Efforts to enhance the Atlantic Canadian economy was Premier Ghiz’s priority at today's Council of the Atlantic Premiers meeting in White Point, Nova Scotia.
“My focus today was on ways to work together to enhance skills development, support our workforce, promote trade, and use our collective purchasing power to reduce cost, as well as voice our province’s concerns about the federal government’s changes to labour market funding and employment insurance,” said Premier Ghiz. “Primarily, we need the federal government to recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach to national funding and programming is unfair to Atlantic Canadians.”
The Council of Atlantic Premiers established the Atlantic Workforce Partnership (AWP) in June 2012 in response to demanding labour market needs. At this year’s meeting, Premiers agreed, through the AWP, to harmonize apprenticeship programs across the region and deliver online training to small and medium-sized businesses.
“As we have witnessed valuable progress through the work of the AWP over the past year, it causes concern to hear the federal government announcing a Canada Jobs Grant that will take $300 million of the $500 million provided to provinces through Labour Market Agreements that provide skills and labour market development training at a provincial level,” said Premier Ghiz. “Labour Market Agreement funding was transferred to provincial governments to allow province’s the ability to address their specific labour market and training needs.”
Premier Ghiz continued to highlight Prince Edward Island’s concerns relating to the recent employment insurance reform. Atlantic Premiers spoke to the unique seasonal nature of their industries as well as the strong work ethic of their citizens.
“There was unanimous concern around the federal government’s implementation of these changes, specifically the lack of advanced consultation,” said Premier Ghiz. “We want to work collaboratively to ensure program changes do not have a disproportionate negative effect on Atlantic Canadians.”
Today, Atlantic Premiers committed to a pan-Atlantic consultations and research initiative to fully understand the impact of recent changes to employment insurance and called on the federal government to share relevant data.
For further information regarding the Council of Atlantic Premiers, visit www.cap-cpma.ca.