Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 07/99) - When Joe Boisvert heads off to work every morning, it's his job to help other people find jobs.

"We're not placing people in jobs per say. We're just posting them on bulletin boards for people who come through the office and we're sort of directing people," said Boisvert, the program coordinator of the Baffin Employment Centre in Iqaluit.

Hired by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) to get the new youth initiative off the ground, Boisvert said the new centre, which has posted more than 75 jobs to date, served more than just the residents of Nunavut's capital.

"It's for anyone really seeking employment in the region and it doesn't just have to be a summer job. We also have full-time postings," said Boisvert.

Running in conjunction with similar programs in Nunavut's two other regional centres, part of Boisvert's responsibilities include acting as a liaison and making sure that jobs are posted by the economic development officers in the Baffin region's 12 other communities.

In order to learn about what's available in every hamlet, and to assess local job opportunities, Boisvert spent most of his first month on the job creating a database of all of the businesses in the region and of their employment needs.

From there, Boisvert made sure the positions were posted on job boards up island, in his office and outside of the Career Centre in the Brown Building.

While funding for the program came from by HRDC, a partnership with the Baffin regional Chamber of Commerce provided Boisvert with office space. His supervisor, Colleen Dupuis, also the executive director of the BRCC, said her organization readily accepted HRDC's proposal, but put a few twists on the idea and the purpose of the centre became twofold.

Along with amalgamating all of the available Baffin jobs and making sure they were posted in key areas, Boisvert also has to ensure that employers have a better sense of what training grants are available and who offers them by the end of the summer.

"It's been recognized as a problem that people don't know what training programs are available. Even if they know of something, they might not know where to go to get it. We're trying to simplify it so people can get some answers," said Dupuis.