Thank you very much for the question and that insight.
I certainly did not want to suggest that I thought getting employers involved in training was a waste of time. That certainly isn't my intention. We believe that employers must be more engaged with training.
What I was suggesting was that in Canada this human capital strategy needs to be driven by consultation and cooperation between federal and provincial governments. Announcing the Canada job grant in the way it was done—with the suggestion that money would come by clawing back provincial transfers, and that the provinces would have to match the funds, without any previous consultation—was not a smooth way to move forward this process.
I would say that employers do need to step up. One of the concerns that I have had with the Canada job grant is that we are suggesting that employers need trained workers—there's a desperate shortage of trained workers, as everyone is saying—and yet they need $10,000 from the federal and provincial governments for them to kick in $5,000 to the Canada job grant.
I am concerned about this subsidy to businesses to train workers when they say they're in such desperate need. I would agree with you that if businesses see grey hair and need workers, they should step up and train workers, without the government clawing back transfers to provinces that were designed to help the people who are outside the labour market get basic skills like literacy and numeracy. These skills are important in the long term.