Editor, The News:
Been watching the hockey playoffs? Have you seen the ads from the Conservative government about the Canada Job Grant?
Have you seen the small writing on the screen that says “subject to parliamentary approval?”
The Canada Job Grant is a program that doesn’t exist, and isn’t likely to exist.
It is supposed to be a $15,000 skills training grant that will train upwards of 130,000 Canadians a year, of which $5,000 will come from the feds, $5,000 from the province or territory, and $5,000 from the individual business.
Only problem is, the federal portion is to come from cuts to already existing programs.
B.C. has already said it will be cutting programs to balance the budget; not adding.
And the only businesses likely to participate are ones who are already training workers.
So Canada has now reached the point where the federal government spends hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising something that is essentially nothing more than an idea.
There is no pilot program, no study, no allies and no documentation to support this idea.
Yet voters are so oblivious to what’s going on that many will likely vote to re-elect these people and cite programs like the above as the reason for their support.
Cheryl Baron
Maple Ridge