Provincial ministers responsible for the labour market are meeting today to discuss the impact of the elimination of the top-up to the Labour Market Transfer Agreements.
That means a cut of more than $16.8 million per year to programming in this province to help people—like those on the autism spectrum and others—gain meaningful employment in the workforce.
Provincial minister Gerry Byrne says he’s “at a loss” as to how to address the shortfall which also includes workforce training and labour market development.
He cites the push toward electric vehicle plants in Ontario and Quebec which will need a huge, and expertly-trained workforce.
Byrne, who has been a vocal opponent to the cuts has joined forces with Conservative Minister of Workforce Development in Saskatchewan, Jeremy Harrison, in convening a meeting of provincial minister to discuss the impact.
Byrne believes he knows where the priorities lie, and he’s not happy about it.
“At a time when we needed labour market development, at a time when we needed training, at a time when we needed stability in our job markets…what did federal government do? They added $50 billion in new spending over the next five years in things such as artificial intelligence, while at the same time, cutting over half a billion dollars in spending” for human skills.
Byrne says Ottawa has signaled it prefers artificial intelligence over human intelligence, “if anything speaks to how wrong this decision was, that’s it.”