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House Hansard - 32

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 16, 2022 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 32 - Feb/16/22
Mr. Irek Kusmierczyk (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Lib.)
  • Feb/16/22 7:03:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the pandemic changed Canada's labour market. Jobs have been lost and workers need to upgrade or learn new skills to successfully go back to work and meet the new demands. That being said, even before the pandemic, Canada's workforce was facing challenges. We were already seeing widening wage gaps, stagnation in training and skills development, as well as a volatile shift toward gig and part-time work. We need to build a stronger workforce and that is what the Government of Canada is doing. We are currently implementing the new apprenticeship service, for which budget 2021 is providing $471 million over three years. The goal of this initiative is to help first-year apprentices connect with employment opportunities at small and medium-sized enterprises, giving them the hands-on experience that is required to succeed in the skilled trades. We are working closely with all our partners. For example, each year the Government of Canada provides approximately $3.4 billion in funding for individuals and employers to obtain skills, training and employment supports through the labour market development agreements and workforce development agreements with provinces and territories. Each year, more than a million employment and training supports are provided to individuals and employers across Canada under just these agreements. During the pandemic, the Government of Canada provided an additional $1.5 billion for employment supports to individuals and employers who were affected by the pandemic. More than half a million CERB and CRB recipients across Canada benefited from training and employment supports funded by the labour market transfers. This meant that those individuals who lost employment and retrained during the pandemic were ready to participate in the labour market. It is an additional $17.1 billion over five years that will be allocated under the agreements to help more Canadians upgrade their skills to meet the demands of the future labour market. Finally, to build a stronger workforce, budget 2021 announced the creation of the new sectoral workforce solutions program, which recently launched a call for proposals. This funding will connect Canadians with the training they need to get good jobs in sectors where employers are looking for skilled workers, such as in clean tech, health care and other sectors that were the hardest hit in the pandemic. Applications will be accepted until March 2022, with the hopes of getting a number of projects under way by the end of the spring. The program will support a wide range of sector-focused activities, including training and upskilling for workers and developing solutions to employers' workforce challenges. In light of all I have just listed, I think there is no doubt that we are building the stronger workforce that we need.
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