Excerpts
Editor's note: This article originally appeared on Parliament Today, a Village Media news source devoted exclusively to covering federal politics.
As the federal government looks to make “generational investments in infrastructure,” it also wants to ensure Canada has enough workers to build it.
In its spring economic update tabled Tuesday, Mark Carney’s Liberal government acknowledged that the country is expected to “face a persistent gap of more than 20,000 skilled trades workers per year.” By 2033, the government said, Canada will need more than 1.4 million additional trades workers, with the planned scale of investments in housing and infrastructure adding to that demand.
“The need is urgent, but long training processes and financial pressures on apprentices contribute to low rates of completion,” the document said. “Too few young Canadians are entering the trades — missing out on well-paid jobs and long-term financial security.”
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The spring economic update has described Canada’s labour market as “resilient” amid the trade war with the U.S. and heightened global tensions, adding that it “withstood the shock better than expected.” While there were job losses in sectors heavily impacted by tariffs, the government said that employment has “levelled off” over the past three months due, in part, to slower population growth.
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