{"id":635319,"date":"2026-04-29T01:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T01:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635319\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T01:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T01:17:13","slug":"with-6-billion-boost-ottawa-hopes-to-shore-up-labour-force-for-its-building-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635319\/","title":{"rendered":"With $6-billion boost, Ottawa hopes to shore up labour force for its building agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Workers at the site of a condo tower under construction in Delta, B.C., in July, 2025. Canada has long faced a shortage of skilled tradespeople, and the issue is expected to worsen in the coming years.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Ottawa is putting $6-billion toward boosting employment in the trades in an effort to address labour shortages that risk tripping up the government\u2019s building agenda. <\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s spring economic update<\/a>, released Tuesday, laid out a suite of measures aimed at increasing the number of young people entering the trades, modernizing the trades education system and providing significant financial support to apprentices as a way of encouraging them to complete training. <\/p>\n

Dubbed Team Canada Strong, the package has the goal of growing the number of Red Seal trade workers by between 80,000 and 100,000 by 2030. <\/p>\n

Canada has long faced a shortage of skilled tradespeople \u2013 a problem that\u2019s expected to get worse as a large cohort of older workers hits retirement age in the next few years. This could become a major impediment to Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s efforts to ramp up construction of housing, infrastructure and large resource projects. <\/p>\n

Ottawa estimates the country will need more than 1.4 million additional tradespeople by 2033 given the scale of planned construction. <\/p>\n

Spring economic update: Nine highlights, from CPP contribution cuts to new sports spending<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThink of it as a human-resources strategy to go alongside the major projects capital investment strategy,\u201d Marc Desormeaux, vice-president of policy at the Business Council of Canada, said of the new measures. <\/p>\n

\u201cA major challenge for our economy over the long run, particularly to our building ambitions, is to get the right people with the right skills able to fill labour shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spring economic update tackles the issue from several different angles. <\/p>\n

Ottawa is promising $2-billion over five years to help people aged 15 to 30 gain entry-level trades-related work experience. This includes providing wage subsidies of up to $10,000 to employers to hire, train and retain apprentices. <\/p>\n

The government is also promising $3.4-billion over five years to address financial challenges that may prevent apprentices from completing their training. This includes providing $400 a week \u2013 up to a total of $16,000 \u2013 while they\u2019re attending mandatory classes and providing a \u201ccompletion bonus\u201d of $5,000 when they obtain Red Seal certification. <\/p>\n

Apprenticeship completion rates are worryingly low in Canada. In 2024, 100,000 new apprentices registered, but only about 34,000 completed their apprenticeships, according to the economic update. \u201cIf nothing changes, Canada will face a persistent gap of more than 20,000 skilled trades workers per year,\u201d the document said. <\/p>\n

Campbell Clark: No majority ambition in an update that stands pat on Liberal politics<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa also plans to modernize the Red Seal certification system, introducing online exams and digital logbooks, and creating a single national registered apprenticeship number. And it said it would support unions to expand and upgrade their own training centres. <\/p>\n

Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, welcomed the measures. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a smart investment in the future of our country,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cAt the same time, we need to see the government invest in building physical and social infrastructure so these skilled workers can be put to work in good, unionized jobs.\u201d <\/p>\n

The government\u2019s ambitions to double the pace of home construction and fast-track major projects, such as pipelines, mines and port expansions, is increasing pressure on the already limited labour supply. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking a lot about bottlenecks and constraint and execution risk. I don\u2019t think we spend enough time acknowledging the fact that the labour pool that all of these projects are going after is very small,\u201d said Rebekah Young, vice-president of economic policy at Bank of Nova Scotia. <\/p>\n

She said the emphasis on training is \u201ca positive shift from the idea that we\u2019re going to bring in skilled labour. We\u2019ll still need to do that in a targeted way, but I think we need to take that long view.\u201d <\/p>\n

Canada must break stigma around skilled trades jobs, Jobs Minister says<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s emphasis on training young people is particularly important, Ms. Young added. Youth unemployment was 13.8 per cent in March, with many recent graduates struggling to find a job in a weak labour market that\u2019s being upended by artificial intelligence and trade tensions with the United States. <\/p>\n

\u201cYouth male, in particular, is a concerning category of persistent \u2018not in employment, not in education,\u2019\u201d she said. An early experience of unemployment can have long-term effects \u201cthat last a lifetime for those Canadians and impact the Canadian economy overall.\u201d <\/p>\n

Matthew Holmes, chief of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber supports the government\u2019s focus on trades. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, this government will need to revisit its restrictive approach to immigration if we\u2019re going to be serious about our talent needs and the country\u2019s growth ambition,\u201d he said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Over the past two years, Canada has significantly reduced its immigration levels. Ottawa has a separate immigration stream focused on skilled trade workers, but it is underutilized. <\/p>\n

Alongside the training measures, the economic update also increased the annual limit on expenses that can be deducted under the Labour Mobility Deduction for tradespeople. This cap will be increased from $4,000 to $10,000, and the minimum distance someone needs to travel to claim the deduction was reduced from 150 kilometres to 120 kilometres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Workers at the site of a condo tower under construction in Delta, B.C.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,20739,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-635319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-ottawa","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}