The Peterborough and District Labour Council says this closure is part of a disturbing trend in Peterborough, where the unemployment rate is hovering around 10 percent...
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The 2nd Community 100 Mile Dinner will be held on Sunday, July 22nd at 6 p.m. at the Morrow Building. Tickets sold out fast last year so be sure to pick yours up soon (see locations to purchase tickets on poster above) to guarantee a spot for this delicious dinner to support the Agricultural Society and our local farmers.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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Inspired by the Quebec student strike and its popular uprising against rising tuition fees and Bill 78, Casserole marches have been taking place in Peterborough through the downtown. Here's pictures from last night's protest...
Fleming student Victoria Forbes teaches dance lessons and runs a photography business to make summer earningsFor the hundreds of students who call Peterborough home, the daunting task of searching for a summer job often feels like an uphill battle. However, students losing hope shouldn’t give up because when armed with a little bit of creativity, knowledge of local resources, and a lot of effort, it becomes possible to win this battle and successfully gain a job.
What’s impressive about Peterborough is the large number of resources that exist to help students living in the city. Websites such as Employment Planning and Counselling and Peterborough Careers list a broad range of positions, many of which are temporary student jobs.
Yet with so many students living in the city, sometimes it takes more than just this knowledge to land an interview. Over the course of my own job search, I discovered that social media is a great tool for connecting locally and receiving leads on jobs. I sent out over ten tweets in which I tagged locals who specialize in the area I was looking for work (Communications), and I couldn’t be happier with the number of responses I received. No one had jobs available with their organizations, but many tweeters went out of their way to direct me to others companies and job postings that I may find helpful. Social media also helped me learn that tourism is extremely important to Peterborough and therefore businesses that benefit from tourism are extremely likely to hire seasonal help.
Another way I’ve learned to make local connections is through volunteer opportunities. I think many students (myself included!) expect to see job postings that are an exact match to their interests, skills, and education—oh how rare that is! While some people aren’t picky about summer opportunities, those that are hoping to eventually find work in their field should highly consider volunteering for organizations that interest them.
The beautiful thing about smaller cities like Peterborough is they have a great community feel, and local professionals are often more than happy to help a keen student looking for opportunities to grow. I’ve had many friends tell me that they’ve called and emailed people they would like to work for, and that as long as you demonstrate you’re passionate and carry yourself with courtesy and respect, you can gain some great advice and unpaid experience from these organizations.
Of course the ultimate goal is to gain employment with the organization, and maybe that will come the following summer, upon graduation, or maybe never. But the references, networking skills, and experience that can be gained through volunteering are greatly rewarding.
Occasionally, individuals try all the above strategies and are still stuck. It’s at this point that some students take matters into their own hands and use their education and passions to create their own job. This is what I’ve done for the past three summers. Having received a certificate in music from Humber College, I realized I’d be hard-pressed to find a summer job relative to my field in Peterborough, so I started teaching saxophone and piano lessons. While this has only been a side job for me, I’ve spoken to several other students over the years who rely on their entrepreneurial skills to make all of their summer earnings. Examples range from photography businesses to dance and music lessons.
The key takeaway is that living in a smaller city is not always a bad thing when it comes to the summer job hunt. Being able to get your name out relatively easily and talk to a variety of resources on a regular basis is a unique opportunity that Peterborough students should be proud to say they have.
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Beth McClelland is a public relations student and music certificate graduate of Humber College in Toronto. She grew up in Peterborough and enjoys spending summers here with her family. Beth is passionate about innovations in social media, music performance and marketing, and community service opportunities.
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As seen on their Facebook page, Reg Maranda and Cameron Green, owners of Reggie's and El Camino's, will be running a job fair this weekend.
The job fair is in search of a new team for their latest venture—a new sit-down restaurant to open up later in June at the corner of Hunter and Aylmer Streets.
Here's the info below from their Facebook page:
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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The Bears' Lair Regional Competition was last night at Fleming College.
Q: The Mayor has been quoted as saying that there could be more population growth if the community had more “athletic facilities.” I believe that there is just such a link. Could you expand on this thinking? —Bill O’Byrne
Goyette: Bill is a regular and welcome visitor to our office, and the Chair of Sport Kawartha—an impressive organization with more than 30 sports group/associate members that launched in April of 2010 with a mandate to value, improve, recognize and promote sport participation in the region. You can see the savvy in the man: He quotes the Mayor and then seeks confirmation as a method of promotion. I like it.
The Mayor was responding in February to a report on the City’s growth. He said that we might consider building new sports facilities and other infrastructure to attract young families to the City.
