Job Opportunities Program

From August 2009 to November 2010, SNCIRE administered and managed the $2.2 million Northwest BC Job Opportunities Program (JOP). The joint federal and provincial program put to work unemployed and underemployed workers in the region affected by the global recession and downturn in the local economy. Through the program, SNCIRE hired 73 Northwest BC residents, including a significant number of First Nations, to do local silviculture work - like pruning and spacing.  

Benefits

Through the JOP program, SNCIRE:

• Put 73 people to work (47 people at the peak of the program)
• Recertified 38 people in S100 Fire Suppression
• Spaced 397 ha and pruned 58.4 ha young forests
• Treated 255 mountain pine beetle sites (1556 trees)

Rationale

The Job Opportunities Porgram was a $60 million program (joint provincial and federal) focused on Western Canada. The purpose of the program was to support communities hardest hit by the global recession, mainly communities that rely on resource-based industries - like forestry, mining, agriculture and fisheries - and communities that depend on the manufacturing sector.

JOP was a short-term response that created and maintained jobs, and stimulated the economy, in places that experienced significant job losses, the loss of major employer, and/or lacked alternative employment opportunities.