Action need to fill job vacancies

Last week’s Times had 59 job vacancies being advertised. The newspaper averages more than 40 openings every week.
At one time, there was a surplus of people and any job opening had 50 or 60 applicants. Not so now. Life has changed here in Rainy River District.
Almost every restaurant and fast-food operation has openings for servers and cooks. Almost every retailer in the district continues to look for salespeople to serve customers.
People can now shop for jobs.
Meanwhile, doctors are being sought to fill requirements in both Fort Frances and Emo.
Last week, I spoke with a general contractor who was telling me how difficult it is to find truck drivers, heavy-duty mechanics, and heavy-duty equipment operators. He lamented that he’s had to pass on tenders because he couldn’t find the skilled people to work on the projects.
A similar story was told to me about a garage that has been trying to recruit a certified mechanic for more than 10 months.
I wonder what we need to do, as a community and district, to attract young professionals to our area and also encourage more of our young people who have left the community to return and continue their careers here.
Yes, there are careers that do not exist in our area and many of our young people take up those careers. My two sons are among those.
But not all jobs in today’s connected world require people to locate in large centres. More people now work remotely from their homes. As long as you can connect to high-speed internet, one can work remotely.
In fact, there are more people in the district already working with central offices in Toronto, Calgary, the U.S., and even Europe.
Even if every job were to be filled, where would all of those people and families find accommodation? Do we, as a district, need to attract investors to come into the area and build apartment buildings? Do we need to open up more subdivisions for housing in Fort Frances and Emo for single-family detached homes?
Are people adequately informed of support to remove abandoned homes and infill those lots with new housing? What other services or attractions would make coming to Rainy River District more attractive to filling all the job vacancies that are found here?
I don’t have the answers. I don’t even know the right question to ask. But I would suggest one of the first things the new town council could do would be to hold a 20-30 something forum and ask those people what attracted them to come to the district.
We also should ask what would make attracting the millennials to our area more successful? And what holds people back from returning to the district?