Alberta gets $21 M under job plan

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Ottawa will spend about $30 million in Alberta and the Northwest Territories on a new aboriginal employment and training program.

Nationwide, the federal governments' plans to spend $200 million under the new strategy - called Pathways to Success - to build a skilled aboriginal workforce, says the employment minister's special adviser on aboriginal policies.

Howard Green says the strategy was developed jointly be Native groups and Barbara McDougall's ministry.

"Natives will set the priorities for the program. They will be the decision-makers in the training of the Native workforce. It's a community process."

The program will see aboriginal boards drawn from the communities they serve established by April 1, says McDougall.

The federal plan will give Alberta bands and tribal councils $21 million to develop a competitive Native workforce putting Alberta in a better position than most regions in the country, says Green.

The new strategy is designed to ensure Native people have full access to all services of the department f employment and immigration, McDougall says.