Missed Opportunities

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It was a captive audience. Thousands upon thousands of people looking for work, all gathered in a convention centre in downtown Toronto. And with the downturn in the economy, every media outlet in the country seemed to be looking for a story. What did they find? Almost across the board, the stories focused on the pitch by the province of Saskatchewan. Move to the West, we’ll give you $20,000 – you just need to stay for seven years. And almost across the board, the coverage was positive.

Now, I don’t think the media missed the story. It’s a new plan for Saskatchewan, and it’s an aggressive one that a lot of job seekers were interested in hearing more about – mostly because they’d heard about it first in the media. No, the missed opportunity was for New Brunswick.

New Brunswick was one of four major sponsors of this job fair – Saskatchewan was not. Most of the stories I read, heard or saw only mentioned the province in passing. Even standing there, amid the folks sipping King Cole Tea and Red Whale coffee, no one mentioned any incentive program to move to the province.

I lived in Moncton for several months a few years back. I remembered TV ads about a tuition rebate program, so I went looking online. Imagine my surprise when I found this. Not only is there a program, it was just beefed up during the recent budget. Anyone who graduated from a recognized degree/diploma program since June 2005 is eligible. The government of New Brunswick will reimburse you up to half of the total cost of your tuition, to a maximum of $20,000. Wait, that’s the same amount of money Saskatchewan is offering! How long would you have to live on the Prairies to get that money? Seven years. How long would it take to get the same amount in New Brunswick? Five years.

So … Saskatchewan’s Minister of Labour appeared on national TV news, radio and newspapers extolling the virtues of his province’s monetary incentives. New Brunswick barely got mentioned – and yet the province has the better plan. (Unless your program was less than $20,000. Saskatchewan doesn’t cap their reimbursement at half of what you paid; but looking at their website, it also appears that to get the $20,000 you have to do a four-year program, and I don’t think there are many of those that come in under $20,000.)

I can understand that New Brunswick doesn’t want to appear too aggressive, doesn’t want to be accused of poaching people from Ontario and elsewhere. But even when my boyfriend and I walked up to all the New Brunswick representatives at the job fair, explained he was graduating in two months and we were moving back to our new home outside Moncton, not one person asked if we’d heard of the program. Nowhere was there a pamphlet for us to pick up and learn about it. It was like it didn't even exist.

When you’ve got the better deal but someone else is getting all the attention, you need to rethink the strategy. New Brunswick missed reaching out to a lot of recent grads who might have opted for ocean breezes over wheat fields.

ADDENDUM: The job fair introduced both my boyfriend and me to many wonderful people who were all extremely encouraging about our move home. While no one had a specific job to direct us towards, many offered their help in passing our information along to potential employers. It was a positive experience that increased our belief we've made the right decision in moving to New Brunswick.