A total of 88 people turned out for a municipal building inspector/bylaw officer job fair July 13 night at the Civic Centre.
The job fair was held in response to a province-wide building inspector shortage, which is also being felt in Chatham-Kent.
Paul Lacina, Chief Building Official of Building Development Services for the municipality, said Chatham-Kent is in need of three building inspector/bylaw enforcement officers immediately due to a combination of normal employment turnover and changes in provincial legislation regulating the position.
Those attending the fair had brief meetings with municipal staff to discuss necessary job requirements and answer questions.
Lacina said he was pleased with the turnout on two different levels.
“The first is that we have a strong candidate base and the second is that we raised awareness that municipal building inspector is a career and we showed them the path they need to take to achieve that goal,” he said in a media release.
John Norton, Department Leader of Legislative Services including the Building Development Services Division, said it was a successful night.
“The Chatham-Kent economy is on an upswing over the past several years and one indicator of that upswing is a rise in new or renewal construction. Our building inspectors are very busy this year,” he said in a release. “There is a need to ensure we have a full complement of qualified inspectors. Economic growth is a good thing and my hope is that economic growth will continue resulting in more construction and more building permits being issued. This is good news for Chatham-Kent.”
Norton said it is important for the municipality to be proactive in attracting quality applicants for not only this job but many others the municipality will require to be filled during the coming years.
“Chatham-Kent is no different than many other employers being impacted as baby-boomers move through their careers,” he said. “We have a large number of employees eligible for retirement in the next few years and we want to make sure we remain an employer of choice.”
