Canada, B.c. Partner To Help Unemployed Older Workers
Barbara O'Neil, President, Steele O'Neil and Jim Abbott review details of the Kootenay Targeted Initiative for Older Workers. (TIOW)
CRANBROOK, BC - Kootenay Columbia MP, Jim Abbott, on behalf of the Honourable Monte Solberg, Federal Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, announced East Kootenay funding of $387,037 for one of 12 projects funded through the Canada-British Columbia Agreement on Targeted Initiative for Older Workers (TIOW).
The 12 innovative projects will help older workers living in British Columbia retrain for new careers. The Kootenay announcement covers the area from Golden to Elkford to Moyie. Older worker training will be delivered in Invermere, Fernie and Cranbrook this spring and next fall.
“The Government of Canada is committed to creating the best-educated, most-skilled and most flexible work force in the world, and that work force includes older workers, here in the Kootenays” said MP Abbott. “We cannot, and must not, overlook the experience of these workers who want to continue contributing to our communities, and to Canada’s economy.”
Steele O’Neil and Associates, Inc. will deliver the East Kootenay program on behalf of the governments. “With an estimated one million job openings in B.C. leading up to 2018, older workers who are interested in re-entering the workforce can be a key element in addressing the skills and labour shortage challenges our province is facing,” said Barbara O’Neil, President, Steele O’Neil. “Employers in the Kootenays need these workers.”
“These funds will allow more than fifty older workers in the Kootenays to upgrade their skills, benefit from job counselling and gain work experience,” said MP Abbott. “This funding allows Steele O’Neil. to develop essential programs and projects that will help unemployed older workers find new positions and continue to be key contributors to the provincial economy,”
The TIOW is one of the deliverables of British Columbia’s WorkBC action plan, which sets out ways to address skills shortages for the next five years, and respond to longer-term labour market challenges. A key priority of the action plan is to develop the skills of existing workers. The TIOW focuses on workers in communities experiencing an economic transition such as those in the forest sector who are affected by the mountain pine beetle epidemic and by the restructuring of this sector.
Combined, the Governments of Canada and British Columbia are awarding over $7.5 million to 12 organizations across the province to deliver community-based projects that will help an estimated 900 unemployed older workers, mostly from the forestry industry.
The Government of Canada, in its 2008 budget, announced new measures to assist older workers, including a $90-million investment to extend the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers until March 2012. This is above the original $70 million investment the Government of Canada made to launch this initiative in Budget 2006.
