CASTLEGAR, B.C. — Members of British Columbia’s trucking industry — including professional driver schools — fear that a cap on government tuition subsidies will have an impact on highway safety and contribute to driver shortages if alternative funding is not made available.

For years, the federal government provided unemployed individuals on E.I. with funds to train them for new types of work.

Just under a year ago, in April 2009, Ottawa handed the responsibility for distributing this subsidy to the provinces.

The recession hit, and so many people raced to get retraining the money was quickly spent.

Against that backdrop, the B.C. government capped the tuition subsidy at $4,000 per training program.

Prior to that, there had been no cap.

Andy Roberts, president of the Mountain Transport Institute, believes the $4,000 cap is insufficient to cover the costs of his program, which he says turns out safe, fully employable, entry-level professional drivers. His programs costs, on average, $14,000.

Roberts is suggesting that B.C., which just recently approved a new BCTA-driven apprenticeship training standard, provides a loan program or loan guarantee to driver-students.

He says the current student-loans programs funded by the federal and B.C. governments don’t provide enough money to cover the more expensive training programs, such as heavy equipment operator, professional driver, etc., which require one-to-one training and the use of expensive machinery.

Roberts has had to lay off four full-time staff members due to a lack of students for his programs.

He says he is not looking for government handouts, "but with the sudden policy change, there must be another way for people to fund their retraining.

"If the $4,000 cap is to stay in place for EI retraining then the government must quickly create a loan program or loan guarantee program so individuals who are unemployed can access a level of training that will allow them to become safe, employable professional drivers.”

Many people in the industry think that the economic recovery will bring with it an increased demand for drivers.