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To:  our Valued First Nations, Urban Aboriginal organizations, Industry Partners and citizens;
 
We hope that your communities and families are preparing to keep yourselves and your community safe in light of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. 

We too, are observing the recent developments of the COVID-19 situation and assure you the health and safety of our employees and our citizens who access our services is of paramount importance.  It is our number one priority.  The rapid growth of the crisis changes everything and will affect all aspects of service delivery to the public.  We realize the uncertainty of how the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), or the extent of it’s reach will impact our community in the next few months and we will observe all directives issued by the BC government health agencies.
 
At PGNAETA we work to serve our communities and citizens with health and safety at the forefront.  Our team remains committed to working tirelessly to ensure ongoing training development with uninterrupted service. 

Strategic Action:

In order to exercise the caution necessary to keep our people safe we have implemented the following measures:

Effective immediately our office at 198 Kingston Street in Prince George will be closed FOR A PERIOD OF 14 DAYS to the public and may open thereafter with essential services only until further notice

• Employees who are feeling unwell, suspect they’ve been exposed to the COVID-19 virus or have recently travelled outside of Canada for more than 24 hours to self-isolate for 14 days and follow appropriate directions from their healthcare provider.

• Implementing increased cleaning and disinfecting protocols at the office with necessary sanitization and safety products.

• Following the guidance of major public health organizations, including The Public Health Agency of Canada, Government of BC and local health authorities.

• Transferring all training programs currently underway to on-line learning through technology and hardware provided to each student. 

• The majority of PGNAETA staff will be working from home and contact information via e-mail addresses will be provided to their customers. This will not include home phone numbers or home addresses.  

Continuing To Serve You:

Office closure:   Our main office is closed for 14 days or until further notice.  We are here and available to help with services or information as you need.  Following the 14 days PGNAETA will continue to remain “open” in terms of answering phones, emails, etc. and providing information on applying for Employment Insurance.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

First Nations Service Agreements:  Each nation will implement their own directive and policy governing their employment services or the projects they coordinate, to their community members.

Urban Aboriginal Service Agreements and Training Projects:  Each urban organization will implement their own directive and policy governing their employment services to their clientele.

Upcoming events:  As of today all events planned for this spring have been postponed.  This will include the Spirit of Unity, the Industry and Trades event, the Early Learning Child Care cultural curriculum event and the launch of the Emotional Integrity webinars.

Training projects hosted by PGNAETA:  On-line learning will be in place for the Women In Trades and the Piping Program following the 14 day closure.  Alternative action will be taken to support the students of the Customer Care Program.  For those who will be reverting to an on-line system, the system selected provides daily monitoring by PGNAETA staff to ensure each student is working through the curriculum.  This will be supported with daily teleconferences hosted by the project coordinators to assist with study materials.

Training Projects purchased through other training agencies:  projects hosted by Post Secondary institutes, urban aboriginal organizations and industry private trainers will follow the directive and policy of the training institute. 

Individual Client applications:  Citizens applying for supports may do so through our application forms which will be available through the PGNAETA website or the PGNAETA facebook page.  This access is being developed and we appreciate your patience.  We hope to have this operationalized within three – four weeks.

Given the nature of our services and the vulnerability of the clients we serve, we feel this is the responsible decision for the safety of our indigenous community and citizens.  We hope you will understand and support our decision. We are taking the stance the caution and prevention is the best approach toward keeping the community safe for everyone.