Shirley Bond's already busy schedule just got more hectic, thanks to federal finance minister Jim Flaherty.
While unveiling the federal budget Tuesday, Flaherty said the Conservative government is going ahead with its Canada Job Grant initiative on April 1, a little more than weeks from now, with or without the provinces on side.
As the jobs minister, Bond has been working on this file since last fall, leading B.C.'s opposition to the federal initiative. B.C. and the other provinces have complained from the beginning that this job program was a money grab in disguise, where the feds could say they were working to create jobs while leaving the provinces to pick up far more of the tab than they did in the past.
Flaherty is playing bad cop here for Jason Kenney, the federal employment minister, who has been working diligently with Bond and her provincial counterparts behind the scenes. Initially, the Canada Job Grant offered to provide $15,000 for each eligible worker in the job training program, with the feds, the provinces and the employers each paying $5,000 each. Kenney backed off that and doubled the share from the feds to $10,000 each. The provinces are still pushing for more and have made another offer to the federal government, arguing that even the current federal support would still cost the provinces a combined $300 million.
Bond has been nothing but complimentary after meeting Kenney several times, describing him as a good listener who understood the concerns of the provinces and a minister willing to find common ground to cut a deal to benefit everyone. Last month, she was still hopeful an agreement was on the horizon.
Flaherty moved that horizon much closer Tuesday and then raised the stakes with his "we'll do it with you or without you" proclamation. It gives Kenney the political cover to push forward an agreement on a quick timeline without having to be the ogre himself.
The other political purpose for Flaherty's tough stance is to split the unified front the provinces have put up so far on this issue. In the end, the provinces that want a deal will sit down with Kenney and get something in place by April 1 while the provinces that want to battle the feds on principle (Quebec, anyone?) will do so.
The B.C. Liberals and the federal Conservatives are of one mind on using job creation to open up central and northern B.C. for resource development. Their disagreement simply lies over who's going to pay how much, based on who is going to reap the greatest revenues. Both sides want a deal and so one will be done, even if Bond has to split from the other provinces to do so. At the end of the day, she doesn't answer to voters outside of B.C. and the feds are counting on it.
But this issue also highlights the political divisions between B.C. and Ottawa on natural resource development. The Conservatives have consistently framed the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline as a nation-building project, delivering Canada's ample natural resources to the global marketplace to support the way of life Canadians enjoy. It's what we've always done and it's what we do best.
Every B.C. resident who knows their Canadian history understands and appreciates that but B.C. is being asked to take the lion's share of the environmental risk on the pipeline while Alberta will retain most of the economic reward with B.C. having to share the rest with the other provinces through the feds. That doesn't sit well in Vancouver, not does it sit well in Prince George.
Jobs first works great for the Conservatives on the national stage but in B.C., even the business-friendly Liberals subscribe to a more utilitarian approach where job creation and economic growth benefits everyone and doesn't create losers, particularly with the environment and among First Nations. Politically, it's a kinder and gentler small-c conservatism, where maybe not everyone benefits equally but everyone does benefit somehow, some way.
That approach would also be nice to see on the job creation front as well. Hopefully Kenney and Bond will work something out that will meet the fiscal goals of both levels of government while also helping to provide the workforce this region will need to make many of the suggested resource development projects happen.
