I been thinking, next time I retire, maybe I'll head back to Saint John.
Lived there for a spell back in the early '90s, when I worked at Mr. Irving's shipyard, building those frigates for the Royal Canadian Navy. Ya, that was me. Sure, there was a couple thousand other guys "worked" there, but everybody knew who done all the actual work.
Even though life was somewhat unkind to me during my tenure in Canada's oldest city, I've always had a warm spot in my heart for the old girl. That's why it pains me to see what she's come to.
All those solid shipyard jobs are gone. The main Irving yard is in Halifax now.
A lot of the people are gone too, off in pursuit of greener pastures.
That's led to a situation where Saint John has some of the most affordable real estate in the land. You can get yourself a two-family classic east-coast-style home in the downtown for well under a hundred grand. Rents may be low by Ontario standards, but even if you only got 600 bucks a month for that other unit, you'd pretty much have your own roof taken care of.
This is why Saint John needs Syrian immigrants. Yup, bring on those White Helmets!
Hey, they were making a $150/ month "stipend" in the homeland; even at min wage they'll be pulling down two grand! And nobody dropping barrel bombs on your head... you've made it to paradise!
As for jobs, I just took a tour of the
Canada Job Bank and they've got 401 jobs on the board in the Saint John area. True, many of them are going to be out of reach for a new arrival, but plenty of them are not. Landscaping. Entry level restaurant jobs. The kind of jobs traditionally filled by recent immigrants, come to think of it.
Come on White Helmets; now it's time to save Saint John!
