Conservatives Defend Employment Program Changes

The Higgs government spent part of question period Wednesday defending changes to the way employment programs are offered.

On Monday, the government announced a new Workplace Connections fund to replace several wage subsidy programs already in place.

Campbellton-Dalhousie Liberal MLA Guy Arseneault said the Conservatives have a habit of announcing programs without details or guidelines.

“When will we be seeing the details of the minister’s secret plan here, or is this a case of we wake up on budget and half of these programs are gone?” asked Arseneault.

Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder said he has nothing to hide and would happily give a briefing to all other MLAs.

“I can tell you that our department is absolutely energized by this new plan,” Holder responded. “They feel like they’re empowered to make decisions for the people of New Brunswick regardless of what part of the province they’re in.”

Holder said the Workplace Connections fund will be more flexible than the previous programs were. He said it will work around the needs of individuals instead of trying to fit people into specific programs.

“Quite frankly, all we did was put a whole bunch of criteria around these programs and tied the hands of the folks in our department,” he said.

The new fund will replace programs like the One-Job Pledge, the Workforce Expansion Program and the Youth Employment Fund.

Holder said Monday the current employment programs are based on a time when there were more people than there were jobs in New Brunswick.

But with 120,000 jobs expected to become available over the next decade, he said the government needed to change the way it does business.

The Liberals also raised concerns Wednesday that funding for wage subsidies would be cut under the new program.

But Holder said the $120 million that is currently invested will simply be transferred to the new fund.