Ottawa commits $258.6M to trades training fund

Ottawa is committing up to $258.6 million over five years to a fund that pays for industry-led training in skilled trades, Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu announced Friday in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Updated Oct. 17, 2026. This is a follow-up to our Oct. 15 report on $430 million for union trades training.

The money flows through the Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund, according to the Canadian Press and local reporting from Your Kenora. The funding includes $50 million a year in ongoing money, Your Kenora reported. Hajdu made the announcement at Klimit Mechanical, a Thunder Bay mechanical contractor.

It is the second day in a row that the federal government has announced hundreds of millions of dollars for trades training, the Canadian Press reported. The Thursday announcement went to union-run training centres. Friday’s money is aimed at employers and industry groups.

The fund backs projects led by industry that help key sectors and regions recruit and train workers for Red Seal trades, Your Kenora reported. Applications opened Aug. 28 and are assessed on an ongoing basis, so there is no single intake deadline.

That is when Employment and Social Development Canada first launched the call for proposals. A release distributed that day said eligible projects include faster training approaches, micro-credentials, skills assessments and targeted certification programs. It named electric vehicle and battery production, electricity and energy infrastructure, shipbuilding, advanced manufacturing and critical minerals as priority sectors.

The fund works on a co-investment model, meaning employers and other partners are expected to contribute alongside Ottawa. The release said Hajdu, speaking in Gatineau, Que., that day, put it this way: “By investing in people today, we are turning opportunity into growth.”

In Thunder Bay, Hajdu said training should match what industry needs now, Your Kenora reported. She acknowledged that attracting and keeping apprentices has long been hard, and said officials are looking at ways to speed up training.

She also tied the announcement to the National Heat Pump Rebate Program, which Your Kenora said launches in 2027. Lower- and middle-income homeowners could receive up to $10,000 toward a heat pump, and other homeowners up to $2,000. Hajdu said the rebate would create more demand for skilled workers.

The federal rebate program was announced Oct. 8, and the Government of Canada said it is worth $2 billion over eight years. We covered the details in our heat pump rebate report.

Both announcements sit under the broader Team Canada Strong plan. Hajdu told a May 21 roundtable in Thunder Bay that Canada faces a shortage of about 30,000 skilled trades workers a year, according to Your Kenora. The plan aims to attract up to 100,000 Red Seal workers over five years.

Statistics Canada data cited in the August release show why the pressure is concentrated in a few sectors. About 26.9 per cent of businesses said recruiting skilled employees was an expected obstacle over a three-month period. The figure was 49.5 per cent in construction and 47.4 per cent in manufacturing.

Several questions remain open. Neither the Canadian Press summary nor Your Kenora said how many apprentices or projects the $258.6 million is expected to support, or how much of it is new money rather than part of the previously announced trades strategy. On Thursday, the Canadian Press reported that nearly half of the $430 million was already part of an earlier pledge. It is not yet clear whether the same is true of Friday’s fund.

For young Canadians weighing a trade, the near-term effect is indirect. Like the union training money, this fund pays projects, not individual apprentices. Any benefit depends on employers and industry groups applying and then running programs.

The story is developing. Canada News Media will update this report if Employment and Social Development Canada publishes a breakdown of the fund.

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Via The Canadian Press (CTV News), with additional reporting from Your Kenora.