Canada-Alberta job grant program pause could impact many businesses, province says

Without another funding top-up to the Labour Market Transfer Agreement (LMTA) from the federal government, the province says it's been forced to put the Canada-Alberta job grant program on an indefinite hold.

The program, backed by federal dollars, provides employers funding for two-thirds of employee training, predominantly in the trades, for costs such aseducational materials, mandatory student fees and exam fees.

Without the funding, the Albertagovernment says employees will be short roughly $10 million in skills and training funding for 2024-25.

The halt is a cause for concern for Calgary's construction industry, said Bill Black, president of the Calgary Construction Association.

"A grant such as this has literally been the difference between being able to invest in developing their people and their workforce and not," he said.

"Without it, there's gonna be a significant impact on these smaller businesses and that will have ripple effects, obviously, on the overall bench strength and bandwidth of the industry over time."

Matt Jones, Alberta's minister for jobs, economy and trade, said in a statement the decision was "unexpected and unreasonable,"adding that the federal government will cut $70.8 million.

It'llhave a negative impact on employees, businesses and far-reaching consequences on the broader population, he said.

"We've had record population growth, which is putting strain on our health-care system, tremendous strain on our education system," Jones said.

"We need a ton of new schools. It means we need new public infrastructure. So as provinces and territories are dealing with these major areas of concern, the federal government isnot helping the situation by reducing the training dollars that are needed."

But the federal government says it announced in the 2023 budget that top-up funding was extended for only one year, adding that provinces and territories were aware of that funding coming to an end.

In a statement, a spokesperson with the government told CBC News that no cuts have been made, saying that instead it's an expiration of top-up funding that was set to end this year.

"The Government of Canada continues to provide nearly $3 billion annually in base funding to provinces and territories through LMTAs," they said.

They added that Alberta gets over $250 million in 2024-25 through the Labour Market Development Agreements and Workforce Developments Agreements.

"Some provinces and territories took action and reallocated some funds and some did not."