Thiago (don’t pronounce the “H”) pitched up back at the hostel after spending the winter out west in Calgary and Fort McMurray, Alberta. “Tee-ah-go” just finished a year-long working visa? program in Canada and has just left for his native Brazil.
But Thiago is the kind of guy who’s attitude in life seems to be “whatever-it-takes”. His first job here was in Northern Ontario and Quebec in the dead of a Canadian winter. He heard there was a severe labor shortage in Western Canada and as a result, wages were considerably higher.
That’s quite true. There is indeed a shortage of worker out west and the pay is? much higher. For instance, a counter person at McDonald’s in Toronto recieves around $8 per hour. In Calgary, the same job pays as much as $15 per hour and in Fort McMurray it would pay as much as $18!?
The downside is there is also a housing shortage out west. In northern Alberta some home owners have divided their two-car garages into four rooms and can charge as much as $1000 per month per room.
After paying an extortionate amount on rent in the north, Thiago settled on a job in Calgary cleaning windows. Hanging form ropes on a plywood Bosuns’ Chair several hundred feet above the ground he managed to earn enough money to continue his travels. After a brief visit home to Brazil, he plans on heading for Europe to work and travel.
I’d wish him the best of luck but it probably isn’t necessary. This young man is earmarked for success – “whatever-it-takes!”.
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Thiago with Teresa (our head of housekeeping) upon his recent return from a winter in the west.
Again with Teresa (last winter) after being injured working in Northern Ontario.