Getting that right, he suggested, is key to future discussions on other federal priorities of largely provincial jurisdiction — like post-secondary education.
“I’d like to get into a conversation about how they’re investing their post-secondary education dollars, part of which we subsidize,” he said, adding the German system that encourages kids to get involved in high demand skilled trades is an excellent example.
He hopes his provincial counterparts will join him on a fact-finding visit to the country, tentatively planned for next spring.
“We can’t allow discussion of the job grant to completely dominate the need for collaboration on a range of very important issues,” he said, noting harmonizing apprenticeship programs, credential recognition and inter-provincial labour mobility are other areas ripe for reform.
“I want to maintain good relations with the provinces.”
Labour market agreements with the provinces are set to expire at the end of the fiscal year. Kenney hopes to replace them with a job grant that will get a “better bang for the taxpayers’ buck.” His proposal calls for a three-way partnership between the federal and provincial governments and the private sector to fund job training for those ineligible for employment insurance.
But the sticking point for provinces and territories lies in a plan to claw back $300 million in transfer payments, which the federal government will put toward its share of the grant.
Kenney maintains the job grant has “dominated” but not clouded his first six months in office and he’s “more confident than when he began” that a deal can be reached soon.
“I think the provinces and I have agreed that in principle, we want training that leads to job, not training for the sake of training and I think the provinces have agreed that while they’ve got some good programs, there are some that fall short,” he said.
“I think we’ve identified some common ground and the possibility of a positive outcome that . . . meets the provincial objective of a certain degree of flexibility.”
Not the only labour market transfer expiring in 2014, Kenney said the government will also have its hands full renegotiating its $2-billion Labour Market Development Agreements to retrain those eligible for EI and its $222-million labour agreements for training people with disabilities. He also wants to ensure Canada gets “maximum results” for the millions it spends on aboriginal training.
“We are pursuing, I think, ambitious reforms,” he said. We need to do it collaboratively and we need to do it quickly. I’m very conscious that we’ve got two years to go before an election.”
Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Brad Duguid said he doesn’t worry every time the federal government talks of wading into provincial jurisdiction but maintains his province is a global leader when it comes to post-secondary education.
While the German apprenticeship system is a “best practice” his province has studied, he maintains Canadians would oppose streamlining children as young as 14 into the skilled trades, as is the practice there.
Duguid said more federal funding for higher education is always welcome but “telling us how to do it is not something that we really need.”
As for the job grant, he argues pre-apprenticeship training is among the programs that will lose funding if the federal government proceeds with its claw back, something he calls “a little bit contradictory” for a government focused on boosting apprenticeship training.
Alberta Intergovernmental Relations Minister Cal Dallas said he’s “encouraged” by the fact the federal government seems open to other ideas and noted the provinces are in the process of developing an “alternative proposal” to the one Kenney has put forward.
Noting each province has its own hang-ups about the grant, he said Alberta fears it’s too focused on on-the-job training and that unemployed workers in his province require skills better taught in another setting.
While Alberta is open to discussions about the delivery of post-secondary education and would welcome additional funding, he said, “this is clearly an area of provincial jurisdiction.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: Tobi Cohen
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