New Parks Canada employees from across Canada have descended on Jasper this week to learn more about the agency they work for.

The National Orientation Week has been running at least once a year since 2004, and Jasper is a favoured location, hosting three programs in the last three years.

“The purpose is to show the new employees what Parks are like across Canada,” said Jean-Pierre Vincent, the manager of the orientation program. “Everyone works in their own field unit, but it’s important for them to realize what goes on in other places and have a chance for networking.”

Part of the week is spent in the “classroom,” in this case, the downstairs banquet facility at the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre. Here, new employees go through Parks 101, a basic introduction to the values and mandate of the organization that also delves a bit into the nitty-gritty of the agency budget and its relationship with the Government of Canada.

“The entire week is built around the mandate of Parks,” Vincent said. “We have an entire day devoted to conservation, an entire day given to look at commemoration.”

It’s not all about binders, presentations and break-out groups, though. A good portion of the week is spent in the field, giving cubicle-dwellers from the national or regional offices the chance to see the impacts of their choices first-hand.

“One year we had a woman from the national office who worked all the time on the budget,” said Vincent. “We went on a field trip to the canal out here and suddenly she understood what kind of a difference she could be making on the ground.”

Another example that Vincent cited is the Visitor Information Centre on Connaught Drive. 

“We may be talking about maintaining commemorative integrity for a structure when doing renovations, and of course for most people renovating means you move a wall or something like this, but when we take them to the basement of the information centre, they can understand what has to be considered and preserved.”

The week also provides an occasion for Parks administrators to focus their new employees’ attention on policy priorities and areas of special concern. This year, for example, the program included an afternoon and evening of information and presentations on aboriginal involvement with Parks Canada. This has recently been identified as a priority for the agency.  

Besides the many learning opportunities, Vincent thinks that an equally important part of the event is the social aspect. All the visiting delegates stay at the Sawridge and take their meals together, providing plenty of opportunity for people to meet and share perspectives and ideas.

“You can meet someone from right across the country,” he said, adding that regional differences are not as important as the shared mission of Parks Canada. “We all have one role to play and that role is very important.” 

The program is available to all new Parks Canada employees considered indeterminate — in other words, people who will be working on a permanent basis, whether year-round or seasonally.

“This is a chance for everybody, managers, plumbers, to gain some new knowledge and information and have the opportunity to get connected and stay connected,” said Karen Tierney, the director of learning and development with Parks national office.

“The organization has said that this is a very high priority. We try to have two sessions per year and roughly 75 attend per class,” she said.

Training the approximately 150 new staff that are hired by Parks Canada every year is just the beginning, according to Tierney. Her office is looking towards developing the means to provide a similar level of training and familiarization to veteran staffers.

“We need to look at an overall program,” she said. “We need to put programs in place for current and long-term staff.”

As far as Tierney is concerned, the program has been a remarkable success in large part thanks to the trainers and experts brought in from around the country to facilitate the sessions during the week. Unlike many corporate orientation programs, Parks Canada does not bring in outside facilitators or management trainers, preferring to focus on their own resources instead.

“The success of the program has come from the professionalism and passion of the the trainers,” she said. Some of these trainers include former orientation participants.

Even if people who go through the program don’t return to teach, they typically act as ambassadors for the program, Tierney said.

“They go back to their own field units and when new employees come in, they’re told about the program and the idea is promoted.”

The program will continue to come to Jasper as long as the warden training program is based here. Having all new employees gather in Jasper at this time of year makes good economic sense, Jean-Pierre Vincent said, because new wardens can simply stay on in Jasper to commence their job-specific education. 

As for the orientation week itself, Vincent believes it is an ongoing process.

“We are improving the week every time, and this is only the fourth one,” he said. “I think now we have a very, very good program.”