Let me ask the question again in case some of you didn’t hear it, “where will the jobs come from in the so-called new economy?”. Every time we turn around, more people are losing their means of support, and the new jobs that are popping up don’t look all that great.
Meatpacking is not my idea of whoopee. When I was 18, I said no thanks to a summer job on the hog kill at Canada Packers in Winnipeg. Instead, I worked as an office boy at National Trust. The pay was barely half, but I could sleep at night. Thousands of new Canadians are happy to take those meatpacking jobs, but many of those positions are also being lost.
Maple Leaf Foods announced this week they are cutting about 3% of their work force, both white collar and blue collar. If we keep moving in the direction of major international deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership, and young Mr. Trudeau hasn’t told us what he thinks of it yet, many more jobs could be lost in the food and agribusiness sector. It used to be an area where Canada did very well, but other countries do just as well or better, and at a much lower cost.
Back to Roger’s life story, I went to university where I studied very little, and had a wonderful time. After messing about in movie theatres for a year, I became a radio broadcaster. Again, I had a wonderful time, and a rewarding career that has lasted more than 40 years. Now that industry is controlled by folks like Bell Canada – hello again David Thompson.
Bell is eliminating hundreds of jobs right now, mostly in radio and television. Thousands of our best and brightest young people in this country are coming out of school with major debt loads that us Boomers were not burdened with. In many cases, the jobs are just not there as they once were.
All in all, it’s very very worrisome.
I’m Roger Currie
