CHARLOTTETOWN – April 29, 2016 – Just back from the Destination Acadie job fairs in Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, in mid-April, Gregory Urier is confident his recruiting efforts will bear fruit and that several French and Belgian people will eventually settle on Prince Edward Island to take on jobs in high demand.

As proof, he explains that about 40 people from these European countries have already submitted their résumés and three or four of them have already reserved exploration trips to Canada this summer.

Urier, economic development officer with RDÉE Prince Edward Island, and Jacinthe Lemire, executive director of the Coopérative d’intégration francophone de l’Î.-P.-É., formed the PEI delegation to this international job fair, which also moved on to Morocco (without Urier). Held under the theme « La Francophonie du Canada atlantique », Destination Acadie was organized by La Société Nationale de l’Acadie in partnership with provinces and organizations from the Atlantic region. A total of 1,500 people had registered in advance to participate in these fairs.

During a panel discussion, Urier first presented an overall picture of life in Canada and particularly in PEI.

Then, the two Island delegates manned their booth, armed with a list of jobs that Island employers are having difficulty filling: workers and teachers for the Island’s francophone preschool centers, experts in information technology, truckers and aerospace industry workers. Urier reports he met a number of highly motivated people who were interested in such positions.

« The people who came to meet us at the booth were often highly educated people who already had work experience and most of them were bilingual, trilingual or even quadrilingual! » he said. « A majority of them had previously worked either in our priority sectors or in manual trades. »

In addition, he said some of them had already lived in foreign countries so they already understand the steps that have to be taken to work in another country. They also know about cultural adjustment. Several of the people that Urier met were already registered with the Express Entry program which helps expedite the entry process into Canada.

Overall, Urier feels the experience was « very positive » and that is should translate into concrete results within the next year.

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CUTLINE: Gregory Urier, right, economic development officer with RDÉE PEI, chats with a man from Brussels, Belgium, during the Destination Acadie job fair in mid-April.

 

For more information:
Gregory Urier
Economic Development Officer
RDÉE Prince Edward Island
(902) 370-7333, Ext. 406 (Charlottetown)
(902) 854-3439, Ext. 223 (Wellington)
gregory@rdeeipe.org