Ottawa, ON — Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) is offering financial and training incentives to contractors who hire, onboard, train and retain first-year apprentices.
The “In The Trades” apprenticeship program will offer contractors $5,000 for onboarding new first-year apprentices and $5,000 for onboarding equity-deserving apprentices. The list of groups where the additional $5,000 applies includes women, persons with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, members of the LGBTQ2+ communities, newcomers, and visible minorities.
Funding is available for two first-year apprentices for each year of the program. Applications for this year’s program will be accepted until Feb. 1.
To be eligible for funding, unionized contractors must have less than 500 employees at the time of application, hire a first-year apprentice in one of the 39 approved trades, and the legal agreement must pre-date the hiring of the first-year apprentice.