Ontario to launch integrated employment services system as unemployment rises
Ontario is launching a new integrated system of employment services it says will make it easier for residents to restart their careers.
The province says it will be combining the employment services offered under various social assistance programs, such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, in order to make the process easier to navigate.
It says the program will include online self-serve options as well as phone and in-person services.
The new system, called Employment Ontario, is set to take effect in nine new areas next year, and in additional areas after that.
“Workers, families and students have faced exceptional challenges as COVID-19 left many people without a job and limited opportunities to find work,” Minister of Labour, Training and Skills, Monte McNaughton, said in a statement.
“The current model for employment services is complex, fragmented and has not been effectively helping people find and keep full-time jobs, making it difficult and time consuming for workers to navigate, particularly those on social assistance. Our government’s new one-stop shop for these services will help more people find good jobs in their communities,” Monte said.
The government says a prototype version has already been in place in three regions -- Peel, Hamilton-Niagara and Muskoka-Kawarthas -- since last year.
Ontario's unemployment rate has risen to 9.3 per cent as of last month, up from the pre-pandemic rate of 5.5 per cent, according to the province.
With files from the Canadian Press.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.