Features


The demographics have caught up with us. Baby Boomers have begun to exit the workforce in droves, many of them urged along by early retirement packages. Younger, more mobile workers who've been laid off in the primary and manufacturing industries have headed west. And behind that, the number of youngsters entering the job market is much smaller than the number leaving.

All this week on MN, we're going to explore the different ways individuals , businesses and institutions are responding. We'll focus on innovations that seem to be working and with ideas for addressing the shortage of labout.

The series is called "Take This Job & Fill It." And we begin with a look at one growth sector that's in a frustrating bind.
Listen to Part one (runs 9:30)

The answer to finding workers of the future, might also be found closer to home. We took a look at program at the Parkview Education Centre - a high school in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. It's encouraging students to consider a career in the trades.Listen to Kim Garritty's profile (runs 11:15)

It seems that some businesses in rural areas are being extra creative in their efforts to attract and retain workers. Melissa Friedman takes us to Mactaquac, New Brunswick, where two sister companies - Precision Metal Works, and Precison Nuclear - have a pretty good track record when it comes to hiring and keeping employees...even without specialized incentive programs.
Listen to Melissa Friedman's profile (runs 6:25)

The Maritimes is emerging as a new player in video game development in Canada.  Laura Chapin looks at how these high tech businesses attract and keep the people they need - especially when the age-group these companies are targetting is usually looking to leave the region.
Listen to Laura Chapin's profile.  (runs 13:10)


Are you 55 plus?  You might be the hottest commodity on the job market. The 55-plus demographic is a target for businesses scrambling to cope with the current labour crunch in the Maritimes.  But if older workers are part of the solution, why are so many being encouraged to leave their current jobs with early retirement packages? And why is retirement still mandatory at age 65 in many sectors?
Dave Atkinson brings us the story of one man who retired at 55.....who's now back in demand. Listen to Dave's profile.(runs 7:29)

Dexter Construction is the largest company of its kind east of Montreal. They take on projects of all kinds they are well known for breaking ground on shopping malls & installing sewer etc. About 13-hundred people work for Dexter. In 2001 the company decided to play a bigger role in the way it's workers are trained. It helped establish the Dexter Institute at the Nova Scotia Community College.  Listen to Kim's profile.  




Choose Your Book !
Here's information on the books available to winners in our Maritime Noon Daily Book Draw :
                        NON-FICTION
  Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy - Jacques Poitras
Unravel the legacy of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the man behind the masterpieces. Author Jacques Poitras sifts through the evidence to reveal a fascinating cast of characters.
Too Far From Home: A Story of Life and Death in Space - Chris Jones. The compelling story of the three astronauts who were left stranded in space at the International Space Station with no way of getting home after the space shuttle Columbia exploded in 2003.
       Driving Minnie's Piano: Memoirs of a Surfing Life in Nova Scotia - Lesley Choyce. An eloquent, personal memoir that weaves together tales of year-round surfing adventures in Nova Scotia with a poignant story about the author's grandmother, Minnie.
     In Our Hands: On Becoming a Doctor - Edited by Linda E. Clarke and Jeff Nisker. An anthology of works - fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry- written by medical students and residents from across Canada.
The DEW Line Years: Voices from the Coldest Cold War - Frances Jewel Dickson. The collected stories of the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Liners who built & operated the remote radar system that crisscrossed the Arctic Circle at the height of the Cold War.
     A Watch in the Night: The Story of Pomquet Island's Last Lightkeeping Family - Ruth Edgett. The story of the Nova Scotian family who tended the Pomquet Island lighthouse for 36 years.
     Cape Breton Weather Watching For the Naturally Curious -Bill Danielson. A guide to some of Cape Breton Island's best weather spectacles.
     MediCare Myths - Dr Dennis J. Furlong. A proposal for resolving some of Canada's Medicare problems, written by a physician and former New Brunswick Minister of Health.
                           FICTION/ Young adult
     The End of the World as We Know It - Lesley Choyce. A coming of age novel about an angry 16-year-old boy who finds hope in Christine, a girl even less optimistic than himself. Winner of the Dartmouth Book Award and the Anne Connor Brimer Book Award.
     The Moon Children - Beverly Brenna. Young adult fiction about an 11-year old boy with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder who befriends an adopted Romanian girl.
     The Great and Awful Summer - Mitzi Dale. A teenaged girl  spends the summer working at an upscale Cape Breton lodge - where she learns about love - and lies and about the dark secrets that all adults seem to have.
                             FICTION/Adult
     The Republic of Nothing - Lesley Choyce. The fictional tale of Whalebone Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, that declares its independence to the world, becoming a haven for a surreal and eccentric cast of characters. Winner of the Dartmouth Book Award.
      Lucky Strike: A Maritime Mystery - Pat Wilson &Kris; Wood. A laugh-out-loud mystery with a cast of characters who epitomize life "down east".
     Cobalt Blue - Mary Borsky. Nine seamlessly-told stories about women who live ordinary lives but who strive for independence and identity, who seek fulfillment in love and who are often checked by uncertainty, fear, family, children, parents and lovers.
Foul Deeds - Linda Moore  A professional criminologist, Rosalind, works with a cranky private detective - an association that has sled her into the sordid Halifax crime scene.  Her escape is in the theatre, with a group of out of work Shakespearean actors. When a local respected environmentalist is dies suddenly, is it murder? And will the foul deed stay buried?
Big White Knucles - Brian Tucker. A tender portrait of a young Cape Breton man simultaneously at odds with and in love with his community. Funny and poignant, if he follows his dreams of becoming an artist, he will have to break the  rock hard coal mining traditions of his family.
The Tracey Fragments - Maureen Medved
A glimpse into the frenzied mind of fifteen year old Tracey Berkowitz. She confesses her hopes and fantasies while she desperately searches for her missing brother.
Macdonald - Roy MacSkimming
A work of historic fiction that reveals the intelligence, charm and personal magnetism of Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. A memorable cast of characters bring his political battles to life.
Where White Horses Gallop - Beatrice MacNeil
Three friends enlist in the legendary Cape Breton Highlanders and sail off to World War II an ocean away. This haunting tale of war lingers on long after the guns go silent.
      Natasha and Other Stories - David Bezmozgis. Stories about a family of Russian Jews who flee the Riga of Brezhnev for Toronto in their search for a better life.
     The Song of Kahunsha - Anosh Irani. A novel about a 10-year-old boy growing up in a Bombay orphanage in the early 1990s, who runs away in search of his long-lost father and is instead thrust into an adult world as his city is torn apart by racial violence. A 2007 'Canada Reads' selection.
   The Vagrant Revue of New Fiction - Edited by Sandra McIntyre and Mary Jo Anderson. Fifteen stories from Atlantic Canada's rising stars of literary fiction.
      Ragged Islands - Don Hannah. The moving, witty & tender story of an elderly woman who, dying in a Toronto hospital, resolves to return home to Nova Scotia to investigate her past.
      Beyond the Blue - Andrea MacPherson. A lyrical, reflective novel about a woman and her daughters surviving in Dundee, Scotland, during the Great War.
     The Halifax Connection: The Thrilling Story of a Canadian Spy in the Civil War Era - Marie Jakober. Drawing on actual events and a fascinating and largely forgotten piece of Canada's history, this novel tells the tale of a disgraced, yet charming, British aristocrat who becomes a spy for the Southern Rebels during the American Civil War .
                        






