Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
Employers who hire skilled immigrants need to provide them with specific training in order to qualify for a $10,000 credit, the Ontario Liberal Party clarified Saturday as it tried to quell the controversy over a tax credit its opponents have decried as an unfair affirmative action program for "foreign workers."
The program was part of the party's campaign launch on Tuesday, and was quickly attacked by the Progressive Conservative party as a divisive measure that would encourage employers to hire "foreign workers" at the expense of the province's unemployed taxpayers. Leader Tim Hudak has attacked the program at every stop he's made in the first week of the campaign.
After six days of being on the defensive over the $10,000-credit program, the Liberals had campaign co-chair Greg Sorbara outline exactly who would qualify for the grants.
"A lot has been said in the last week and a lot of misinformation has been spread around," Mr. Sorbara said at Ryerson University. "I never thought I'd have to explain something so obvious and something with so much common sense to the guy on the other side, Tim Hudak, but I guess I have to."
A company could apply for the grant if it hired "new Canadian citizens (here five years or less) who are highly educated professionals in regulated fields such as architecture, accounting or engineering." The party didn't specify what sort of training would lead to a successful grant application, but did say it would "work with employers to define training costs."
The party said Revenue Canada would be "responsible for crediting employers and verifying that claims stand up to their rigorous accountability standards."
The Conservatives have proposed a more modest training program for new Canadians, providing a small tax credit for language training worth up to $400 per employee.
Immigrants who've been in Canada five years or less are more than twice as likely to be unemployed than their Canadian-born counterparts. But recent immigrants with master's degrees or higher are more than five times as likely not to have jobs.
A board of trade report last year estimated the province loses billions in potential GDP thanks to underutilized skills.
The Conservatives maintain the program is discriminatory, because it doesn't provide equal opportunity for everyone in the province. At a campaign stop Saturday, Mr. Hudak again reiterated that "foreign workers" were being given preference over others.
A series of radio spots bluntly state that "Ontario residents need not apply" for the money, and that it isn't designed for anyone who pays taxes in the province. Mr. Hudak defended the ads Saturday, saying the ads are just reflecting what the Liberals have themselves said when talking about the program.
Mr. Sorbara lashed out at the Conservatives for claiming that the program is for foreigners, rather than those who have obtained their citizenship.
"It's scandalous and absolutely offensive. It's misrepresentation and to use the vernacular it's a pack of lies," he said.
"They've known from the beginning that this program is directed at Canadian citizens ... for them to rag on about how this is not for Canadians is offensive. In fact, I would go a little further and say Mr. Hudak's behaviour on this issue is proving to me and millions of Ontarians that he's not worthy of the job of premier of this province."
The Tories were quick to label the clarification as Liberal "damage-control mode."
"Today's desperate announcement doesn't fix what's wrong with this policy," candidate Vic Gupta said in a statement. "It is, and always has been, unequal and unfair."
The PCs themselves have put forward proposals, including a private members' bill, that seek to address immigrant unemployment (and the Ontario government already subsidizes immigrant training). But earlier this week, Mr. Hudak bristled at the comparison between his proposals and that of the Liberals.
As she has for the past week, NDP leader Andrea Horwath declined to talk about the Liberal plan.
"It's up to them to explain to people what their program's all about," she said in Scarborough. "Our plan is to provide an opportunity for every Ontarian to have access to a new job. ... We think it's better to focus on expanding a shrinking pool of jobs rather than fighting over the few jobs that exist."