If you’re among the unhappy few in the habit of reading press releases from the Minster of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC, formerly HRSDC, formerly HRDC, etc., etc.), there’s one question that will almost certainly be on your mind these days: what exactly is Minister Jason Kenney up to?

After a period of quiet following the July re-shuffle, where he obtained the post, Kenney seems to have settled into a pattern of giving speeches which harp on the following themes:

• Skills shortages.  Ignoring his own department’s official projections on the subject, he has been going on the usual (incorrect) rant about national crisis, more skilled trades, etc., etc.

• Apprenticeships.  If only we had more of them, the skills shortage problem wouldn’t be so bad.  As such, he feels justified in hectoring provinces and telling them to smarten up, and to be more like Germany (see yesterday’s One Thought for more on why that’s a waste of time).

• Education – Labour market misalignment.  If only our high schools taught trades; if only we didn’t funnel people towards universities where the teaching isn’t job-related, etc., etc.

What’s puzzling about all of this isn’t so much that it’s wrong as a diagnosis, but that it’s a wrongness that leads a long way into provincial jurisdiction.  Understandable if you’re a Liberal, perhaps.  But this is a Conservative government that came to office holding certain views about “watertight federalism”.  A government led by a Prime Minister who has only held one first ministers’ meeting in seven years; a PM who seems to believe quite sincerely in letting the provinces do what they want in areas of provincial jurisdiction.

So what is Kenney playing at?

The cynical view is that he’s trying to avoid talking about the Canada Jobs Grant (CJG), the hot mess the government announced in the last budget with no consultation, and which looks increasingly like dying an ignominious death because the provinces won’t play ball.  If he can get a symbolic win or two on some vaguely related fronts (maybe get the provinces to do something on apprenticeship training) then he can claim a win on skills shortages (which is the problem the CJG was ostensibly created to solve) before letting the CJG fade away.

But there’s another, altogether more interesting possibility, which is that the Tories are coming around to the historically Liberal position that advanced education has national economic implications too big for a responsible federal government to ignore.  On balance, that’s probably a good thing.  But Kenney will have to learn that as far as education systems are concerned the provinces have a combined 1289 more years of experience than Ottawa does in running them.  A little humility in approaching the subject wouldn’t go amiss.