The Ontario government has confirmed that the Newmarket ServiceOntario will be moving to a new location in Staples.
The province formally announced today that Staples at 17810 Yonge St. will house a ServiceOntario starting Feb. 1. While the word has been out for weeks, and Staples even put up a sign last week, the province had not acknowledged the current location would be closed and a new one opened.
Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery Todd McCarthy said in a news release that partnering with a presence like Staples will improve service.
“Our retailer partnership program will enhance the customer experience and meet the needs of communities by bringing government services where people live, work and shop,” he said.
Newmarket is one of six communities getting ServiceOntario locations in Staples, with more — including Keswick — coming later in the year.
The move has come with some criticism from other parties over the government sole-sourcing the deal with Staples, as well as for the province paying for the retrofitting. The government has estimated approximately $1 million in savings over three years for the pilot project. However, the province has not released a business case for this.
Most ServiceOntario centres, about 71 per cent, are privately operated, with Newmarket being one of those, the province stated. The province has previously opened ServiceOntario centres in locations such as municipal offices and an Employment Ontario centre in Eganville.
Asked at a news conference about closing existing outlets rather than letting them run concurrently with the new ones, McCarthy said it was a matter of looking at areas where contracts were expiring.
“What’s happened is as contracts were coming up to expire, our ministry officials looked at alternative service delivery models that were working and ones that were not working as effectively,” McCarthy said.
Staples Canada welcomes the project, president Rachel Huckle said in the release.
“We believe this pilot project will demonstrate that our stores will be a convenient option for busy Ontarians, offering more flexible hours to provide better access to the services they rely on,” Huckle said.
