Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says a new federal plan for grants to promote job skills training is not a take-it-or-leave-it situation for the provinces, as Quebec signaled it wanted nothing to do with the program.
"Not at all, I think there's an opportunity to negotiate and work it out. Situations aren't identical all across the country, we've worked well with the provinces on this issue since 2007, we just think we can do better, and that's based on what we were told by employers," Flaherty told reporters at a Friday press conference in Vancouver.
Flaherty was in Vancouver to speak to the board of trade, as he and other cabinet ministers traveled across Canada to sell the merits of the government's 2013 budget, tabled Thursday.
From there, he's off to Hong Kong on Monday to speak to the Asia Society as part of a week-long trade and investment-boosting tour of the region.
Closer to their respective home ridings, 22 different cabinet ministers were out making speeches and holding other media-availability sessions throughout the day on Friday, from Revenue Minister Gail Shea in Charlottetown to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq in Iqaluit to Heritage Minister James Moore in Burnaby, B.C.
As a result, there were plenty of empty seats in the Commons front rows on the government side for the early hours of budget debate, as well as Friday's question period.
While the broad strokes of Thursday's budget are up for debate now, the finer details will wait for the introduction of the government's budget implementation bill later this spring.
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan told reporters Friday that MPs will vote on the budget motion next Wednesday, with the implementation bill expected to be introduced shortly after Parliament's two-week Easter recess, in mid-April.
Exactly how government programs and services will be affected by continuing belt-tightening is also not clear. Direct program expenses — which exclude major transfers to other levels of government — are projected to plunge almost $4 billion this year and another $2.5 billion in 2014-15.