The question has to do with the reasons people move to a new location. These can be divided into two categories: One is a set of “push” factors at the point of origin that trigger movement, such as a lack of economic or educational opportunity; personal issues such as divorce, retirement or a preference for independence; and cultural discomfort such as religious or political conflict or persecution. Another is a set of “pull” factors at the point of destination that attract movement, such as jobs, education, the presence of family or community, climate, and a host of personal perceptions of benign conditions. These are all tied to the stages and cycles of life, as well as psychological outlook. For many, the grass can easily look greener on the other side.
The research indicates that because of “distance decay,” people are more likely to move to places that are closer to them rather than further away. It also indicates that you are more likely to adopt a new hometown if you already know it. That means that people who move to Peterborough are statistically more likely to have come from somewhere nearby, and have been here before. The arrival here of people from the GTA and those who have prior cottage or rural experience would seem to bear this out.
Do athletic facilities rank highly as a drawing card for these newcomers? Not on their own, and not to the degree of other factors such as a new job. While they are probably more important in retention rather than attraction, they are undoubtedly part of the bundling of community benefits—the “infrastructure” that the Mayor referred to—that inform smart economic and tourism promotion. There is consensus that we have an entrenched deficit of sports facilities in the region, and the remedy for that, which is well underway, stands on its own merits as an issue of the quality of community life.
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David Goyette is the Executive Assistant to Peterborough Mayor Daryl Bennett. Email your burning questions for David about City Hall to feedback@ptbocanada.com.
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Here are the documents for Request for Proposal P-05-12, Mobile Food Service Operations at Nassau Mills Road, Beavermead Park, and West 49 Skateboard Park, that reveal how Canteen of Kawartha was awarded the new contracts for mobile food service operations at those locations. Aside from their 34 years of being in operation and existing contracts in place with other companies/organizations like Havelock Jamboree and GE Canada, it is mentioned in the "Recommended Bidder" area on the last page (see below) that Canteen of Kawartha "presented the menu with the broadest range of healthier food choices. They offered the highest level of financial compensation of all proponents, in the amount of $10,800 for the Beavermead site and $24,727 for Nassau Mills site, for the initial three year term of the lease agreement."
This is all public material, provided to us by Mayor's office. Have a read of the documents...
[Related: Reggie's Chip Truck Closed]
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Seniors Dreams was recently chosen as an EPIC Ventures winner through the Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corporation. Founder Mark Twyman was honoured to gain this recognition with this award...
The letter is unedited. Here it is in its entirety...
Back in December the furnace stopped working in the apartment my 2 sisters rent. One sister has a part time job that she struggles to get hours at, and was recently laid off from the second job she had. The other sister is on assistance as she has a disorder that doesn't allow her to work.
They told the landlord about the furnace and he did not fix the problem. At Christmas time it was 13 degrees in that apartment in the morning on a good day. Due to the landlord not fixing the furnace, they had to spend the little money they had between them for the month on space heaters and bills and did not feel obligated to pay the rent, since the Landlord Tenant Act states the landlord must provide certain vital services and the provisioning for heat is one.
When the hydro bills for December and January came in, as you can imagine, they were large, too large for 2 young struggling girls. They were unable to pay the bills on time, didn't know they could call and make payment arrangements, and the hydro was cut off.
When my younger sister called her assistance worker, she was told they couldn't help her because the bills were in my working sisters name. They gave her a number to call the Housing Resource Centre. So, my working sister called them and had to leave a message. They returned her call later that afternoon and asked her some questions about her situation and her work situation. As soon as she told them how much money she had made in the last 4 weeks, which was around 260.00 they told her she did not make enough money for them to be able to assist her?!?! To out astonishment she was TOO POOR to receive help from the people we were told could help her with emergency funding.
My sisters are in the process of filing a T2 abatement of rent and moving out of that apartment. My working sister was forced to file for assistance, she is not happy about it either. The hydro has been re-connected now and they are leaving.
My concern is, how was she too poor to receive help in her situation? She works and contributes to this community as much as possible. She certainly still has to pay taxes that go towards these community programs right? Never has any run-ins with the law....how? Why?
Why was she literally forced to file for assistance? Left with no other options or people who would help those girls for a month to figure out the situation? It makes me very disappointed in this Community.
She is working hard to find more work and to get out of a bad situation, it would have been nice for the Housing Resource Centre to not turn their backs on her.
Thanks for listening, please help me make people aware of this horrible situation.
*Also, just so you know, Welfare only pays my sick sister 595.00 a month. If you think about that, that is supposed to cover rent/housing, heat/hydro, and food/hygene items for one person each month. Welfare will only allow 368.00 each month for payment towards rent, that leaves 227 a month to pay for heat (enbridge), hydro (PUC) and buy groceries. When the heat and hydro average payments are factored in, she received $2.90 a day to spend on food/hygene. Is it just me or does anyone see a problem here?? Welfare told her she needs to find a more affordable apartment....anyone have an apartment she can rent for less than $200 a month?
—Samantha Payne
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