Labrador SSP region opens door to the north

A forum aimed at crafting "made-in-Labrador" solutions to human resource development and the recruitment/retention of professionals gets underway this May 7 and 8 at the Aurora Hotel in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Opening the Door to the North is sponsored by the Labrador Region Steering Committee of the Strategic Social Plan (SSP) and the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Market Development Agreement.

Highlights of the two-day event include key note addresses on employee motivation and aboriginal workforce development; presentations on who stays and who leaves the region, and on demographic changes in Labrador; small group discussions on recruitment and retention, and future training and development needs, and strategic planning sessions.

"I applaud organizers for taking the initiative and putting together a forum that looks at this issue from a Labrador perspective," said Gerald Smith, minister of Health and Community Services and lead minister for the Strategic Social Plan. "Working together makes things happen."

Group discussions are scattered throughout the conference, allowing plenty of opportunities for networking, brainstorming and sharing of common experiences.

"Though human resource development is an issue for all regions in the province, and across the country, northern areas such as Labrador face unique challenges in terms of attracting and keeping professionals," said Goronwy Price, chair of the Labrador Region Steering Committee.

"We also know that Labrador has a lot to offer and we want to be pro-active on this issue," he said. "We want to bring people together, share our concerns and our good ideas. The SSP is all about partnership and looking for local solutions to local issues."

Organizers hope the forum will help create partnerships that address employee training and development needs, build strategies for attracting and keeping professionals in the area, develop marketing tools that promote Labrador as a great place to live and work, and look at resource sharing as a way to reduce hiring and training costs.

Registration forms are available at www.gov.nl.ca/ssp/ under Opening the Door to the North, or by contacting Danielle Matthews at (709) 896-8306. You can also call Alicia Sutton, regional planner for the Labrador Region of the Strategic Social Plan, for more information.

Media contact: 
          Alicia Sutton, regional planner, (709) 896-5152
          Marcia Porter, SSP Communications, (709) 576-5591

2003 04 29                                      9:40 a.m.