Northeast BC Skills Advisory Council

Funding that has been secured from the Ministry of Economic Development and Western Economic Diversification has enabled the B.C. Chamber of Commerce to begin the process of establishing nine Regional Advisory Councils throughout the province.

The funding will also support regional coordination of all nine councils through the Provincial Coordinating Group.

The Regional Skills Advisory Councils have been established with a mandate to act as a coordinating body in developing and implementing innovative, locally-based workplace skills initiatives.

These Regional Skills Advisory Councils are comprised of representation from:

• business organizations
• educational institutions
• training organizations
• business service providers
• First Nations
• government
• other relevant community-based organizations

The Regional Skills Advisory Councils are broadly representative of the industry sectors and stakeholder groups that are active in each region. The number of participants in each Skills Advisory Council are between 20 to 25 stakeholder representatives.

Local Chambers of Commerce and Community Futures organizations worked with the project consultants to help identify the appropriate representatives for the Councils.

Since skills shortages are impacting businesses across B.C., Regional Small Business Advisory Groups have been established in all regions of the province. The B.C. Chamber of Commerce had established Regional Skills Advisory Councils in the following regions:

• Kootenay/Boundary
• East Kootenay/Columbia
• Thomson/Nicola Valley/Shuswap
• Vancouver Island (exception of metro Victoria)
• Sea to Sky/Sunshine Coast
• North East
• Cariboo/Chilcotin
• Okanagan
• North West

* The regions identified for the establishment of Regional Skills Advisory Councils have been strategically chosen as regions outside of the metropolitan areas, since small businesses in those areas are experiencing greater challenges than those in the more populated regions of the Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria.

Also, a special effort needs to be devoted to finding ways of providing easier access to training opportunities in these more remote regions of the province in an attempt to assist the smaller communities in retaining more of their youth in their local workforce.

Entrepreneurs with Disabilities
Loans Program

In order to further enhance the level of support that we can provide to entrepreneurs with disabilities, there is a special fund available to provide direct assistance to EDP clients who require additional business-related help. This fund can be used to support EDP clients establishing a new business or clients who may already be loan recipients and need some additional supports related to the successful operation of their business. Funding is designated to support business related assistance for entrepreneurs with disabilities that lie outside of the scope of support that Community Futures staff can provide to a potential or existing loan recipient. Assistance can be in a myriad of forms from targeted support with marketing strategies, bookkeeping, to business plan development. In order to access this targeted funding for your clients, please submit a request addressed to the EDP Advisory Committee that outlines the amount requested, the services that your client requires and rationale for providing this assistance.