Philip Alves

The producers of the fifth estate, the CBC’s investigative TV series, called me up one day asking if they could use some photos I shot in early July, 2008, of a protest by Progressive Moulded Products employees after the company shut its doors. I jumped at the chance.

Anger. Despair. Hope. A year after the abrupt closing of bankrupt auto parts maker Progressive Moulded Products, feelings among many of the company’s nearly 2,400 former workers are mixed.

Laid off workers aren’t the only ones who need help during a recession, says Heidi Garcia, human performance specialist with Karico Performance Solutions. Companies need to make full use of their employees’ talents to survive and thrive, though many don’t, she says.

The job market is a crowded place these days. Layoffs continue apace as the recession drags on and companies claw back. The Canadian economy shed 83,000 jobs last month, bumping the unemployment rate up to 7.7 percent, according to Statistics Canada’s February employment report, released last week. Ontario alone lost 35,000 of those jobs and the province’s unemployment rate of 8.7 percent is the highest it’s been since April 1997.

The weather outside is still frightful but a sure sign spring is about to bloom is coming to Canada’s Wonderland.

A high schooler searching out life’s possibilities? A professional considering a career switch? A new immigrant looking to share in the Canadian Dream? No matter who you are, a visit to Vellore Village Community Centre Nov. 22 might change your life for the better.

It struck Strac Ivanov during his daily commute from Newmarket to Toronto that he was in the midst of a major problem that needed fixing: thousands of 905ers were, like him, losing hours travelling to and from work.