To the Editor:
There's no question that Canada's Number One economic challenge is solving the dilemma of having too many "jobs without people" and, at the same time, too many "people without jobs".
In other words, while unemployment continues to be unacceptably high in most of the country (especially among young Canadians), the unemployed and many new entrants in the job market don't have the education and skills needed to fill the job opportunities that presently exist. Such a mismatch leads to a whole range of other difficulties with such programs as Employment Insurance and Temporary Foreign Workers.
This issue dominated last week's meeting of Canada's Premiers.
The provinces want real action to get solutions, working in concert with employers, job seekers, training institutions of all kinds, and the federal government. What they got instead from the Harper Conservatives was a snide lecture and the rigid refusal to consider anything but Mr. Harper's pet program, his so-called "jobs grant".
This unilateral "Father Knows Best" attitude from Ottawa continues to do a lot of damage.
The constitutional responsibility for skills training was officially confirmed within provincial jurisdiction in the late 1990's. To support the provinces' work in this vital field, the federal government has been transferring some $2-billion annually. The provinces then determine locally how best to invest those job-training dollars.
Mr. Harper wants to change that. He wants to seize control, without investing another penny. In his 2013 Budget, he announced he would clawback a big chunk of the money the provinces are now getting, "renegotiate" its use, and force the provinces to put it into his "jobs grant" scheme.
Not only does this pre-empt provincial priorities and decision-making, Mr. Harper is also imposing extra conditions - i.e., provinces would only get to use that clawed-back money for a "jobs grant" IF they matched it with their own additional "new" money.
So here's the bottom line - the Harper Conservatives are going to reduce job-training funds that have been going to the provinces for the better part of 15 years. They will recycle the money they scoop into their "jobs grant", which they will then offer to give back to the provinces, provided the provinces agree to put up matching funds.
Obviously, Mr. Harper wants to tell everybody else what to do to improve skills training, but he's not prepared to invest anything new federally. There's been no shred of consultation. It's no wonder the provinces say this wrong-headed scheme is deeply flawed.
And in another abuse of taxpayers dollars, the Harper Conservatives have already wasted hundreds thousands of dollars in pointless government advertising about their "jobs grant" - a program that doesn't exist, is beyond federal jurisdiction, hasn't been negotiated with anyone, involves no new federal investment, and is already rejected by most of the Premiers. What a scam!
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
