The government of Saskatchewan will be providing the province with nearly $18 million in job training funding; money that was supposed to be supplied by the federal government through Labour Market Transfer agreements but has been recently cut.

Minister of Immigration and Career Training Jeremy Harrison says the funding cut was made abruptly on federal budget day but was not made known to the provincial government.

“No notice at all. We found out on budg- actually we didn’t even find out on budget day. We had to dig through all of the documents that came along with the federal budget being tabled in the house to find out. We didn’t even get a notification from the federal government that they were cutting it.”

Harrison says he has no idea why the federal government would cut $17.6 million in job training money, especially given the current state of Saskatchewan’s labour market.

“This is not the place to be cutting. We are facing a significant labour market challenge across the country, most acute here in Saskatchewan than anywhere. We need this funding restored, because we need to continue delivering not just the programming we have in place right now, but probably more going into the future, as well.”

He lists examples of organizations that benefit from such funding, including the Industry Education Council, Saskatchewan Polytech, the Saskatoon Trade Centre, and the Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission.

He adds that Federal Minister of Employment Randy Boissonnault is claiming that the funding was not intended to be long-term.

“That is entirely untrue. Entirely. I can tell you, without any hesitation, that the intention was that we were going to have a long-term bridge arrangement through LMTA which would be formalized as a part of a renegotiated workforce development agreement.”

Saskatchewan isn’t the only province losing this funding. The federal government cut $625 million to job training funds nation-wide. Harrison adds that Saskatchewan is fortunate that its economy is strong enough to bridge the shortfall, something not every province can afford to do. He claims Newfoundland and Labrador are cutting their job grant program entirely.

Saskatchewan’s Government is calling on Ottawa to restore this funding, as it is crucial in ensuring a strong labour force and secure labour market.