With no alternative for a bus depot known by press time this week, it appears that Keremeos will be without a bus depot in the near future.
The loss is yet another blow to services in the Lower Similkameen, which are disappearing faster than these warm summer days that we’ve been having.
As transient farmworkers continue to try to seek information about job opportunities in the Lower Similkameen, the YMCA - YWCA Work BC (who run what passes for employment services here) recently issued a notice to business owners in Keremeos, offering to donate a computer to the community for job search purposes.
Calling the offering a “partnership opportunity,” the YMCA - YWCA will provide a computer to the community for job search purposes. In return, the “partnering organization” will host the location for the computer station.
It’s an offering that shows how low we’ve sunk in the Lower Similkameen in terms of “services”.
What possible advantage would any organization in Keremeos have by hosting this “donated” computer that will strictly be used for job search?
And isn’t the YMCA - YWCA a privately run, for profit business? Is their expectation here that someone will “charitably” give of their own commercial space and time for free, to assist the YM/YWCA to maximize their profits from the contract they have set up with the province?
Enough of this nonsense already. It’s time to start planning for next year - fund a storfront office in Keremeos and hire enough staff to carry out the mandate of providing employment services to the region.
It’s high time to end these ridiculous band-aid solutions to employment services in the Lower Similkameen. Keremeos - and the valley - deserve better.