Training grants need provincial support,
Plan relies on payments from provinces, employers
OTTAWA— Stephen Harper’s Conservatives want to overhaul skills training with a proposal that could put Ottawa on a collision course with the provinces.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty made skills training a centrepiece of the federal budget he unveiled Thursday, saying that too many Canadians lack the talents needed to fill current job vacancies.
“There are too many jobs that go unfilled in Canada because employers can’t find workers with the right skills,” Flaherty told the Commons.
“Meanwhile, there are still too many Canadians looking for work,” he said, adding that skills shortage will only worsen with an aging population.
But his proposed remedy — the Canada Job Grant — is certain to raise hackles with the provinces as Ottawa attempts to wrest back control over skills training.
The grant will provide $15,000 or more to help individuals get skills training, with Ottawa, the employer and the province or territory each providing a one-third share.
Reaction to the grant was mixed, with Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza questioning whether provinces such as Ontario, facing a major deficit of its own, would cough up the cash.
Lewenza said the grant is encouraging the private sector to invest in replenishing a lack of apprentices — a good thing, but “if the provinces don’t buy into it, then nobody will.”
Nicholas Gareri, owner of Pi Power Systems Ltd. in Woodbridge, Ont., an electrical company of 10 employees (three of them apprentices), praised the grant proposal.
“If the government is willing to help apprentices go to school, then that’s going to help us.”
“If the government is going to help us out, we’d go for it,” said Blaine Thomas,
“If (Ottawa) is going to help us out, we’d go for it.” BLAINE THOMAS PIPEFITTER CONSIDERING SWITCHING TRADES
26, who works as a pipefitter for Hampton Regal Mechanical Inc. in Courtice, Ont.
But the plan is far from assured and depends on getting the provinces onside. Current labour market agreements with the provinces, worth $500 million a year, expire in 2014, and Flaherty said the training proposal will be a focus of future deals.
“We will negotiate new agreements centred around the Canada Job Grant,” the finance minister said.
As well, the Conservatives signalled their intent to renegotiate the $1.95billion-a-year labour market development agreements with the provinces and territories to “reorient training toward labour market demand.”
But Liberal interim leader Bob Rae said the grant proposal offers no extra money for skills training and will take years to get into place.
“It’s hard to think that’s actually going to be the solution to the problem,” Rae said. “It’s not enough to really address the problem.”