|
|
8#
楼主 |
发表于 2005-5-29 16:45:02
|
只看该作者
Rookie minister off to `school' to get up to speed
Belinda Stronach on a crash course
New Liberal heads sprawling ministry
ANDREW MILLS
STAFF REPORTER
OTTAWA—When Belinda Stronach dropped out of university after her first year, she landed a plum position in the company her wealthy father founded.
She rose to become chief executive, earned $12 million a year and never had to worry about losing her job.
Now, the heiress to Magna's billions is responsible for ensuring Canada's employment insurance cheques arrive on time. As the federal minister of human resources and skills development, she's also there to ensure students get the kind of federal cash that will help them get all the way through university.
The irony has some wondering if Parliament's glitziest member is cut out for such a pedestrian department.
"She obviously understands the way it is for people who run industry, but what is it like for those people who actually contribute to industry?" says Barb Byers, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress.
But Stronach's defenders say her years at Magna have set her up well for the task at the department.
"I really look at it with a sense of optimism," says Shirley Seward, CEO of the Canadian Labour and Business Centre, an Ottawa think-tank. "Somebody's there who's actually had experience in industry and understands the benefits of training."
Right now, Stronach is determined to learn the ins and outs of the first of her two new portfolios (she's also the minister for democratic renewal).
And so today, for the second day in a row, Stronach is closeted with deputy minister Alan Nymark, who is giving her a crash course in her federal department.
According to Stronach's adviser, Mark Entwistle, the new minister will be learning about "the pretty obvious, in-her-face files which she'll have to grapple with right away."
That means the political hot potatoes Stronach is bound to face in question period in the weeks to come.
First on the list: employment insurance reform.
The Bloc Québécois launched a barrage of employment insurance questions in Stronach's direction in the House of Commons last week, but she couldn't give detailed answers.
"It is a complex file," she said. "I am in a position to make changes. I will take a look at all the options and how we can make improvements."
It was her first week, after all, so parliamentarians cut her a bit of slack. But when the same questions come her way next week, as they are bound to, she had better be able to answer.
That means Stronach will have to know that the federal employment insurance account — the reserve from which EI cheques are drawn — has been steadily growing since the mid-1990s. Many have said that the government has collected from workers and employers far more than it will ever need to pay out.
Earlier this year, the Commons human resources committee issued 28 recommendations that would, it said, collect and spend EI funds more effectively. But just days before Stronach took on the portfolio, the department said it wasn't likely to implement the changes. That's why Stronach was grilled in question period.
"Those 28 recommendations were signed onto by all the government members of the committee, as well as the NDP and Bloc, and that this should be moved on," Byers says. "It should be at the top of her list."
Another item likely to be up at Nymark's policy session will be the issue of worker training.
In the last election campaign and in last year's speech from the throne, Prime Minister Paul Martin committed the government to helping workers upgrade their skills. The goal is for Canada to have "the best trained, most highly skilled workers in the world."
But just how the government intends to achieve that goal remains unclear.
In January, former union president Dave Haggard was appointed to head up a team that will recommend how a national apprenticeship program should be built. But Haggard's committee has yet to report.
"Make it a national priority in the same way as we made the deficit a priority a decade ago," Seward says. "So let's get on with it. There's no need to talk anymore. This is not an area where there's a tremendous amount of division."
Next on Nymark's policy list is likely to be a brief on the recognition of foreign credentials.
The department has made some recent progress on this file with the launch of a foreign credential recognition program last month, which will provide funds to the professional bodies that grant Canadian credentials to speed up the process that recognizes foreign-trained workers.
But still, the bottleneck persists.
"Within seven or eight years, 100 per cent of net labour force growth is coming from immigration, period. And in some cities, like Toronto, it far exceeds 100 per cent already," Seward says.
"But sufficient attention isn't being placed on the recognition of credentials. This, in the context of skill shortages, makes very little sense."
On top of all that, Stronach must bone up on the day-to-day business of her sprawling department. Its 12,500 employees are responsible for delivering $20 billion or so a year in benefits and supports through 320 offices across Canada.
And as soon as she's sorted that out, it will be onto the portfolio of democratic renewal, which won't entirely be up and running until after the Gomery inquiry reports later in the year, Entwistle says.
Known more for her glamorous lifestyle than her passion for policy, Stronach apparently is relishing the opportunity to understand the policy guts of her department.
"She's actually really looking forward to it," Entwistle says. "She's respectful of the challenge, but not cowed by it at all." |
|
狗仔卡
发表于 2005-5-29 01:24:57
收藏
顶
踩
提升卡
置顶卡
沉默卡
喧嚣卡
变色卡
显身卡
