All I Want for Christmas is a Job
We’re back in Moncton for the holidays. It’s been wonderful to drive around, admiring Christmas lights (way to go on the spirit, folks!) and checking out the homes we’ve been keeping an eye on over the ‘net. We skulk around on MLS every couple of days, fine-tuning our list of wants and watching what goes on sale. We’d hoped to actually meet with an agent while we were home, but there’s just not enough time (I’m only in town for 2 business days – have to keep on to the Cape to visit the rest of the family). I’m forecasting a real estate pilgrimage in the spring.
It’s mostly been a visit full of reassurance, feeling like we’ve made the right decision. This place suits us. Geographically, it’s a great spot to have as home base in terms of having friends and family spread around the Maritimes and the rest of the country. One side of the family will be close at hand, the other not too far away – in fact, a few hours’ drive seems awfully close after escaping Toronto’s snowmaggedon (which I’ve found out is not recognized by spell-check, but did surface as a term in an official Environment Canada release.) The housing market still looks perfect for our wants and our budget, there are friends around to socialize with, and the pace of life just seems right.
The part of the trip that hasn’t been fully reassuring has been on the job front. I’m still feeling okay about our chances; we’ll each have degrees that are specialized, but widely applicable. But since arriving I’ve listened to the stories of two different young women moving back to the province who are finding things less than rosy. One is a nurse – a job that seems to be in demand here. Every time I look at online job boards, there seem to be several listings. Granted, I’m not in the field and don’t check into the specifics of each posting, so I know I don’t understand the ins and outs of the types of nurses that are needed. But you would think given the apparent shortage, the province would be working to help make it easier for anyone with some type of nursing degree to move back. The opposite seems to be happening to a former classmate of my beau. She went overseas to England, earned a nursing degree, and has been working for several years. Now she’s trying to move home – and is being told her degree is for a speciality that New Brunswick doesn’t have, so she’s not eligible to work here unless she goes back to school. I can understand the province having certain criteria that they’ve set, but from what I’ve learned of this situation, there just seems to be a lot of red tape that isn’t a Christmas bow wrapped around a job.
The other story I’ve heard since coming home this holiday is about a young woman who recently moved back from Fort McMurray because she and her partner had a child and wanted to raise him here. Noble reasons; it’s the same kind of decision I would make – we’re just doing it before anyone comes toddling along. She came back with hopes of easily finding a job she could fill, after 6 years of experience working out West. After searching without any luck, she’s ended up taking a 12-week dog grooming course in Moncton while her folks in Caraquet watch her little fella; Dad is still out in Ft Mac, finishing up his contract with one of the oil companies. Her plan is to open her own business when her course is done; again, a noble goal that I hope works out, but it can be a tough go starting a new business in any economic climate, let alone the one we’re heading into in the New Year. And it’s not just work; she’s having trouble adjusting to the changes in the availability of doctors and other services, compared to out West.
It’s disheartening to hear two stories of folks in basically the same boat as us running into roadblocks when it comes to moving back to New Brunswick. It hasn’t changed our minds at all; we’re still coming, we’re still searching the job boards all the time while we wrap things up in Toronto, we’re still saving and looking at real estate listings. Let’s just hope we’re not wearing rose-coloured glasses heading into 2009.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the best for the New Year everyone!
