RANT - Part 1: The Beginning of a Futile Journey

*WARNING* The contents of this blog post includes profanity, anger and frustration. The opinions presented are solely mine and admittedly are somewhat biased. You are encouraged to come to your own conclusions.

The various governments of the Maritime region are often quoted as saying that the one of the largest roadblocks encountered in terms of economic prosperity of the region is the number of people who leave these provinces looking for work elsewhere.  The result is often an ageing population putting great stress on few resources, and a reduction in the number of young professionals contributing to the taxation base, starting families and contributing to population growth. This is our story.

I am a Maritimer, originally from New Brunswick. I grew up in Moncton and spent 8 years in Fredericton both working and pursuing two degrees at UNB. When I could not find work in the area, I left as many Maritimers do, heading west to Ontario to pursue a PhD (in the hopes of making myself more employable). My husband, although originally from Ontario, spent a number of years living in New Brunswick while working with the Canadian Forces. We both love the Maritime region and have wanted to find an opportunity to move back to the area.

We were optimistic that opportunity would come when I completed my PhD. Considering that a PhD is a great deal more specific, and that a choice of employment location may not be within our control, we assumed that I would find a job in my field. And as an experienced police officer, my husband would be able to find employment in the same geographic region because most communities have police services (whether it be National, Provincial, Regional, or Municipal police services). In reality however, we were not prepared for what the next 12 months would bring.

Before completing my PhD, I was lucky enough to find employment with a great company. A company which was expanding, the job was in my specific field of study, and best of all - the company was located in Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island to be specific. My husband and I do not take risks without first investigating the opportunity and weighing the pros and cons. As such, we travelled to PEI in the fall of 2012 to meet with the company of interest and also to investigate the potential for employment in the policing field. Because of the size of PEI, we realized that we would be limited in terms of policing opportunities. Namely, there are municipal services in both Charlottetown and Summerside in addition to RCMP detachments throughout the Island. We were not worried however, because once an opportunity presented itself, it seemed illogical that a police service would not at least interview an experienced candidate. Reality, is in fact a bitch.      

Without mentioning names, I will state that in the fall of 2012 we met with someone very high up in the chain of command at the Charlottetown Police Service. At that time, this individual lead us to believe that experienced constables were encouraged to apply to the service and that these candidates were often successful because of the added experience and training they brought with them. It was also indicated that there were a number of retirements scheduled for 2013-2014 and that they were planning to hire as early as the spring of 2013. Following this positive experience and with this knowledge in mind, we decided that I should accept the position and that moving to PEI was an acceptable risk. So I quit my part-time job in Guelph, packed up my car, said good bye to my husband and began my journey eastward in February of 2013. At this time, I figured that it would be only a matter of months before a job would open up and my husband would soon be joining me in PEI.