JOHN STORM/Special to Bullet News
We read and hear about statistics that cover employment trends in Niagara. Government agencies spit out seemingly endless reports about the economy and the unemployed, yet rarely to people see local residents who are struggling in their bids to find work.
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Jackie Lawson, a Niagara Falls resident, is a university-educated woman who has been out of work for many months, and her goal of finding work goes beyond disheartening.
Lawson is forced to depend on the Niagara regional bus system that was created about a year ago. People should try taking that and they will be stunned by what they see, she says.
It takes hours to get from Niagara Falls to St. Catharines. She has lost jobs because she could not get a bus ride in time for that work.
Niagara faces losses of $1.38 billion a year in lost taxation and income, and Lawson believes we would benefit if local governments, retailers and schools worked together rather than working against one another.
John Storm can be reached at st.catharines@oxfordlearning.com.
