HireNorth's network matches Canadian jobseekers with opportunities

When Daniel Shalinsky, CEO of Vancouver-based career fair platform Withe, talks about HireNorth.ca, he doesn’t sound like a typical tech founder promoting a new product. He sounds like someone issuing a call to action.

“HireNorth.ca is exactly what it sounds like,” he says over the phone. “It’s our way of stepping up during these… I’ll just call them economically challenging times.”

It’s a simple idea with ambitious goals. The website, launched earlier this week, is a rallying point for Canadian companies, community organizations, and job seekers, he says. The intention is for it to become a digital magnet pulling together the people who are hiring and the people who are ready to work.

With layoffs rippling through the tech sector, inflation squeezing families, and economic headwinds slowing growth, Shalinsky and his team wanted to do more than ride out the storm. They wanted to help others do the same.

“We’ve seen the impact when Canadians spend money at home,” Shalinsky says, pointing to a recent Globe and Mail piece that outlined how even modest shifts in consumer habits — like redirecting $25 a week to Canadian-made goods — could lead to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs.

“But buying Canadian needs to go one step further,” he continues. “It needs to mean hiring Canadian, too.”

That’s where HireNorth comes in. The site offers a way for Canadian employers and community organizations to connect, collaborate, and ultimately co-host career fairs tailored to the needs of their local communities.

The goal? Career fairs in every province and territory. Fifty of them, to be exact.

Withe, the company behind the initiative, is no stranger to hiring events. Its platform makes it easy to run paperless, efficient career fairs — events that once took weeks to plan can now be launched in minutes. The product has already been used by organizations across North America to modernize recruiting events.

But with HireNorth, the company is offering its platform to a much broader network, and in a more grassroots way.

“We want to be the catalyst that brings people together,” Shalinsky says. “Let’s say we find out there are five employers in Fort St. John ready to hire, and a local organization that supports job seekers — we’ll give them the tools and support they need to run a great career fair.”

On the site, employers and community groups are invited to fill out a short form expressing their interest. From there, Withe’s team can identify where demand is emerging and activate career fair support accordingly.

“It’s about putting power in the hands of local leaders,” Shalinsky adds. “They know their communities better than we do.”

One thing Shalinsky wants to make especially clear is that HireNorth is an inclusive movement.

“This isn’t some narrow nationalist thing,” he says. “Whether you’re a permanent resident, on a work visa, or a recent immigrant — if you want to contribute to the Canadian economy, you are included in this campaign.”

That message is more than just rhetoric. Early sign-ups from job seekers have been diverse, with strong engagement from newcomers to Canada. Shalinsky credits that to the team’s clear and intentional messaging on the site’s “What We Stand For” page.

Now that HireNorth has officially launched, Withe is in full-on outreach mode. The team is already in conversation with multiple community organizations across the country — though Shalinsky is holding off on name-dropping until partnerships are formalized. Its current phase is about building momentum: gathering interest, making connections, and helping the right people find each other.

In a fragmented economy, that kind of matchmaking might seem modest. But Shalinsky believes that this approach, with the right tech and a clear mission, could mean everything to the thousands of Canadians currently searching for work.

“We want to help the companies who are still hiring find great Canadian talent,” Shalinsky says. “And we want to help job seekers know they’re not alone — that there’s a movement building to support them.”

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