Flaherty fires back against provinces' complaints about job grant deadline

OTTAWA -- Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is scoffing at provincial complaints about the April 1 deadline for the contentious Canada Job Grant imposed in Tuesday's federal budget, a tone that's in marked contrast to that of his cabinet colleague, Jason Kenney.

"The money is being put into job creation. Job training in Canada is not provincial tax money; it's federal tax money," Flaherty said Wednesday on his way into a Conservative cabinet meeting.

"And it's not for a provincial government to tell the federal government how to spend federal tax money. ... The provincial governments have taxation powers; they can raise their own taxes."

Kenney, the employment minister in charge of the file, said simply that the government continues to talk to the provinces on the signature national job training program. He insisted he won't negotiate in public amid provincial griping about the April 1 deadline.

While Kenney has often suggested the federal government would go it alone on the job grant if necessary, he has insisted he far prefers a deal with the provinces.

He's yet to respond to a counter-offer put forth by the provinces earlier this month, but provincial officials have reported Kenney has been conciliatory and open to new ideas throughout the negotiations.

The proposed Canada Job Grant aims to provide $15,000 for each eligible worker, divided equally among Ottawa, the provinces and employers. In the face of a hue and cry from the provinces, Kenney offered to cover the provincial portion of grant, upping the feds' share to $10,000.

But Kenney's provincial and territorial counterparts argue they'd still be forced to remove $300 million in federal money from existing provincially run programs for youth, aboriginals and disabled citizens.

Flaherty, meantime, says billions of dollars of federal money flow to the provinces each year and some don't even report the results and fail to use the cash for job training.

"We don't even know what they do with the money; so we're going to do better than that," he said. "We will do it with the employers directly and the government of Canada."

Several provincial officials have taken issue with the deadline imposed in the budget.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois expressed outrage earlier Wednesday that Ottawa would forge ahead with the program in just six weeks.

Marois accused the Conservative government of acting like "a real predator." Other Quebec officials say they'd like to see an opting-out clause.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, meantime, was more measured.

"I hope we'll be able to get there; it's a very important program and I hope that we're going to be able to have a situation where the federal government understands the kind of flexibility that the provinces need," she said.

"I hope we can do it by the 1st."

NDP MP Jinny Sims criticized the government's insistence it will move ahead on the job grant unilaterally if it must.

"This government really believes in a federation?" she asked incredulously.

"In a federation, you have rights and you have responsibilities and the provincial governments entered into these agreements with the federal government and took a great deal of pride in developing job-training programs that would be highly successful. The Conservatives are not really sounding like they're into nation-building anymore, are they?"