Chez-Nous offering $5K signing bonus for bilingual nurses, cash for Islanders who help
CBC
Chez-Nous seniors' home in Wellington, P.E.I., is offering cash bonuses for bilingual registered nurses and Islanders who help recruit them.
The home is offering up $5,000 for registered bilingual nurses they hire — and $1,500 is being given to Islanders who refer nurses who get a job there.
Four to five bilingual nurses are the priority, said Gilles Panchaud, the president of the board that oversees the home.
"Reason being I say four to five, because when we count the number of people, depending on if they work part time or what have you, it could be we need to fill in four and a half positions."
The bonus would be given to the nurse upon their hiring, but Panchaud said the expectation is they work for the manor long term.
It's all in an effort to staff 12 long-term care beds. There was staff in place, but a fire back in January of 2021 put things on hold.
"The unit was built then we went and looked for staffing people to staff the unit and that. Which we had a target date of March 2021," Panchaud said.
"We ended up having a fire in our residence so the people we had in line to come to work for us obviously had to go. We obviously couldn't offer the jobs anymore so they had to find work somewhere else."
The hope is for the new long-term care beds to be staffed by June 1. The deadline for applications is March 18.
However, recruiting French and bilingual nurses to the Island isn't easy.
Nicole Arsenault Bernard works with La Coopérative d'intégration francophone de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, Prince Edward Island's francophone integration co-operative.
"The issue that we are having is we know there is an English language proficiency policy on P.E.I.," Arsenault Bernard said, adding it isn't a P.E.I. specific problem — other provinces have the same policy in place.
It can be especially difficult for international recruitment, she said.
"On top of that their requirement to get their credentials as nurses recognized in Canada and P.E.I., it's a lengthy process. The way it is set up now it is a minimum of two years," Arsenault Bernard said.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.