Cloudy
future
facing
family

WHEN Leigh-Anne Schofield
moved from Nanaimo to Terrace
to work with for the Conservation
Officer Service she had no idea
her job could be gone just seven
months later,

‘The provincial government told
Schofield two weeks ago her job
as an administrative assistant at
the Terrace wildlife office was
surplus to the ministry,

Within 90 days she’ll either be
transferred within the ministry or
terminated, says her husband Ken
Schofield.

This is the second time in just
two years that Leigh-Anne has
lost a job due to downsizing and
she and her husband are worried
about what the future holds.

Her husband Ken suffers from a
race liver disease called Primary
Sclerosing Cholangitis. Eventually
he will require a liver transplant

“The job came at a
time when we really,
_ really needed it.”

4

or else his liver will break down
and he'll die.

It also means Ken can't work,
making Leigh-Anne the sole bread
winner for the family.

Ken Schofield says they felt
like they won the lottery when
Leigh-Anne got a job in Terrace
last summer.

“Just to come up here for the
interview used up all our financial
Tesources,” he says. “The job
came at a time when we really,
really needed it.”

He says his wife, who's origin-
ally ftom here, loves her job and
has fit-in well at the local office.

“Being support staff for the
Conservation Officer Service, she
thought would, be impprtant,”

Pens al

OU Sabie ie

Student su

STUDENTS HERE are “fuming
after the province axed a program
that provided wage subsidies to
help them get summer jobs.

Word that the Student Summer
Works program would be elimina-
ted came Jan. 17.

“I'm disgusted and appalled
and as far as our organization is
concerned this decision doesn’t
make any sense at all,” said
Karen McAthy, external affairs
coordinator for the Northwest
Community College Students’ As-
sociation.

Student Summer Works last
year placed 59 students in Terrace
alone. And 237 positions were
filled in the northwest.

Job tice office eliminated here
By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN ar 4 SO ‘ — tance
THREE people at the Industry
Training and Apprenticeship Com-
mission’s (ITAC) Terrace office will
be out of work here as of May 31.
The commission sets up apprenti~
ceship job placements with busines-

ses across the province, monitors the
progress of apprenticeships and

ovetsees testing of students.

Terrace is one of 10 regional
ITAC offices province-wide that will

shut their doors May 31.

The program will then be run out
of the Prince George office, four
lower mainland locations and one

Victoria office.

By early 2003 those offices will

also.close.

“It’s just a nightmare,” says Malcolm
Smith, senior ITAC apprenticeship
counsellor here. “It’s not the lype of si-

tuation anybody wants to be in.”

The north region of ITAC coordinates
apprenticeships for nearly 550 people
and Smith says roughly 100 of those

clients are from the Terrace area.

And last year three Terrace students
were among 160 province-wide who re-
ceived $1,000 bursaries from ITAC to

help them get into apprenticeships.

Cuts to ITAC and the Ministry ‘of Ad-

he ::

“ety ee

VU HURT.

HES FARILY.

KEN AND Leigh-Anne Schofield and their sons aren't sure what will happen now that ‘she's been
told her support job with the local Conservation Officer service will cease to exist.

says. “She cares deeply about the
environment, bear safety -—
everything.”

He says Leigh-Anne has found
her niche with the C.O. Service
and feels like the work she does
makes a difference.

i

raed ie ite te dpecmtpege dt.

bop ish ibe

mmer jo

In the past five years Student
Summer Works created 1,100
jobs in the northwest and the pro-
gram pumped $1.64 million into
the northern economy.

Student Summer Works has
been in the northwest for seven
years under contract to Northwest
Community College.

But the program has existed for
over 35 years under various
names, said Sandy Bullock, stu-

‘dent employment officer at the

college.

“That’s one of the reasons we
thought it would escape the cuts,”
Bullock said. “It’s aot the: em-
ployer who is going to suffer, it’s
the student.”

4c Withothe news that, Reigh-Ange

may be oul of a job within three
months, the couple is worried
about how they'll continue to sup-
port themselves, their two young
sons Ken's medical costs.

“She’s trying to keep her hopes
up but with all these cuts it’s dif-

Fioult to think.where we'll be,"::

carpe tee

b subsidies

The goal of the program is to
find work for students in a position
related to their field of study.

Students are placed with busi-
nesses and non-profit organiza-
tions during the sammer months.

The program ran on a budget of
$346,205 used primarily to subsi-
dize wages.

Without those subsidies Mc-
Athy says businesses that struggle
to pay fair wages to summer stu-
dents will be affected. That may
mean fewer jobs for students in
the summer.

“[ personally see that the
money invested in these programs
results in trained workers,” said
McAthy. “It’s hard enough for stu-

on

wt

Schofield says. “If they are able
to place her, hopefully it’li be in
this area,”

Ken says behind every cut
there is a story.

“But the families like ours are
rare,” he says.
.aNaw.all they can do i is wait.

bap Mrs Lint

érased

dents to earn money as it is. You
can’t live on six dollars an hour.”

But Student Summer Works is
just one of several work training
and apprenticeship jobs axed by
the government Jan, 17,

A provincially funded program
called Work Study provides on-
campus jobs for students not re-
ceiving enough money from their
student loan. It was also cut by
the provincial government.

