Make-work projects, employment agencies not working

Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, November 22, 2007

I tripped over a job yesterday. It was there on the sidewalk, by the curb with the gum wrappers and the cigarette butts. I didn't bother to pick it up. I had a job. Just about everybody does these days.

Well, not everybody. In my daily morning drive through the Downtown Eastside, I see scores of men and women waiting in line for the social service agencies and food kitchens to open. Some of these men and women look destitute and broken. Many do not. Many look hale and able-bodied, and despite myself, despite all I know of the Downtown Eastside and its crippling dangers, the sight of them inspires an insensitive thought:

Why aren't they working?

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