Bill Ferguson had been working in the forestry industry for almost 30 years.
Then one day, his job was gone and the only skills he had were for an industry that wasn’t looking for employees. Like thousands of other workers affected by the region’s decline, he had to navigate a system of social assistance.
“Suddenly I was 49 years old and I’m suddenly unskilled labour,” Ferguson said.
“The system has become so patch worked there are literally barriers in their way to getting off of social assistance and back into their lives.”
Ferguson is one of five people from the community who have chosen to tell their story of poverty in a new video called My Neighbour-Our Community. Ferguson wanted to get involved to raise awareness and represent all people who have lost their jobs and to help stop a growing problem.
“It isn’t just my story. Literally, in our district, there were 10,000 affected people and a great many of them are still unemployed, underemployed or they do have a full-time job but it’s a third or a half of what they were making before,” he said.
“They’re drawing on their retirement, they’re drawing on their savings and that will have an effect again years down the road. You’re going to have thousands upon thousands of seniors who will be living on poverty and an even smaller more patch-worked system there to support them.”
John Palko, who chaired the video’s planning committee, said the idea came from his book club after the global economic crisis in 2008.
“We thought as a small group we might collectively come up with something that would raise awareness in the community,” he said. “We felt compelled to act.”
With a lot of brainstorming, and help from the Lakehead Social Planning Council and filmmaker Jim Hyder, the three-year project was completed this past December.
Palko is hoping the video shows people that, with up to 15 per cent of Thunder Bay in poverty, it can affect anyone.
“And perhaps like we did find something in the community to make things better,” he said. ““There are stories that relate to a whole segment of society.”
Ferguson said the video is remarkable because each story can be taken separately to address specific issues or taken as a whole.
“I feel very strongly this was a brilliant thing to do,” he said.
The video also includes a work book with facts and figures and questions for discussion. Copies are available at the LSPC office.
