Something must have drastically changed then, because when I was talking to people at SAIT and WestJet this past year, they said that the maintenance side was doing pretty well. Both Spar and Westjet have had AME or avionics jobs posted on their websites regularily for about the past year. I figured that with about 90% of the AME, avionics and structures students coming out of SAIT being hired within 6 months that things weren't that bad.
I could be wrong as I'm not directly involved with that part of the industry. That's why I posted those links to try to help rich49.