The Municipal District of 100 Mile House met Wednesday June 19th to discuss community and worker transition with representatives from multiple agencies comprising a Community Transition support team including the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, Norbord, the Public Private Workers of Canada (PPWC) Union Local # 9, Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, Ministry of Advanced Education, Community Futures, local Work BC office representatives, Thompson Rivers University representatives, the Cariboo Regional District area directors for areas G, H and L, the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce, and the Cariboo Family Enrichment Centre.
During the meeting, Mayor and Council and the PPWC Union (Norbord) highlighted the need for increased mental health supports in the community, support for small business as well as suppliers/contractors doing business with the forestry sector, and planning for worker and economic transition to help give impacted workers resources and direction from which to leverage new employment in the area. Out of the meeting ideas generated for actioning included the delivery of a worker needs impact assessment with Norbord workers to help determine their greatest needs, interests, and identify what community and individual supports will be useful for helping them to situate in other sectors for employment, discussion around multiple avenues to provide job posting information to workers, and the potential of a Town Hall meeting to assist in information dissemination with the broader community.
Joanne Doddridge, Economic Development Officer for the District of 100 Mile House, identified that the Cariboo Regional District – including the District of 100 Mile House and other member municipalities – is conducting a Labour Market Study analysing labour shifts and future labour opportunities in the region and the sub region as part of a 5 year labour strategy. This information will be highly useful to the South Cariboo area and District of 100 Mile House to help target retraining for labour needs of the present and future in the area. She also highlighted the great quality of life that is attainable and affordable in the South Cariboo and 100 Mile House, as a reason for people and businesses to continue to pursue investment in the area.
Mayor Mitch Campsall highlighted the power of the collaborative approach to meeting the broad reaching needs of the community: “We appreciate the willingness of all these agencies and passionate individuals coming together to help develop supports for the community and impacted workers. Right now we are in a brainstorming stage, taking stock of good ideas and beginning to determine the best ways to move ideas to action quickly. We know lots of these supports will be valuable to those workers of Chasm and 100 Mile House sawmill also. We are open to collaboration with the Cariboo Regional District and our neighbours to the south around these challenging times. We know that we are stronger together, and together we are going to come up with community-focused actions to help meet these needs.”
