There have been far reaching changes in the delivery of training in New Brunswick in the last couple of years. Specifically, on July 1, 1996, changes to the Unemployment Insurance Act came into effect while on December 3, 1996, Ottawa signed a devolution agreement with New Brunswick handing the bulk of the delivery of training programs over to the province.

In addition to cutting benefits and extending the length of time required for eligibility, the new Employment Insurance Act ends the policy of the block purchase of training seats. Under this policy, the government had paid for the unemployed worker's retraining including living costs for an extended period until their training was complete.

A Skills, Loans and Grants (SLG) program replaces the old approach. Under SLG, an eligible person- defined as a person who is or has been on unemployment insurance during the previous three years (or five years for a woman who has been on maternity leave)- takes out a combination loan/grant to pay for any retraining they may wish or require. The SLG is similar to the Student Aid program and, in fact, the cheques are issued out of the same office of the Department of Advanced Education. The SLG program applies whether the applicant is on UI, income assistance or an apprenticeship program.

New Brunswick was the second province to sign a devolution agreement with Ottawa- after Alberta. It is called the Labour Market Development Agreement. This means that New Brunswick, through the newly reconstituted Department of Labour, administers the SLG along with four other labour market programs. The programs are delivered on a casework basis in eight "one stop shopping" Service Centres across the province staffed with employment counsellors and case managers. The federal government's involvement in training in the province is now restricted to what are referred to as Pan-Canadian initiatives: Pathways (program for aboriginal peoples), youth programs, TAGS etc.

Just as the policy and delivery framework of training has undergone major changes, the structure of training has also drastically altered. From the mid-eighties, the community college system with ten campuses and more than 16,000 students in 1996-97 has been the main training provider in the province. However, beginning in the nineties, the growth of private trainers has been dramatic. For example, there were 58 trainers registered under the Private Trainers Occupational Act in 1991. In 1998, there are 108. It is estimated that there are presently 10,000 students enrolled with private trainers.

Meanwhile, the role of community organizations as training providers has been marginalized. This contrasts to the mid-eighties under the Canadian Jobs Strategy when such organizations could design and operate federally funded training programs for particular constituencies.

Labour, particularly the industrial trades, has long provided skills upgrading for its members. In the past, some of these programs received government funding while others were financed by the union's own funds. Under the 1989 Labour Force Development Strategy, the partnership of labour with industry and government was promoted, particularly on the Labour Force Development Boards and Sectoral Councils. Through the latter, some funds for training were available.

In the current policy framework, government funds for such training are no longer available and the funding for sectoral councils is restricted to infrastructure programs. Furthermore, in New Brunswick, there has been no negotiated employer funded training such as has been negotiated in particular sectors in some other provinces. For example, a 1995-98 contract between LIUNA local 615 (mainland Nova Scotia) and the Construction Management Bureau includes provision for an employer's contribution of $.46 per hour worked to an Industrial Improvement and Training Fund and the 1996 Chrysler CAW contract contains a agreement by the company to make available up to a maximum of $7,414, 554 representing the value of up to 16 hours training per active employee.

In the new scenario, the ideology imposed by the Employment Insurance legislation is that the individual is financially responsible for their own training. The new system is a market driven one allowing "the chips to fall where they may."

The criterion to be used by the caseworkers in handing out SLG is "the individual as an investment for the province." Specifically, the more "productive" the worker is expected to be after training, the more the province would be willing to invest in that training. How this is translated operationally is that the province will be making the first $3500 required for training a loan and the remainder- whatever it is- a grant. So, for example, a student going to a community college with a tuition of $2000 will get the bulk of their funds in the form of a loan. On the other hand, a student attending a far more expensive private training institute- e.g. with a tuition of over $20,000- would get the same amount in loans ($3500) but the additional amount ($16,500 +) as a grant.

This policy has serious equity implications. It will also have implications with regard to training providers. It is a policy that tends to favour private over public trainers and one that does not discourage the charging of high tuitions.

Despite all of these changes in the policy framework, the impact has hardly been felt in New Brunswick yet. The reasons for this are several. Most importantly, the province has not been able to find a bank to underwrite the loan portion of the SLG program. Hence, to date, all of the SLG funds have been given out in the form of grants. As well, the federal Transitional Jobs Fund, particularly in the northeast region of the province, has been putting on all sorts of short-term employment and training programs for Unemployment Insurance 'gappers'- seasonal workers whose UI has run out.

However, neither of these situations will last indefinitely. When they do end and the full impact of the policy changes take effect, workers in New Brunswick are going to be facing a whole new world of training. And without some major changes, I don't think that they are going to like it.