Meeting in the office of the Minister of Jobs, Workforce Development and Labour, Patty Hajdu. Minister Haidu was in St. John's so we met with her (at left) Western Canada Regional Adviser, Joshua Lindner, and Policy Advisor, Douglas Wong. Also in the photo are (centre) Gladys Okine of First Work Ontario and Valerie Roy of AXTRA Quebec. We represented BC's interests through CCCBET ( Canadian Coalition of Community-Based EmployabilityTraining). 
 

• Request for political intervention in shortening the time lag between the close of an RFP to the contract award. We see this as a major impediment in the government's goals to respond to workforce needs quickly as well as a significant hardship for community-based organizations.
• We reiterated the networks we represent across Canada and in communities throughout the provinces. We also offered our ability to conduct valuable research to inform policy development and implementation.
• We talked about the opportunity to inform government and government staff about the complex history of Public Employment Services as outlined in Dr. Donna Wood's book Federalism In Action: The Devolution of Canada's Public Employment Service 1995-2015. 
• We talked about best practices for community consultation before new funding and policy are created and how CCCBET members and the community organizations they represent can assist with that consultation.