Part 1 - The fall of the forest industry in New Brunswick (runs  4.30)
The forest sector is the number one employer in New Brunswick. It also brings in the most tax revenue, and uses the most energy. But the industry is going through major changes. And several of the province's mills have closed. In part one....a discussion with a man who makes his living predicting the ups and downs in the forest industry.
Peter Barynin is a senior economist with Risi in Boston. He spoke with Maritime Noon's Melissa Friedman about the current challenges facing the industry in New Brunswick.


Part 2 -  Mill closures (runs 7.45)
Cheap labour overseas, a strong Canadian dollar, rising energy prices, the move toward an online, paperless society. All these global conditions have combined to make this an awful time to be in the pulp and paper business. Mills across Canada and North America are downsizing or closing their doors for good. And that's meant tough times in New Brunswick, where forestry is one of the most important industries. In part 2 Maritime Noon's Melissa Friedman tells us how global troubles in the forest sector are having wide reaching effects in small-town New Brunswick.


Part 3 -  The future of the forest industry in New Brunswick (runs 6.37)
Across North America, as well as here in the Maritimes, the forest industry has reached a turning point. In part 2, of our series "Out of the Woods?" you heard how mill closures in New Brunswick are affecting workers and businesses. But there is also some good news in the industry. In part 3 Maritime Noon's Melissa Friedman looks at what's being done to keep the forest industry alive.


Part 4 - Planning for the Future (runs  6.33)
These days, it's no longer Mother Nature who decides what the forest of the future will look like. Forests are designed & tailored with a mind to industry and the environment. In our final instalment of "Out of the Woods?" we're talking with the man in charge of shaping the next generation of trees in New Brunswick. Thom Erdle is a professor of forestry at UNB in Fredericton. And earlier this year, he was appointed as head of the province's forestry task force. He spoke with MN's Melissa Friedman about the responsibilty he's facing.







Amalgamation swept through the Maritimes like a hot, new fad in the mid-1990s. It was going to eliminate duplication, cut costs and improve services. It was the way of the future. Well the future is here, and Maritime Noon thought the 10th anniversary of municipal mergers in all three provinces would be a good time to find out if amalgamation has delivered on its promises.  The first amalgamation we examined in our series "Is Bigger Better ?" was Miramichi. The city was created in January of 1995 when the Provincial goverment forced about a dozen communities along the Miramichi River to amalgamate. There was a lot of opposition at the time.Melissa Friedman went to the city to see if attitudes have changed.(runs 7.36)


Our second stop was at "the biggest of the bigger" : the Halifax Regional Municipality. Pam Berman looked at the pros and cons of the merger which created a municipality the size of Prince Edward Island. (runs 8.49)



The third amalgamation we explored was in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. On the eve of its tenth anniversary, Steve Sutherland profiled a community that's struggling to keep its head above water in a sea of economic hardship & declining population. (runs 9.49)


But not all the prime candidates for amalgamation went along with the trend in the mid-90s. The idea of  merging the components of the second largest metropolitan region in the Maritimes has come up repeatedly over the years. But so far, Moncton, Dieppe & Riverview have gone their semi-separate ways. Melissa Friedman brought us the story of neighbouring municipalities in New Brunswick that refuse to join forces.(runs 6.55)


Amalgamation sets new, expanded boundaries. But municipal officials in Prince Edward Island are frustrated by a growing number of people who leapfrog over the new line to set up shop and build homes just beyond the city limits. PEI's Federation of  Municipalities says this form of avoiding taxes could sap the life blood from many island communities. Laura Chapin visited Kensington - one of the towns trying to crack down on the situation.