One is Jason Kenney, the energetic, fast-talking immigration minister. The other is James Moore, the media-savvy, fluently bilingual heritage minister.
Both have been spending a lot of time in Toronto recently.
Kenney met editorial boards and delivered speeches spelling out how he intends to overhaul the immigration system and defending his plan to dissolve the eight-year backlog of unprocessed applicants.
Most business leaders, editorialists and pundits were impressed. They backed his plan to be more selective in admitting newcomers and welcomed Kenney’s can-do attitude.
Moore took a different tack. Rather than seeking public approval, he went straight to his core constituency: artists, creators, cultural leaders and organizers of youth exchanges. His mission was to soothe ruffled feathers after his government’s March 29 budget, which chopped funding for the CBC, the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada and shut down Katimavik, a national volunteer service for young people launched by Pierre Trudeau 35 years ago.
Moore’s first stop was the TIFF Kids International Film Festival where he announced that the Conservatives were investing $26.7 million in Canadian youth; almost twice the value of Katimavik.
He was charming, sympathetic and reassuring. “Our government is offering young people the opportunity to connect with one another, exchange ideas and explore their potential,” he said. “We are proud to invest in successful, affordable youth programs.”
It sounded like a great bargain: $26.7 million in new programs in exchange for one $15 million cancelled program — until the details came out.
It turned out that seven of the eight programs in Moore’s announcement had previously been announced. One had actually expired. His only new initiative, a youth exchange administered by the YMCA of Greater Toronto, received a three-year allotment of $8.7 million. That amounts to $2.9 million a year — one-fifth of the annual cost of Katimavik.
Nonetheless, YMCA president and CEO Medhat Mahdy praised the minister and his government fulsomely. “We place great value on our partnership with the government of Canada,” he said. “Funding (from Ottawa) has allowed us to provide access to leadership, empowerment and engagement opportunities to all youth nation-wide and has helped them increase their knowledge of Canada.”
Clever as Moore’s packaging was, it was not one of his usual triumphs.
If the loss of Katimavik were the only sacrifice imposed on young Canadians by the Harper government, it might be defensible in an era of austerity. Cherished as it was by three generations of participants, it was a non-essential expenditure.
But the bad news didn’t end there:
• The government’s decision to raise the retirement age to 67 means young people will have to wait longer for the job market to open up.
• Its impending plan (leaked by Kenney) to clamp down on job-seekers who pass up low-paying work will make life harder for graduates looking for work in their field and students hoping to earn enough to defray their tuition costs.
• And its budget offered no hope to a generation forced by demographics and a weak economy to curtail its expectations of a career, a family, a home and a decent standard of living.
These measures will have a material impact on the lives, employment prospects and future of our young people.
As for Moore, he was off to Markham the next day to announce a profusion of cultural grants — 111 in total. The ritual was familiar, the audience friendly.
This time, 39 of the grants were new and 10 were extensions that came with fresh funding. The heritage minister quickly found his groove, projecting goodwill and promoting the Harper government.
His heart wasn’t really in the youth file. The trouble is no one’s is.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Carol Goar
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