Numbers aren’t where they have been in the past for the Construction Engineering Squadron in Bridgewater.
The squadron trains people in the trades with the possibility of being deployed.
However, Major Rick Leighton says the amount of recruits isn’t where it needs to be.
“We’ve grown to around 50 personnel in that particular flight here in the Bridgewater area,” he says, “and now we’ve kind of slipped to around 30-32 folks so we have room to hire to bring the numbers back up.”
He says BC and Gander have done well with recruiting in the last six months, but that Bridgewater and Pictou are both in a slump.
Leighton says they’re working hard to get back to old numbers.
“The challenge here is recruiting. I don’t think we’ve recruited a new member in the last three years,” he says, “We’ve had a few people look. I don’t know what the issue is, we’re trying to nail that down now.”
He thinks part of the problem is people shy away from the type of job that could require deployment.
Nevertheless he says they’ll continue to keep looking.
