We are very happy that the federal government has used the Canada job grant to give more flexibility to provincial and territorial governments. It is very important. The grant will be fully in effect on July 1st, and the participation of the provincial and territorial governments will go up.
What we are concerned about is the way the provincial and territorial governments are going to organize themselves and coordinate access to training with employers. For instance, in Nova Scotia, the Université Sainte-Anne currently provides retraining for immigrants and the unemployed. How is the provincial government going to continue working with the same providers? How will our providers know what the needs of employers are?
That sort of goes back to what the gentleman was saying a few minutes ago. It is important to achieve full coordination and co-operation among all levels of stakeholders, provincial governments, service providers and employers alike. Otherwise, there will be negative consequences. First of all, candidates, employees or workers may well not have access to training in French. Then, our colleges may well not be selected by the provincial and territorial governments to provide the training.
For us, the way this whole system works remains a murky area. How are we supposed to ensure access to French-language services and effective co-operation between employers and workers in this new system?