A Man on the Move

Quick Facts - When Joe isn't working for Northlands College as the western Regional Director, you can find him working at the mayor's office (his 3rd term), helping out at community events, or getting a crowd singing with his karoke machine.

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I commute to work everyday in Buffalo Narrows where the regional office is located. I do a lot of traveling in my job. My responsiblities are primiarily in programming, looking after the regional training centre, and the student residence. We have over a million dollars budgeted for both operations. In addition to that we generate over 8 million dollars in programming partnerships. Northlands College doesn't provide accredition in the area of vocational-technical training. Our training programs are brokered through SIAST. We do, however, offer accredition (with the Department of Education Approval) in the area of Basic Education.

We have established our own curriculum - Developmental Studies 1,2,3, rather than using the standard 8-10 curriculum. In the near future we will be looking at offering our Developmental Studies program on line. Our main committment is working in partnerships with industry where we try to offer a program that is directly linked to industry needs. The main industries in the north are mining, forestry, and now we are working in the area of trapping and fishing. We will be expanding to the gas and oil exploration field shortly. The Primrose Bombing Range is an area that is prime for exploration, now that the Department of Defense is relaxing its regulations.

I started off by going to school in Ile a la Crosse. It only went up to grade 9 at that time (1969). I did not want to move south to continue my high school so I went commercial fishing and trapping with my dad and learning from my older brothers. Things started changing in the 70's. I went to work for the Northern Training Services as a clerk and stock boy. I took care of the warehouse making sure everything was ordered and then properly shelved. After that I worked as a carpenter for Department of Northern Housing. We went on strike, so I quit and moved to Beauval where I got a job building the gym. I ended up staying in Beauval since 1976. After building the gym, I got hired as Recreation Director for the town. I made $500 a month. I kept that job for 7 years. The hours were flexible - mostly evenings and weekends, and I managed to upgrade my skills. I finished my grade 10 at West Side Community College. I wanted to go further than that so I took the opportunity to take GED preparation for grade 12. At the same time I was running a small business - school bus driving (I did that for 12 years). In 1987 I was hired as a program coordinator for West Side Community College.

In 1990 I made the decision to go to NORTEP. A couple of my friends were applying and I thought well if they are going for it so am I. Sure enough 4 years later I got my degree. The real reason I went back was I could see that as a program director for Northlands College and because of my lack of education, that was all I would be qualified to do. I wouldn't even be able to apply for the job as Senior Program Coordinator. Jerry Lavoie was the Director and said he would be retiring soon, and convinced me that I would be a good candidate to take his job. As it turned out, I did. Out of 35 students that started the program, only 5 of us completed it. It's a tough course to go through, and the lifestyle as well was difficult for a lot of students. For many, this was the first time out of their community and the distractions of city life were pretty enticing. They also faced a lot of financial problems. I was lucky, I had my small business, and the college had an education leave policy that allowed me to collect 1/3 of my salary while going to school. I see myself retiring from the college when I reach the age of 55, and probably going into some sort of business - perhaps tourism. I grew up in Fort Black and that area has a lot of potential for tourism.