Changes to Employment Services in Frontenac County

Jeff Green | Jul 22, 2010

Back in January the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities announced a change in the way employment services would be delivered across the Province of Ontario.

All employment services will be offered by a single provider in each region, and in Frontenac County that provider will be St. Lawrence College. In Lennox and Addington County the provider will be an organization called Career Edge.

For the staff and board of Northern Connections, a not-for-profit corporation based in Sharbot Lake, which has been the provider of employment services in Northern Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties for the last 20 years under the Job Connect program, the announcement in January came as a bit of a shock.

“We always knew there was a chance this could happen” said Joyce Bigelow, the Chief Executive Officer of Northern Connections, “but it is very disappointing for us.”

The process that led to the change in the way employment services will be delivered in Ontario was different from the way change has come in other government service areas in recent years. Instead of using a tendering or request for proposal system, the Ministry of Training conducted a detailed survey of the services delivered by all of the providers before making their decision about whom they would offer contracts to.

Although Northern Connections boasts a 70% hiring rate in a community where there are not very many jobs, and has deep roots in the communities it serves, the service contracts were offered out on a regional basis, putting the small agency at a disadvantage.

Employment services represents about 1/3 of Northern Connections’ funding base, and the equivalent of three full-time positions, but the agency remains solvent and will continue to provide a basket of services, including computer training, literacy services, Academic and Career Entrance courses (high school equivalency) in partnership with St. Lawrence College, and an e-lab for online college courses in partnership with Loyalist College.

At the Northbrook Northern Connections site, there will be no visible change in services whatsoever, since Career Edge has rented space from Northern Connections at their location on Highway 41. Career Edge has also hired Tammy Rosenblath to deliver employment services. Tammy had been doing the same job for Northern Connections.

It is in Sharbot Lake where there will be a major change. St. Lawrence College will be establishing an office on Garrett Street, at the site of the former Stedmans and Upper Frontenac Graphics stores.

“There will be two full-time and two part-time people working in the office,” said Janet Ashford of St. Lawrence College, who is overseeing services in Frontenac County. The new office will also include eight computer stations for clients.

Details about the services that will be offered at the new location will be available in the coming weeks.

Until the new office is ready, St. Lawrence staff will be working out of the Northern Connections offices on Hwy 7. “We are doing everything we can to make St. Lawrence welcome in the community and to ensure that the clients get as seamless a transition as possible,” said Bigelow.

St. Lawrence, which has been a major provider of employment services in Eastern Ontario through the Job Connect program, has received the contract for the western portion of Kingston and all of Frontenac County, and Ashford said they are looking forward to providing service throughout the county from their base at the college in Kingston and their new location in Sharbot Lake.

“We will continue to work collaboratively with all of the agencies in Sharbot Lake, particularly Northern Connections, Ontario Works and others,” Ashford said. “We are excited about what we can offer.”

There is also an employment worker for St. Lawrence who works out the Frontenac Employment Resource Centre (FERC) in Sydenham and Ashford said the gaps in service in communities such as Verona would be addressed as well.

“One of the advantages of serving the entire county with the resources that we have available is that we can react to the needs of the community,” Janet Ashford said.