The Gallant government is continuing to defend a summer job funding program that gives six key cabinet ministers extra money to hand out.

Cabinet minister Victor Boudreau says it's appropriate for local MLAs to make the decisions about summer jobs at non-profit organizations because they know the needs of their ridings. (Jacques Poitras/CBC) Documents obtained by both Green Party Leader David Coon and the Progressive Conservative Opposition show that so-called "regional ministers" got an additional 250 weeks' worth of funding this year for summer jobs at non-profit organizations.

That's on top of the 200 weeks they get to distribute as government MLAs, which itself is more than twice as many as the 80 weeks that Opposition MLAs get.

"The regional ministers then try to make sure those opposition ridings are well taken care of in terms of the applications that are submitted," cabinet minister Victor Boudreau, one of the six regional ministers, told reporters on Wednesday.

"I have been an MLA for 11 years under four different governments and this has always operated exactly the same way."

Indeed, the documents obtained by the opposition parties show that government MLAs got extra weeks, and "regional" ministers got even more, when the PCs were in power, too.

But now the PCs are saying it's time to re-evaluate the role MLAs play in deciding who gets the money under the Student Employment Experience Development program.

You know there's an expression, 'If it's not broke, don't fix it.' It's been like this for decades. - Victor Boudreau, cabinet minister

Boudreau says it's appropriate for local MLAs to make the decisions because "MLAs know the needs of their ridings, and have dealings with these organizations on a daily basis … while a civil servant in Fredericton, who reviews applications once a year, doesn't have the same dynamic."

An email exchange between Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour officials earlier this year shows they are looking at putting a new system in place for 2016-17.

It would leave the decision about which groups to fund to civil servants working in the department's regional offices.

"You know there's an expression, 'If it's not broke, don't fix it,'" Boudreau told reporters. "It's been like this for decades. But like I've said, if there are ways to improve it, we can certainly look at improving it."

Get to 'ride in on a white horse'

The six regional ministers who get 250 extra weeks to distribute are Boudreau, Rick Doucet, Donald Arseneault, Denis Landry, Bill Fraser, and Stephen Horsman.

The documents show that Francine Landry, the minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour, who is responsible for the SEED program, gets another 546 weeks herself.

Landry didn't speak to reporters on Wednesday, but Boudreau calls her extra weeks "a central reserve for unforeseen events at the start of the summer."

Coon says it's true that the regional ministers distribute some of their extra allocation in opposition ridings, but often they make it appear that they're helping fund an organization that the opposition MLA rejected.

The reality, Coon says, is that with only 80 weeks to allocate, opposition MLAs can't possibly say yes to all the non-profit groups looking for help.

But by putting extra weeks under the control of government ministers, they can "ride in on a white horse" and get political credit.

Take away decision-making power

Coon supports the idea of taking the decision-making power away from MLAs altogether.

PC MLA Jeff Carr also says it's time to look at changing the program.

He confirmed that ministers in the former PC government also had extra weeks they handed out in then-opposition Liberal ridings.

But Carr says in those cases, the Tories would ask the Liberals for suggestions.

"The difference now is we know for a fact that not all opposition MLAs have been offered the extra weeks to help out in their areas," Carr said.

He said he would have no problem with all MLAs getting the exact same number of weeks to allocate.

The previous PC government of Bernard Lord changed the program to remove from the government the decision about which students would get summer jobs. That's now up to the non-profit groups that receive funding.