from the desk of Helen Jowett, CEO
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Human Resources Consulting Firm Est. 1994
Pointing people in the right direction.
Our executive interview office for client use.
Developing people is what we do best!
Our team is award winning!
Ashlee is bringing MG into the tech world with the ferocity of a mother lioness… hmmm yep she’s having her second baby and we are all thrilled. We look forward to our other mommy returning Jessica M.
Opportunities for jobs have been growing but certainly not at the rate we used to see. While companies hunker in and get through this economic correction, we are still seeing some jobs in specific growth industries.
The Recruiters, Business Development Reps and Facilitators continue to offer our diversified menu of Human Resource Solutions and we have enjoyed a stable market. Since last November, we have seen the market improve in both temporary, permanent and executive opportunities. Get your resume in even if you aren’t going to be looking for a while or you are looking for something very specific. Our discreat marketing approach has gently and quietly moved people into their next strategic opportunity. Hope ya’ll had a great summer and i look forward to blogging throught the fall.
Cheers,
Helen G. Jowett, CHRP, MBA
President and CEO
Helen quoted in the Record on the Employment situation in Cambridge
Robert Wilson, Record staff It’s all about jobs in Cambridge
TheRecord.com – CanadaWorld – It’s all about jobs in Cambridge
Riding has seen more than 1,000 blue-collar jobs disappear
Kevin Swayze
RECORD STAFF
CAMBRIDGE
For the first time in her 45 years, Carole McCallum has decided to vote.
“I didn’t think it would make a difference,” said McCallum, a volunteer at the Cambridge Self-Help Food bank.
“The guy upstairs isn’t going to vote. The people I talk to, none of them are going to vote.”
She wonders whether people in Cambridge, fed up with politicians, will stay home during the federal election. In 2006, voter turnout was 66.8 per cent across Waterloo Region.
McCallum takes a different approach.
“You can’t have a voice if you don’t take the first step to get out and vote,” she said.
A month ago, someone from Conservative Gary Goodyear’s campaign called and asked her if she was going to vote. Her political antennae went up, and she agreed to volunteer for Goodyear, who is running for re-election.
Now she wonders whether, in her excitement, she stepped into party politics too far, too fast. She agrees with most of what Goodyear and the Conservatives offer in terms of stay-the-course, no-new-taxes policies.
But ideas from other candidates, she admits, are also appealing: child-care promises from Liberal Gord Zeilstra, for example, or the demand for more doctors and a prescription drug plan from Max Lombardi, the New Democratic candidate.
“Why can’t we take things from all of them and put them together in one candidate,” McCallum says, echoing a common lament.
Scott Cosman is carrying the Green party banner in Cambridge riding, which includes all of North Dumfries Township.
In the 2006 federal election, Goodyear got 25,275 votes to retain his seat.
Economic turmoil — and the lack of government help for displaced workers — is on the minds of people who lost their jobs when American Standard and Cambridge Stamping closed.
They gather in an office on the main floor of Cambridge Place on Water Street three days a week, dropping in for help with their unemployment insurance claims, resumés and search for work.
For Abdulrhin Motala, who lost his job of 23 years when Cambridge Stamping closed in April, the issue is whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper “should give $5 billion in tax cuts without any guarantee of jobs or give that $5 billion to retraining people.”
George Harris, who worked at Cambridge Stamping for 14 years, says manufacturing in Ontario is in trouble because the Conservatives and Liberals have exported jobs instead of products.
“You don’t know what’s in the future . . . there is no job security,” Harris said.
Only the New Democrats have a plan to help companies on the condition they create and keep jobs here, he said.
Manufacturing accounts for 26 per cent of the city’s jobs. But the number of blue-collar jobs has declined, from 18,445 in 2001 to 17,205 in 2006, and the numbers are still falling.
Economists say Cambridge should ride out the economic downturn, even though “it won’t be a total bouquet of roses,” said Greg Durocher, president of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce.
Some industries are struggling, but others, such as high tech manufacturing and information technology, are “seeing exponential growth in some areas” in Cambridge, he said.
“This area is one of the bright spots in Canada and maybe North America because of our diversity.”
For Helen Jowett, owner of McDonald-Green personnel services, a key election issue is helping companies create jobs.
“I do believe we have to look at the tax burdens for small business . . . so I can have more financial leverage to create more jobs, to get more people working,” said Jowett, who is the chair of the Cambridge chamber.
She agrees with McCallum that there’s apathy toward the current federal election, with a big presidential election in the United States.
“It seems our politics are quite quiet compared to there, where the financial crisis is front and centre,” Jowett said.
“I’m not hearing a lot discussion around (the Canadian election) locally. Not as much as we’re used to.”
But in the end, getting Canadians excited about U.S. politics may be a good thing, Jowett suggests.
“Maybe it is working in our favour. If we’re all talking about the U.S., we can talk about doing something here.”
kswayze@therecord.com
Max Lombardi, 40
NEW DEMOCRAT
Information
Technologist, NEBS Payroll Service, Cambridge
Worked at MTD Products 10 years until layoff last year
” I’m a working class guy. . . . . I think I feel the same things the people at the doors are living and telling me about.”
Coach, Cambridge Youth Soccer
Volunteer, Christ the King School Council
Volunteer, Aurora Lodge Italian Club http://www.kwndp.ca/cambridge
Gord Zeilstra, 36
LIBERAL
Technology sector executive
Headed national sales for Monster.ca and was one of its first employees
“If jobs hadn’t been the most important issue in this election, I probably wouldn’t have run.”
Has worked in Asia and the Pacific to help global companies develop their ability to manage online job candidates
http://www.votegord.ca
Scott
Cosman, 55
GREEN
Sales representative for Miser Lighting Sales, which offers environmentally friendly lighting systems for industrial use
“I see the Green party as the only party that meets the threats of the day head on.”
Has worked in sales and marketing at companies such as Canada’s Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty Snack Foods and Safety Kleen
http://www.greencambridge.ca
Gary Goodyear, 50
CONSERVATIVE
Incumbent MP since 2004
Chiropractor
Chair of Conservative Party’s Ontario caucus
“I went to Ottawa to demand and get the best for Cambridge and North Dumfries . . . I am absolutely passionate about getting what Cambridge needs.”
Chair of standing committee on procedure and house affairs
Chair of the Conservative Space Industry Caucus
http://www.garygoodyear.ca
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