Hundreds of companies, government agencies and schools were out at Palais des Congres on Thursday, trying to recruit some of Quebec’s newest residents.
Among the 180 organizations present for the Immigration Job Fair were Montreal’s police and fire departments. Officials for both have recently expressed a need to make their forces more diverse – 7.5 per cent of all police officers in the city are visible minorities while of Montreal’s 2,000 firefighters, just 24 are visible minorities and 97 per cent are white men.
“We recognize that there’s a great deal of work to be done,” said fire department spokesperson David Shelton. “We’ve undertaken that challenge… To have a fire service that offers service to that community, of course it’s a little better if our department reflects that diversity.”
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said she’s in support of increasing diversity among the police and firefighter ranks.
“The population is more diverse, it should be more diverse in our workforce,” she said.
Among those who came out, the job fair provided a crucial way to see what opportunities are available, saying finding employment could mean becoming better integrated into their new home.
“There’s no way we can pay back to Canada what they’ve done for me,” said one attendee. “I look forward to getting a job and paying my taxes.”
Quebec Immigration Minister David Heurtel said unemployment among immigrants has dropped and there are waiting lists of people wishing to immigrate to the province.
“Immigration is a solution, it’s been a solution forever,” he said. “If you look 100 years ago, 200 years ago, Quebec was built by immigrants.”
