Starting next week, Altona and area residents won't have to travel very far to receive assistance from Service Canada.

Plans have been made to set up a scheduled outreach site in the Regional Connections office located in the Altona Mall.

The move to open the outlet comes on the heels of a decision to discontinue the mobile service in Morris, which has operated there since 2006 and was located in the Community Futures Triple R office on Main Street.

The Morris outlet was officially closed on May 2 due mostly to low client volumes and the availability of full-service outlets within 50 kilometres.

Morris residents will now have to travel to several surrounding sites including St. Pierre, Steinbach and Winnipeg-St.Vital to receive assistance.

The outreach site in Altona is scheduled to open on a bi-weekly basis on Tuesdays starting on May 28.

According to an official with Service Canada, the mobile unit will provide seamless access to more than 70 government programs and services including Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and Social Insurance Number. However, passport services will not be available.

“We were very pleased to be approached by Service Canada on this partnership opportunity,” says Steve Reynolds, Executive Director of Regional Connections. “We’re glad these services will be available for residents of the Altona area and know some of our existing services, like job search support and our public job search area, will complement Service Canada well.”