Portage Mayor discusses trend in Gov't jobs leaving rural communities

Following the five-year lease renewal of Red River College's Apprenticeship Polytech's Aircraft Maintenance and Journeyman program, Portage la Prairie Mayor Irvine Ferris says it saves some jobs but can't make up for the job loss that the city has been experiencing.

"That means the eight jobs that were going to move to Winnipeg are going to be staying in Portage," explains Ferris. "So, that's good news to hear. Those eight jobs are important. When we look at job losses for our region, there were job losses at the Addiction Foundation, the Compass Program, and the Southport losses at the Crown Lands Property Agency. There were job losses at the Food Development Centre, and of course, last month, 110 jobs were lost at Agassiz Youth Centre and next year another 400 to 500 jobs at MDC. So, significant job losses. The region has seen a gain. With Roquette, we gained 120 jobs. With the expansion of the Simplot plant, we gained another 79 or 80 jobs. So, we gained 200 new jobs."

However, Ferris notes, it's a loss of many more jobs than we've recently gained. 

"It is very concerning," adds Ferris. "These jobs that we're losing, they serve kind of a unique position in our local economy where we have an Ag economy. Of course, the Ag economy is sometimes impacted by weather events and by commodity prices. These jobs are really independent of that and they tend to be full-time, stable jobs. So, they really serve as a backstop in our local regional economy, and they play an important role."

He explains they're also troubled about a trend that's emerging among all rural communities. 

"Government jobs are leaving rural areas and going into Winnipeg," says Ferris. "Rural communities certainly struggle to attract people and maintain services and population. It's really concerning to see that trend where a lot of the provincial government jobs are migrating to Winnipeg from the rural areas." 

Ferris says there's been a group working on figuring out the re-purposing for MDC's campus and highly-trained staff that are there.

"We've had numerous meetings and dialogue with the province's Minister of Families," notes Ferris. "But no real progress. We've got nothing to announce on that file, and the group has done a lot of work. They put together a number of polls that the province could take a look at concerning how it could be re-purposed and how we could save those jobs in this region. But no solutions yet."