More summer jobs for students
CBRM informed it will receive an additional 85 positions
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality will see a dramatic increase in the number of federally funded summer jobs for students this year.
After initially expressing concerns that the region would see a decrease in the number of summer students — according to numbers provided by the CBRM, at first 12 positions were approved for it between the ridings of Sydney-Victoria and Cape Breton-Canso, down from 18 last year — the municipality has been informed it will receive an additional 85 positions.
Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking said the overall increase for his entire riding this year is 140 positions.
The additional 85 jobs for the CBRM total $137,270.
The initial apparent decrease in the number of jobs was because the minimum wage increased, Eyking said.
“These students are in huge demand,” he said, noting the number of groups and organizations requesting summer students often far exceeds the number of grants available locally.
This is also a unique year due to Canada 150 events taking place.
“The communities are very engaged, community organizations, municipalities are very engaged with Canada 150 celebrations,” he said. “Festivals and events are really taking off so there’s a big demand to have students on the ground.”
Eyking said he approached the minister responsible, asking whether additional funding was available. Because not all ridings across Canada use their full allotments, the extra money was found. Eyking was notified of the additional positions on Monday.
“You’re going to see lots of young people working this summer,” Eyking said.
Staff is now determining where across the municipality’s various divisions the positions should be deployed. They have about two weeks to determine where students could have employment placements where they can gain meaningful experience, Mayor Cecil Clarke said in an interview.
“It’s a good problem,” Clarke said. “We’re looking at everything from where our needs are related to cruise customers experience assistance to getting some needed data that we wanted for surveys and stuff like that.”
Clarke said staff is also revisiting job applications to assess the skills and areas of interest of students.
“That’s another area where we’re looking to see where are the areas of expertise and are there some job matches that can be found as a result of that,” Clarke said.
He added he’s hopeful the region may see the same level of student employment maintained next year.
“This is a great door opener,” Clarke said.
This year the federal government set as priorities under the Canada Summer Jobs program creating opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries; small businesses; employers getting involved in welcoming and settlement of immigrants; employers that hire indigenous people; and employers involved in celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation.