Canada's student summer employment offices have been chopped by federal government cost-cutting.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development will no longer be funding Service Canada Centre's for Youth. The services handled by the seasonal offices will continue through existing Service Canada offices and online year round.
The government will also add online resources to help young people find jobs.
The government cited a continual decline in visits to the centres as one of the main reasons for the closures.
Alyson Queen, spokeswoman for Diane Finley, human resources minister's office, said in an e-mail that youth across the country told the government they want to access more government services online, which included help with job searches and resumé writing.
Cutting the centres, which operated and employed students in the summer for more than 40 years, will save about $6.5 million annually, but the closures are drawing criticism with youth unemployment pegged at 14.5 per cent nationally in January – almost double the non-student unemployment rate.
Jean Crowder, Nanaimo-Cowichan NDP MP and human resources critic, said online service is an important option, but not all young people across Canada have high-speed Internet access and, in some remote areas, no Internet access at all.
"It's certainly an important option, but it shouldn't be the only option for students," Crowder said. "Those summer student centres actually also provided direct employment to students who ran them."
Crowder said a reason for declining attendance could be that student services centres were not heavily promoted and suggested the government could have worked directly with students to find ways to make the centres more relevant.
Crowder added that Service Canada office job banks are not organized around a focus on student jobs.
Alexandria Everitt, a financial aid employee at Langara College, worked at the Service Canada Centre for Youth in Duncan in 2009 and 2010 while attending Vancouver Island University.
"I think it's pretty unfortunate that it's being shut down, not only for the students who use the services, but also for the students that get hired," Everitt said. "For me it was a great opportunity to get a lot of work experience."
That experience helped her get other jobs and the office was frequented by students who either did not have access to the Internet or could not print out resumés or other documents at home, she said.
The office also offered a casual labour program for students who wanted part-time summer work.
"I think there were a lot of great programs that are going to be missed," Everitt said.
James Lunney, Nanaimo-Alberni Conservative MP, said programs and services need to change with the times.
"It's a changing world," Lunney said. "The program was established in 1968 and times have changed. The actual physical presence of people attending these job centres diminished as students more and more are accessing information online."
He said staff at Service Canada offices will give personal assistance to students who need it.
"Absolutely, and there are many more resources put online to walk them through, help present themselves, where the job ops are and a whole range of issues related to them," Lunney said. "Real people are there to meet those physical needs where they're required at the Service Canada centres."