“It’s just a small program but it
made a difference to about 20 stu-
dents, most of which were at our
campus,” Bullock said. “We have
money. in place supposedly until
the end of August but I don’t know
if itll be there beyond Mar. 31.”

tego berg fe

APPRENTICESHIP counsellors John Dodd and Malcolm Smith are among the affected staff when the Industry Training

-28 per cent of provincial

Nel:

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - AS

Job cut total
eludes MLA
and others

NEARLY TWO weeks after the B.C. Liberals announced
civil service job culs Jan. 17, it is still difficult to deter-
mine the exact impact in Terrace.

At first, government officials, including Skeena Lib-
eral MLA Roger Harris, were. using the figure of 89 full
time equivalent (FTE) jobs to describe the planned
three-year employment cut-here,

Harris was unhappy with that number and his officials
spent all of last week unsuccessfully trying to come up
with a new tally.

But one government agency, the Public Service Em-
ployee Relations Commission, which acts as the pro-
vince’s human resources office, released its own esti-
mate. It calculates that 78
FTEs will be lost here.

If the 78 FTE figure is
the official one, it means

civil servants in Terrace
will be cut over three years.
That's based on a total pro-
vincial civil service com-
plement of 280 people here.

But if the figure is high-
er, the percentage of job
loss is also higher.

Also complicating the
Situation is the different
way in which the transpor-
tation ministry is handling
its cuts.

Under the orders of
transportation minister Ju-
dith Reid, that ministry laid
out its cuts in terms of people affected.

A full time equivalent, on the other hand, is the num-
ber of hours worked over the year by a full time employ-
ee.

Reid said last week that is a tricky number in that
over time hours worked by people in one office could
amount to full time equivalences.

As well, two or more part time workers could make
up the equivalent of one full time employee.

“So in terms of people, it is 37,” said Reid of cuts ta
her ministry here.

A good number of those jobs to be lost will take place
this year,

What is known is that the transportation cuts amount
to about half of the civil service jobs that will be lost.

Thirteen more jobs are to be gone in the fali when the
regional correctional centre is closed, three people are
being cut because the apprenticeship program is disap-
pearing, 3.5 FTEs are to be lost when the human re-
sources ministry merges offices and one FTE is sche-
duled to be lost at the water, land and air ministry office
here.

‘Reidsaid-the 22 people who will-be left. in the: trans-
. porjation ministry's § gtfice, here ‘will, be eoncerped, with
road safety, maintenance and ‘rehabilitation.

Generally speaking, about 40 per cent of the cuts to
Reid’s ministry are in the administrative end and 40 per
cent in jobs that won't exist because Programs won't
exist anymore.

“The remaining 20 per cent could end up with privati-
zation opportunities,” said Reid.

One of those opportunities could very well be. the
turning over of.the ministry's Usk ferry service to a for-
profit operator.

All inland ferry services now offered at no-charge by
the ministry are up for review, said Reid.

“Government does have a role in providing the ser-
vice, but you have to look at the coast,” said Reid in
noting routes there charge a user fee.

And, motorists should not be surprised if they see re-
freshment stands at highway rest areas.

One plan is to allow businesses to operate at the rest
areas in return for them cleaning garbage cans and rest-
rooms, Reid continued.

“Any help we can get with our funding issues we will
take,” said Reid.

Judith Reid

From front
College
faces cuts

be exceptional, but we
can’t afford it.”

Current ECE students
will be able to complete
the program.

But Forsyth said three
ECE employees could be
affected. The senior em-
ployee would be asked ta
review the program over
the next year and come up
with a more cost-effective
way to offer it in the fu-
ture.

The final decision’ on
layoffs and program cuts at
NWCC won't. be made
until mid- to late February,
when the provincial gov-
ernment releases its own
budget. :

At least 36 college em-
ployees have been told
their jobs are on the line;
28 are B.C. Government
Employees Union mem-
bers.

The majority of the pro-
posed layoffs would take
place at the Terrace cam-
pus.

“I think the college is
the meat in the sandwich,”
BCGEU

vanced Education call for a reduction of
137 full time equivalent positions over
the next three years.

As of March 31, 2001 there were 105
full time equivalent employees working
for ITAC across B.C.

“To tell you the truth I feet like we
were dumped by the Ministry of Ad-
vanced Education just so they could fill

Apprenticeship Commission’s Terrace office closed down May 31.

their quota,” said John Dodd, an appren-
ticeship counsellor here.

And Malcolm Smith is worried have
ing one regional office for the north
based in Prince George for the rest of
the year will greatly reduce services to

clients here.
Those services include overseeing
exams written here, making on-site visits

and doing presentations about trades
_training opportunities in high schools.

“I can’t see people coming from

Prince George to make presentations in’
high schools here or anywhere else in this .

area,” Smith said.
He added apprenticeships will conti-

nie in B.C. but the question remains as as to:

how they will be run.

representative
Shelley Anderson said.
“The responsibility as
far as-I’m concerned ulti-
mately jies on the govern-
ment and what they're

~ doing.’ The: administration,

they're pawns like all the
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