Our speaker this month was David Alexander, Executive Director of Niagara Work-force Planning Board (at the left above).  The NWPB serves the Niagara region as the leader in local labour market planning. It is one of twenty-five planning regions that make up Ontario’s Local Boards Network and is funded through Em-ployment Ontario.

The Board is currently conducting a survey of employers to identify local skills and labour short-ages in the Niagara Region. Employers are encour-aged to consider sources of workers when planning to hire such as former military personnel, people with disabilities, women in under-represented occu-pations and people of aboriginal background.

According to Alexander, Niagara excels in three industries: tourism, hospitality and agriculture but all are seasonal industries providing mostly lower income jobs. Young people tend to leave for higher paying full-time opportunities elsewhere. One of the highest priorities for Niagara must be the continued implementation of a youth retention strategy.

Our speaker for our June monthly meeting will be Thankh Campbell from Hope for the World Productions whose talk is titled – “Orphan 32 Lost and Found”