Article content

The Harper government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising a program that does not yet exist.

Prime-time ads began airing this week during NHL playoff games – currently the priciest advertising real estate on the dial _ that tout a new federal Canada Jobs Grant for training workers.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Harper government buys prime-time ads to promote job grant program that may never exist Back to video

The trouble is, the freshly announced program is at present little more than a concept that has yet to be negotiated with provincial governments, and requires buy-in from employers as well.

Peter Van Loan, the Conservative government House leader, described the Canada Jobs Grant last week as a “proposal that needs to be fleshed out and developed fully.”

“What we’ve announced is a concept of how it could work,” Van Loan said in Toronto as the government began what it calls roundtable consultations on the proposal.

The concept requires that Ottawa, the province and the employer kick in up to $5,000 each toward the training of a worker.