Canada Job Grant / Doomed unless changed say premiers

Unless the federal Conservatives make substantial changes to the Canada Job Grant, the jobs training fund is doomed to failure, provincial leaders say.

Ottawa has to be open to changing the program because a “one-size-fits-all” approach to helping more people find jobs isn’t going to work, said BC Premier Christy Clark and New Brunswick Premier David Alward.

“If the federal government is hell-bent on moving forward without dialogue, the provinces have said, we will not be participating,” Alward said after a roundtable meeting in Toronto with representatives from the labour sector.

All 33 stakeholders at the meeting in Toronto said changes were needed to the program and only three said they were prepared to support the program, Clark said. Small businesses also have concerns.

“The closer the organization was to actually delivering training on the ground in communities, the more concerned they were about the impact it was going to have,” she said.

There’s a lot riding on getting the program right, Alward said.

“Ultimately it means that people will not be working,” he said. “Ultimately it means that businesses will not be successful, and ultimately it means governments – at all levels – will not have the revenues that they need to provide the services that people need.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Canada Jobs Grant doomed unless Ottawa makes changes: premiers | Canadian Manufacturing.

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