Remarks by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on investing in skills training

Winnipeg, Manitoba - June 1, 2023

Good afternoon.

Thank you for the warm welcome and thank you very much to the award-winning students who are here with me today and for the great tour that I’ve had.

I would like to begin by saying that my thoughts are with the students, teachers, and families affected by yesterday’s incident at Fort Gibraltar. Thank you to the first responders and the staff at the Children’s Hospital for acting so quickly, and I really hope that everyone who has been injured recovers quickly and fully.

I want to acknowledge that we are gathered on Treaty 1 Territory, which is the home and the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe, the Ininew and the Dakota, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis.

I am so glad to be here in Winnipeg today with some of the incredible students and staff of Red River College Polytechnic.

I had the chance to tour the Motive Lab and the Smart Factory earlier and to meet some of the amazing women of the Women of Steel program. These are some great young women learning how to weld and they really inspired me.

What people are learning about here is the kind of technology that is going to be absolutely essential to our clean, innovative, and growing Canadian economy.

So, I really want to start by saying to everyone–to the students, to the teachers–thank you very much for the incredible work you do every day.

You are building Canada, you are driving the growth of the amazing country that we are so lucky to call home. And I’m really glad to have had the chance to spend some time with you.

Now speaking of Canada’s economy—we had some good news earlier this week!

Canada had the strongest economic growth in the G7 over the course of 2022, and just yesterday, we learned that Canada’s real GDP expanded by 3.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2023.

In the first four months of 2023 alone, the Canadian economy added nearly a quarter of a million jobs.

There are 907,000 more Canadians working today than when COVID first hit, and we have now recovered 129 per cent of the jobs that were lost in the first months of the pandemic—compared to just 115 per cent in the United States.

At just 5 per cent, our unemployment rate is near its record low.

This is all great news for Canada. But we also have some real challenges.

One is a lack of skilled workers.  And that is something which is constraining the economies of industrialized countries around the world.  It’s constraining our economy.

As we work to build a clean economy in Canada and double the number of new homes we build in Canada by 2032, attracting more people to the skilled trades will be even more important.

So, to the people who I met today, to the people who are behind me, we need you. Thank you very much for learning how to do these essential jobs.

With the fastest growing population in the G7, welcoming new Canadians is one powerful—and particularly Canadian—solution to this lack of skilled workers.

So, too, is our Canada-wide system of affordable early learning and child care, which is saving Manitoba families an average of $2,610 per child this year. Early learning and child care means more women will be able to choose both a family and a great career—perhaps which they train for here at Red River College.

And in fact some of those young Women in Steel who I met are mothers, and they need child care to be able to learn skills to take care of their families.

But another essential pillar of expanding our workforce and growing our economy is ensuring that workers in Canada have the chance to learn and upgrade the skills they need.

That is why our government is investing heavily in skills training—so that students like the ones here at Red River College are able to work good-paying jobs and build an even brighter future here in Manitoba and across the country.

For example, this spring, we provided an additional $200 million for the Student Work Placement Program—because we know how important co-ops and internships are in helping students learn the skills and receive the training they need.

We also invested $470 million in our 2021 budget to create a new Apprenticeship Service, which helps employers hire first-year apprentices in Red Seal trades.

Our government will continue to invest in our incredible skilled workers here in Canada. We’re going to invest in the training you need to get great careers to support great lives. Our economy depends on you and our economy depends on the excellent training that you receive at places like Red River College—and at the great polytechnics across Canada.

I really value the work you do here—and I cannot wait to see the remarkable things your graduates do in the months and years to come.

Thank you very much.