More workers are needed for the federal election being held on April 28, with the largest numbers of vacancies in northern Alberta ridings, including Peace River-Westlock, Lakeland, and Fort McMurray-Cold Lake.
According to Leanne Nyirfa, a spokesperson for Elections Canada, it’s not unusual to still be hiring workers a few days before the election.
“In the election calendar we have training of workers up until the day before,” said Nyirfa, noting the three-hour training session is paid.
“Returning officers also try to hire about 10 per cent more workers than they need, just to ensure that if people don’t show up for work for whatever reason, they do have staff.”
Applications are done online, and according to Elections.ca poll worker positions include registration and information officers, deputy returning officers, and poll supervisors. All positions are paid between $20.01 and $26.46 per hour, plus time and a half for hours in excess of eight hours worked in a single day.
“It will be the 13-hour day,” said Nyirfa.
“It's a great experience if you want to learn how the electoral process works, especially for younger people, if they're interested in learning about an election and how it's administered. This is a perfect opportunity to do that.”
As of April 24, there were still 150 positions vacant in Peace River – Westlock, 50 vacancies in Lakeland, and 50 vacancies in Fort McMurray – Cold Lake. All three ridings are quite large geographically, with Fort McMurray – Cold Lake and Peace River – Westlock each spanning more than 100,000 square kilometres.
“It's not like there's 50 workers required in one location. It's right across that riding,” said Nyirfa.
Polling stations are located in numerous smaller communities in each riding, with upwards of 100 unique locations to vote at depending on where in the riding an elector lives. To check your polling place, enter your information on Elections.ca.
“When they apply and they come in, they'll look at what location would be convenient for them to go to, and maybe they'll want to go to a different area,” said Nyirfa.
At the time of the interview, Nyirfa was unable to give a detailed breakdown of where in the ridings the election workers were still needed. This story will be updated with those details if they become available.
