Irving proposes new jobs to laid-off workers

Workers at Georgetown Timber are being briefed this week on other job opportunities within the empire of parent company J.D. Irving Ltd. The lumberyard the province's largest is slated to close on Nov. 2.

The closurewill leave33 people without jobs in Georgetown, in eastern P.E.I.

Mary Keith, vice-president of communications for J.D. Irving Ltd., said this week that workers have had a chance to meet with human resource officials from two other Irving operations in P.E.I., one of them right in Georgetown.

"We are doing some hiring at the East Isle Shipyard, and they would have been at Georgetown Timber on Monday," Keith said.

"Wednesday we would have had Cavendish Farms that were there talking about some of the opportunities and the skills required for those jobs."

Keith said the company hopes to place some of the workers at jobs on the Island, and sheexpects to know more about the success of that initiative in a couple of weeks. Workers are also being told about jobs within other Irving sawmill operations throughout the region.