“This one was important. This one was critical.”
Those were the words of Jack Keough, executive director of Yellowhead Community Services, as he thanked District of Clearwater council last Tuesday for its support in maintaining the employment services contract in the North Thompson Valley.
As reported in our Oct. 31 issue, Yellowhead Community Services Society has once again won the contract to deliver employment services in the Clearwater area.
A request for proposal issued last March by the Ministry of Social Development did not include the Valley as one of the proposed 73 catchment areas in the province, he said. That appeared to mean that local unemployed would have had to receive their employment assistance from Kamloops.
The District was one of about 20 organizations that gave letters of support to keeping the service in the Valley.
The mayor and council helped him get meetings with MLAs Terry Lake and Kevin Krueger, who both were helpful, said Keough.
YCS faced losing a $400,000 contract for Clearwater Employment Services if the program had been centralized in Kamloops.
Instead, the new contract could be worth $1.4 million for the Valley, said Keough.
This would include the targeted wage subsidy program, a self-employment program, and training done in partnership with School District 73 and Thompson Rivers University.
