‘Very large impact’: Manitoba faces shortfall in cuts to labour market transfers

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This article was published 14/05/2024 (578 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Skills training and workforce development advocates are up in arms over Ottawa’s decision to cut $625 million from programs that help people find jobs in sectors facing labour shortages.

Manitoba Minister of Economic Development, Investment, Trade and Natural Resources Jamie Moses did not mince words Tuesday.

“This is very significant cut by the federal government,” he said. “It will have a very large impact in Manitoba’s ability to do workforce training. We are going to have to makes some tough decisions ahead.”

Others in the workforce development business said they had heard rumblings something might happen, but many, including Moses, seem to have been caught off guard by the federal decision to eliminate previous top-ups to the Labour Market Transfer Agreements.

The Manitoba cabinet minister said the shortfall for the province could be as much as $20 million.

Tanya Palson, executive director of Manitoba Building Trades, said she understands some of the funds in question subsidize some of apprenticeship work.

“A lot of our members depend on sending apprentices to subsidized post-secondary education,” she said. “This could potentially put apprenticeship seats at risk.”

Palson and others have plenty of questions as to where those funds were previously earmarked.

“That’s (equivalent to) the entire budget of Apprenticeship Manitoba,” said Palson. “I’m not saying Apprenticeship Manitoba’s entire budget is from this fund, but it is a significant amount of money.”

The unexpected cut and its size has left every province and territory with funding shortfalls, as well as some unfiltered anger.

A Manitoba government news release this week said: “Contrary to federal (Employment and Workforce Development) Minister Randy Boissonnault’s recent public remarks, provinces and territories were not advised of the funding cut prior to the release of the federal budget.”

It’s also produced a co-ordinated opposition across the country; there is meeting between the federal minister and provincial counterparts planned for June.

“We think it is completely the wrong direction that the federal government should be going in,” Moses said.

While the need for skilled workers across industries may not be as urgent as it was a couple of years ago — amid the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic — it is still one of the leading concerns for employers across sectors.

“We’re in a landscape right now where there are huge workforce development needs in health care, child care … so many other sectors in Manitoba,” said Moses. “Employers tell us frequently that they struggle to find skilled workers.

“We need more funding from the federal government to bring in Manitobans who want to get to work.”

Terry Shaw, regional vice-president for the Prairies at Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, said it is a dramatic cut that will have negative impacts.

“We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars being removed without any advance notice, without giving industry or provincial government partners time to adjust,” Shaw said. “It is certainly concerning for us.”

Provinces across the country have been expressing a similar level of dismay.

Newfoundland and Labrador, for instance, has suspended the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Job Grant for employers and workers as a result of the federal decision.

Moses said programs that might have to have budgets cut in Manitoba are still under review.

As for how the June meeting will go, he said: “I will urge minister Boissonnault to reinstate the funding because of the significant impact it will have in Manitoba for job seekers, newcomers, people with disabilities (and) Indigenous people who need to access additional training.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca