Service Canada has returned to the Coast, at least for two days a month.
Sechelt's Service BC office will now offer Service Canada scheduled service on every fourth Tuesday and Wednesday of the month from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays.
The scheduled service will bring trained Service Canada staff to the Coast to help locals with things like accessing information on old age security, the Canada Pension Plan, health care programs, employment insurance, career information, life-skills workshops and work opportunities. There will also be help available for Aboriginals to access benefits they may be eligible for and for people with disabilities to complete application forms.
"I want to welcome Service Canada back to our community," said Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster during an opening ceremony on Wednesday morning. "I'm thankful that they're here. I know that there's many people in our community who need their services, whether it be those who are retired and need the services that were mentioned with the pension plans that are very important to our community as they retire and move from the workforce, but also those who are in the work force, have been in the work force and may have been displaced and need retraining or funding.
"It's really important that those people know they have somewhere to come, somewhere that they can seek help in order to fulfill some retraining needs or some funding needs that they may have until they start their next job. So I'm very happy you've come back."
The Coast has been without the in-person service since about 2000, according to Chris Campbell, director with Service Canada.
She explained that some Service Canada representatives have come to the Coast periodically to help community members over the years, but this is the first scheduled service since it was dropped due to cutbacks in 2000.
West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country member of Parliament John Weston was on hand for the opening. He said it was the demand from Coast residents that brought the service back here.
"So I took your words and I wrote the Minister and along with your very clear requests, which went directly to the media and in some cases directly to the government, and I echoed what you had to say. So it's with great pride that we can say Service Canada is back," Weston said.
Sunshine Coast-Powell River MLA Nicholas Simons was also at the opening and he highlighted the need for such service on the Coast.
"Many issues come to us that are difficult to resolve, but just like when I worked at the Ministry for Children and Families and my emergency number was calling community services, so in our offices when we have constituency issues the emergency number is the government agent at Service Canada. So I just have to say that the role you play in helping constituents with their challenges is most important to the community," Simons said.
Inkster hopes to see more scheduled service on the Coast if the demand is demonstrated in the coming months.
"I'll be keeping an eye on the service if we need to actually add [scheduled service] hopefully we can because one thing that our council works very hard doing in our community is meeting the needs of those in our community," he added.
