By Jennifer Quam

Service Canada made a visit to McBride last week to make sure people know of the services they provide as some residents struggle through economic changes. Service Canada provides many programs that assist people on employment insurance that help with retraining, employment opportunities, or entrepreneurial assistance.

Darren Ash and two other employees met with Bob Thompson, employment counsellor at the Robson Valley Home Support Society, the Village Council and attended the McBride Forest Industries (MFI) information meeting last Wednesday.

“We recognize that the community is in transition since the MFI decision,” said Ash. “We wanted to meet with our service agreement partner, the Home Support Society, to provide our assistance.”

Ash said the group also had the opportunity to meet with some entrepreneurs who are trying to create local employment.

“The Village Council also shared with us their plans for an Economic Development Officer and this should provide a good linkage between us and the community,” said Ash.

He said one of the main purposes of their visit was to make sure that members of the community were aware of programs like the targeted wage subsidy, self employment benefit, job creation partnership, and labour market partnership.

“The key message we would want to send is that anyone of Employment Insurance should do a action plan with Bob (Thompson) so they are aware of programs and become eligible for those programs that may help them,” said Ash. “This was a good visit to McBride. In some larger communities visits can become too formal. Because of the laid back atmosphere we were able to meet a lot of people we, probably, otherwise would not have met.”

Ash said the overall feeling he got from McBride was that the community is going through a tough transition but is resilient and remains positive about the future.

Bob Thompson said it was good for the town’s people to see someone new taking an interest in their struggles.

“Service Canada has assigned a special officer to the Robson Valley to make sure we do not miss an opportunity that may help people,” said Thompson. “They will be checking with me regularly to see how people are doing and what type of help they may need.”

Thompson said the visit was beneficial in a roundabout and long term way.

“They were impressed with the community and how well networked we are and they should be able to help people in their future needs.”