Job-training grant plan worries some provinces

OTTAWA — Provincial politicians are skeptical about the Harper government’s new plan to train Canadian workers to better match them with jobs — but some employers welcome a move they say could help close the skills gap in Canada’s labour market.

The Canada Job Grant, a cornerstone of the 2013 budget, is the federal government’s much-touted plan to fund training for the skills and trades most hurt by a lack of trained workers.

In partnership with employers, workers could receive up to $15,000 in job training funds: $5,000 each from the federal government, the provinces and their employers. Some provinces worried about how the program might affect funding in other areas, including the job-training programs they currently administer.

“What concerns me is that they are pulling $194 million away from the programs (in Ontario) that target our most vulnerable and have the greatest barriers to entering the workforce,” Brad Duguid, Ontario’s minister of training, colleges and universities said in an email. “The programs that are at risk assist the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, older workers, aboriginals and youth — those who have been hit the hardest by the recession — re-enter the workforce.”

The federal government hopes the money will become available as it negotiates the renewal of the 2007 Labour Market Agreement, an accord between it and the provinces. That agreement invested $3 billion over six years to assist Canadians who are low-skilled or not eligible for employment insurance. The new grants would come from money pulled out of that agreement by the federal government — about $300 million.

Some fear the federal government plans a take-it-or-leave-it approach with the provinces on skills-training money. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Friday that’s not the case.

Some provinces are reserving judgment. British Columbia Finance Minister Michael de Jong said the province will examine the move’s potential impact on its revenues.

Quebec has already objected to the federal program. Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau told reporters on Thursday that the federal budget proposal duplicates an existing provincial program and Ottawa is “again undoing and sabotaging what Quebec has long been doing.”

Businesses saw the proposal somewhat differently. “Companies are reticent to spend or invest in skills training of new employees if they think that as soon as the training is finishing, the employee might leave. So direct financial assistance that offsets some of those costs is very welcome,” said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters CEO Jayson Myers.