Sharbot Lake Employment Centre to Close
St.Lawrence College (SLC) will cease to deliver Ontario Employment Centre services in Kingston, Sharbot Lake, Ottawa, as well as satellite services in Sydenham and Amherstview, in the coming weeks.
The college has been under contract to operate Employment Ontario Centres in those communities but has decided not to renew the contract.
“SLC is not renewing the contracts to provide employment services and thus is closing its external Employment Services offices, that were located in Sharbot Lake, the west end of Kingston, in downtown Ottawa and our itinerant service in Sydenham. In doing so, we focus on our core business of academic programming. Services will wind down between now and the end of the calendar year, ending on December 20, 2024,” is the response offered by the college to a question from the Frontenac News about the service..
Employment Ontario services have been delivered out of an office in Sharbot Lake, on Garrett Street for the last 14 years. The office was originally staffed with two full time, and two part time positions and at one time there were as many as six staff members at the office, offering comprehensive employment services to North and Central Frontenac residents. In 2015, services expanded to Verona from the Sharbot Lake office.
“We developed a lot of capacity and some very strong connections with the local community,” said Karen McGregor, who has been the manager of the Sharbot Lake office since the program got underway. “More recently, budget cuts have diminished our work force and capacity.”
Those cuts became more pronounced about a year ago, when the provincial Ministry of Economci Development, Job Creation and Trade, which had been overseeing the contract with St. Lawrence College to delivery Employment Ontario Services in Kingston, Frontenac County and Ottawa, passed that responsibility to SERCO, an international service delivery company delivers the driver testing program in Ontario.
In their announcement confirming they are not renewing their contract, SLC did not mention SERCO, but said that change in direction at the college is part of the reason they will no longer be providing employment services to the general public, although internal programs for their students will remain.
In closing the service, "we focus on our core business of academic programming," the colege said, " -While we are very proud of our SLC employees who provided these services to the community, we are working to respond to changes beyond our control in the post-secondary system that have impacted the number of students we can welcome to study with us in Eastern Ontario..-
There are two people currently working at the Employment Centre, both at 3/4 time. Even though the service is a contract service, the two Sharbot Lake staff members are employed by St, Lawrence College and will have the option to seek positions elsewhere at St. Lawrence, based on skillset and level of seniority. SLC has also confirmed that they will vacate their builfing in Sharbot Lake by December 20.
"Over the years, we have been able to develope relationships with local employers. ensuring they receiving grants for training new employees, and we have made out office available to local people requiring help building resumes, finding he training programs they need, and provifing those programs ourselves, when we could," said Karen McGregor. "I think we have done well, and will be hard to replace with a less present service."
