Auditor general finds Alberta Jobs Now lacked effective tracking

A report from Alberta Auditor General Doug Wylie has found the province failed to track whether the Alberta Jobs Now program reached job creation targets.

Thursday's 228-page report contained an audit of the first intake of the program, which was launched in May 2021. 

The $370-million program granted money to businesses that hired Albertans who were out of work due to the pandemic and the global oil price collapse.

Former premier Jason Kenney said the program would employ more than 22,000 Albertans.

The audit found that while the program was designed and communicated well, the department of Labour and Immigration, as it was then known, lacked any mechanisms for reporting the results. 

The audit found no evidence management regularly analyzed results or even set target numbers before the program was launched. Auditors couldn't find the goal of 22,000 jobs that Kenney had touted.

Robert Driesen, an assistant auditor general, said program requirements were altered for the second intake in November 2021, which suggested there was some analysis within the department. 

He said the department decided not to prepare the interim plan that was initially planned, instead deferring the analysis until the 2024-25 fiscal year.

"It's good that they still plan on analyzing the program at the end," Driesen said in an interview Thursday. 

"But what you miss out throughout is because this is a fairly long program over a number of years, in different intakes, is the understanding of how things are progressing and whether they are going to achieve those goals at the end, rather than just simply finding out about that after the fact."

Andrea Smith, press secretary for Jobs, Economy and Trade Minister Matt Jones, said her department's targets in the annual ministry reports aligned with Government of Alberta reporting standards. 

She said the program's terms of reference did not require an interim report. As for Kenney's claim of 22,000 jobs, Smith said it was an estimate based on all three intakes. 

She said about 19,000 Albertans found work through the program, but a final number will be provided when the report is completed next year. 

The auditor general didn't issue a specific recommendation for Jobs, Economy and Trade as the office previously issued an overarching recommendation to the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance to improve reporting standards for all departments.

Savannah Johannsen, press secretary for Finance Minister Nate Horner, said the work is complete and is awaiting an assessment by the auditor general. 

The Alberta Jobs Now program was created using pandemic-related money from the federal government. The province failed to use $185 million by the March 31, 2021 deadline so it made a deal to carry over 60 per cent of that funding into the next fiscal year. 

Nathan Ip, the NDP Opposition critic for Jobs, Economy and Trade, criticized the government for leaving money on the table that could have helped more workers. 

He also blamed the government's lack of leadership for failing to set benchmarks for a multi-million dollar program.

"How can you possibly logically accept the fact that we're going to spend millions of dollars and not have some measure of accountability, particularly to the public?" Ip asked. 

"I don't care if it was required or not. The onus is on government to ensure that there is a certain level of transparency here and they failed to do that."