
Twin Otters are quite the aircraft. I had never flown in anything quite as small, and I gained some additional respect for the pilots who can get them in and out of small community airports, as if it were a walk in the park.
Our accommodations in the town consisted of a bunkhouse, one component of a complex that also included a general store, motel and cafeteria. We had private rooms, which were small but comfortable.
The cafeteria served as a bit of a games room after working hours. Some of the crew played Cribbage or “Chase the Ace” to pass the evenings occasionally. I’d join in once in awhile, but typically only came out for a snack or to watch hockey on the satellite-fed big screen television.
Most nights I relaxed in my room watching movies or television series’ I’d brought with my laptop for the journey. Considering the challenge of our work schedule, that was often enough for the couple of spare hours I had to myself.
I did make use of the gym facilities at the recreation complex occasionally however, and the few times we were able to use the ice were certainly fun.
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Considering that I left Halifax in late October with the temperature in the mid-teens, there was an adjustment to the weather in Natuashish.
The average temperature while I was there was around the freezing mark, with it dipping several degrees below often at night. Being on the coast of the Labrador Sea, we experienced some dampness and wind. It snowed or rained for a portion of almost every day.
Those conditions aren’t so difficult taken on their own, but the roofing and siding materials we were working with consisted of thin gauge steel – something you cannot work with effectively in the snow.
The foreman for our crew did a great job of coordinating our work to suit the conditions. This allowed our productivity to remain high, and ensured the work was of a good quality. Certainly the right person for the job.
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Natuashish is not a place to be if you don’t like dogs. There are lots of them in town.
I’d guess there are at least 250 of them in the community, and many of them are free to wander. Ownership seems to be loosely defined.
Mostly it seems to be Huskies, but there are many breeds of dog there – some of which don’t necessarily seem well suited for the winter weather.
Occasionally authorities remove some in cases of illness or aggressive behaviour – but most of the dogs seem fairly tame.
Our job site was no exception to this. Over the few weeks that we were there, no less than dozen dogs visited with us, some repeatedly.
They figured out we were easy marks to score a meal from. Many of them benefited from food we would bring back for them from the cafeteria after lunch and supper.
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Evenings on site were certainly eventful, and posed a challenge for the crew.
Considering our latitude, daylight hours were certainly shorter than in Halifax. The effect of this was intensified for us when Daylight Savings Time came to an end. At that point sunset was typically around 4:30pm.
We would leave for Supper at 5pm, returning quickly to set up flood lights and do our best to remain productive. We would save certain procedures for the evening hours, in order to remain safe. Use of the lifts and machinery was limited, what work we could do at ground level, we saved for the evenings.
Another challenge with the evening work was the children.
The adjacent arena complex had various programs and skates for all ages, which would naturally attract a good number of families and children.
Some of them found it great fun to visit the site, enter the building we were working upon, and run around.
While this was for the most part harmless, we obviously had a responsibility to ensure the safety of people on site. It was a regular event for several of the crew to have to stop and chaperone the kids, explaining what we were doing, and ushering them safely away from the machines and materials.
They are a fearless bunch, not much we were up to scared them. They would have hopped right into the lifts with us and tried to use the power tools.
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Getting back to events that added some relevance to this post – it’s worth mentioning the recent agreement that’s bound to have a huge effect on Labrador’s Innu, the New Dawn deal.
This agreement works to provide the Innu Nation in Labrador with a percentage of profits from the upcoming Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project (which is certainly of interest to Nova Scotians as well), and other compensation for the flooding of hunting lands during construction of the original Churchill Falls facility.
Other benefits of the New Dawn deal include title to a significant amount of land, hunting and fishing rights on even more.
Some worry about the effect the influx of money will have. One can only hope the work that is taking place in the communities now will help ensure wise decisions are made which will benefit the residents in the long term.
Thing is, there are a lot of indigenous communities in Canada that are in trouble. The news being made in Attawapiskat may just be the beginning. I have a feeling we are going to hear about several other communities also facing crisis in the upcoming months and years.
While I don’t necessarily believe it’s appropriate or fair to compare any two indigenous communities – especially when it involves different nations and cultures – government treatment (mistreatment) over the years often has been the same.
Perhaps the lessons being learned now in Natuashish, what works, what doesn’t, and the skills administrators and professionals of all stripes are learning as they go will better prepare those who would help out other communities in need.
Something tells me I just may find myself in a similar situation again in the future, after all.
I flew into northern Labrador on Tuesday, Oct 25th, 2011.
The company I work for has been contracted to help build various community centres and housing for the Mushuau Innu that now call Natuashish home.
The history of Natuashish is short; the community has only been inhabited for nine years. It was built to replace Davis Inlet in an attempt to help the Naskapi Innu who were facing severe social crises – brought on largely by previous government interventions and relocations.
From one point of view, it might be best for me to leave this one alone. My ability to dig deep into these subjects and to communicate with the local population is severely restricted.
Then there is the fact that I’m not an investigative journalist. I might like to pretend that I do a little freelance reporting here and there, but that’s not quite my reality. I have no mandate to do such things, and I could end up causing trouble for myself and for my employers if I’m not smart about it.
Having said that, I do hope that over the course of the month that I’m able to generate something insightful. This is definitely a contrast to my life in Halifax, and to the lives of most of the people I know.
I’m working on collecting pertinent information about the region and it’s recent history. Especially that history as impacted by the largely European descendants who have exerted influence on the Innu way of life.
I can say this: I see positive signs – but there is a long road ahead in many respects.
For the my coworkers and myself, that involves up to 30 straight days of work, typically 12 hours a day. For some, the total number of days will exceed 50.
This will be a challenge on many levels. Three days in, so far so good.
– October 27th, 2011. 11:22pm
