Despite months of often contentious negotiations, Shirley Bond is confident the federal and provincial governments can reach an agreement over skills training funding in the coming year.
"I remain optimistic the federal government will recognize that when you have a unified set of provinces and territories - and that happens pretty rarely in our world - that there needs to be some flex here," B.C.'s Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training minister said Monday.
The dispute dates back to the last federal budget, which called for the introduction of the Canada Job Grant as well as changes to the way the federal government helps pay for skills training delivered by the provinces. The grant program calls for equal contributions from the federal and provincial governments, as well as employers to provide skills upgrades for employees.
The provinces have all agreed the new plan amounts to a claw back in funding and are calling on the federal government to modify the proposal before the current deals expire this spring.
Bond is one of the provincial ministers leading the charge and said discussions on how to make that happen kept her busy in the latter part of the year, meeting with federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney. Bond and her counterparts from other provinces are waiting to hear back from Kenney, hopefully early in the new year.
"He assured us before Christmas that he would take a look at some alternative options so I can only remain hopeful, but I am determined that we are going to look for the best deal possible for Canadians and in my case for British Columbians," Bond said.
Bond took over as jobs minister following May's election and admitted the employment numbers in recent years aren't where the government hoped they would be, but she believes there will be opportunities to turn that around in 2014.
"The economy is still fragile, so we have to be persistent and we have to patient," she said.
A cabinet veteran dating back to her first provincial term in 2001, Bond has served in a host of ministries ranging from education to health to justice. Jobs is the first economic portfolio she's been handed.
"This is a very big, very complicated ministry as all of the ones I've had have been," she said. "There's a lot riding on what happens in the next year for us."
