Ottawa opens $430M for union trades training

Ottawa will spend more than $430 million over five years to expand union-run training centres and equipment for skilled trades apprentices, Labour Secretary of State John Zerucelli announced Thursday.

The money flows through the Union Training and Innovation Program, according to a release from Employment and Social Development Canada issued Oct. 15. The first deadlines come fast: expressions of interest for new training facilities close Nov. 12, and proposals to recruit and support apprentices are due Dec. 17.

The department’s breakdown adds up to roughly the headline figure. It lists $197.2 million for training infrastructure, $135 million for the program’s innovation stream and $100 million for equipment purchases. For equipment, Ottawa is also temporarily raising the maximum federal share of costs to 70 per cent from 50 per cent.

The Canadian Press reported that nearly half of the announced money was already part of the Liberal government’s earlier pledge of $8 billion to recruit and train up to 100,000 new skilled trades workers over five years. The department says the federal government spends nearly $1 billion a year on apprenticeship supports.

Scale is the notable part. A 2024 federal backgrounder said Ottawa had invested nearly $305 million through the Union Training and Innovation Program since it launched in 2017. The new commitment, spread over five years, is larger than everything the program had paid out in its first seven years, though the two figures cover different periods.

The infrastructure stream is aimed at unions and training providers that want to build or expand facilities, and the government says it wants shovel-ready projects that can start in spring 2027. Equipment applications are accepted at any time. The innovation stream funds new approaches to recruiting pre-apprentices, helping apprentices reach certification and upgrading the skills of journeypersons.

Union leaders welcomed the announcement. Sean Strickland, executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions, said the capital funding is a welcome investment and will help the group’s 14 affiliates expand and modernize their training centres, according to the release. Colin Daniels, general vice-president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, said training is at the heart of building a skilled workforce.

Zerucelli said Canada needs more workers to build homes, infrastructure and major projects. The announcement fits a broader federal push on the trades. On Sept. 18, Canada News Media reported on Ottawa’s $880-million plan for paid youth trades placements, which also falls under the $8-billion trades strategy.

Several practical questions remain unanswered. Neither the release nor the news coverage says how many new training seats or apprenticeship spots the $430 million is expected to create, or how many projects will be funded. The department has also not said how it will choose among competing facility applications. Under the program’s rules, as described in the 2024 backgrounder, unions in Quebec cannot apply directly because they are not involved in apprenticeship training there. That province receives its share through a separate agreement.

For young Canadians weighing a trade, the near-term effect is indirect. Facility and equipment grants go to unions and training providers, not to individual apprentices, so any new classroom space or modern equipment would take months to appear after the Nov. 12 and Dec. 17 deadlines.

Pictured: File photo of a welder at work. It does not show the announcement or a facility named in it.

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Via The Canadian Press (original story), with figures and quotes from Employment and Social Development Canada. Sourcing note: the Canadian Press and ESDC accounts agree on the total, deadlines and the 70 per cent equipment rate. A CBC report on the announcement could not be opened, so it was not used. The comparison with the $305 million spent since 2017 is our own and uses a 2024 figure.