During a campaign event in Oakville, Ont., on Tuesday, Liberal leader Mark Carney unveiled a plan to boost Canada’s skilled trades workforce as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten the global economy.
Carney promised that, if elected on April 28, the Liberal government would implement an apprenticeship grant of up to $8,000 while increasing access to union-led training initiatives. In addition, he said a $20-million capital funding stream for colleges would support new training spaces for registered apprenticeships.
“Investing is at the very heart of our economic strategy,” Carney said. “We are not just going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the skilled trades, but we are creating hundreds of thousands of careers,” he added.
The Liberal plan would also increase labour mobility between provinces and territories, in an effort to “build one Canadian economy,” according to Carney — a reference to removing interprovincial trade barriers that have become increasingly a topic of concern since Trump was elected.
