Summer jobs program a mess, feds admit

Liberals want full accounting of groups that did and didn't receive funding

Canada's revamped summer jobs program has received much criticism from non-profit groups, especially in Atlantic Canada, whose funding was cut and this week government officials finally admitted the program has fallen flat.

The program is in such disarray that Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Janice Charette wasn't able to tell the Human Resources committee how many non-profit groups are getting funding to hire summer students this year or how much the program will cost.

"We have many thousands of agreements that are in the process of being negotiated right now," Charette told the committee. "As a result, it is impossible to put an exact figure on the cost of this program right now."

Last fall, the federal government axed the Summer Career Placement program, which subsidizes small business and community groups that hire summer students. This spring, the Tories launched its replacement: the Canada Summer Jobs Program. While the feds pumped $85 million into the program, the funding was still $11 million less than what the old program received last year.

In a press release, the Liberal opposition called the new program's criteria "narrow" and said it "excluded hundreds of groups, primarily not-for-profits and community groups who traditionally received funding."

In Cape Breton, N.S., only 100 student jobs were funded this summer, compared to 1,000 jobs last summer. After dozens of groups complained, the government announced that all groups that had qualified last year would qualify to hire the same number of students this year.

However, Liberal MP Mark Eyking (Sydney-Victoria), said the program is still not fixed. Many new Cape Breton organizations that applied for funding were rejected, he said.

Dartmouth Liberal MP Mike Savage said that there's still been no accounting of what happened with the program.

Savage said the program has been mismanaged and that MPs need answers to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again.

The Liberals are calling on the Conservative government to release the information detailing the successful and unsuccessful applicants in 2006 and 2007.

"As recently as last year, all MPs were informed of which groups applied and received funding from the summer jobs program as well as those which were turned down," said Savage in a statement. "What has changed in the last year? What is this government hiding?'

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