Backgrounder: Canada Summer Jobs 2019

Canada Summer Jobs 2019

Background

The Youth Employment Strategy (YES) is the Government of Canada’s interdepartmental initiative that seeks to help young people aged 15 to 30 years gain the skills, abilities and work experience they need to find and maintain quality employment. Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) is delivered by Employment and Social Development Canada and falls under the Youth Employment Strategy.

The objective of CSJ 2019 is the creation of quality work experiences for youth. This provides them with opportunities to develop and improve their skills, and improves access to the labour market for youth including those who face unique barriers.

The Government of Canada seeks to ensure that quality job placements occur in inclusive, safe and respectful work environments.

The hiring period for youth will start on April 23, 2019 and end on July 23, 2019.

Eligibility Criteria

CSJ 2019 includes new expanded eligibility to include all youth aged 15 to 30, which means youth who are not students are now also eligible. This change has been made to complement the Government's renewal of the Youth Employment Strategy (YES), announced in Budget 2018. The modernized Youth Employment Strategy will embrace a “no wrong door” approach with the aim of ensuring that all young people have access to the supports they need, including enhanced supports for young people facing more serious barriers to joining and staying in the workforce.

Participants

To be eligible, participants must:

• be between 15 and 30 years of age at the start of the employment;
• be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for the duration of the employment; and,
• have a valid Social Insurance Number at the start of employment and be legally entitled to work in Canada in accordance with relevant provincial or territorial legislation and regulations.

International students are not eligible participants. International students include anyone who is temporarily in Canada for studies and who is not a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person who has been granted refugee status in Canada.

Employers

Eligible Canadian employers are from the not-for-profit, public and private sectors. Private sector employers must have 50 or fewer full-time employees across Canada to be eligible. Full-time employees are those working 30 hours or more per week.

Ineligible Canadian employers are Members of the House of Commons and the Senate, Federal Government Departments and Agencies, Provincial and Territorial Departments and Agencies, and organizations that engage in partisan political activities.

Projects and Activities

Ineligible projects and activities include:

• Projects consisting of activities that take place outside of Canada;
• Activities that contribute to the provision of a personal service to the employer;
• Partisan political activities;
• Fundraising activities to cover salary costs for the youth participant; or
• Projects or job activities that:
  • restrict access to programs, services, or employment, or otherwise discriminate, contrary to applicable laws, on the basis of prohibited grounds, including sex, genetic characteristics, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression;
  • advocate intolerance, discrimination and/or prejudice; or
  • actively work to undermine or restrict a woman’s access to sexual and reproductive health services.

Budget Allocations

• Each year, the Government invests over $330 million in the Youth Employment Strategy. Through Budget 2016, the Government of Canada invested an additional $339 million over three years starting in 2016–2017 to create up to 35,000 additional summer jobs under CSJ to double the number of job opportunities supported by the program.
• Additional investments were made through Budget 2017 ($395.5M) and Budget 2019 ($49.5M) to support the ongoing modernization of the YES.
• Through Budget 2018, the Government committed to providing an additional $448.5 million over five years starting in 2018–19 to the YES. This funding supports the continued doubling of the number of job placements funded under the CSJ program in 2019–20 and provides additional resources for a modernized Youth Employment Strategy in the following years.
• Through CSJ 2018, the Government of Canada helped create over 70,000 quality summer jobs for youth, doubling the number of jobs created through CSJ 2015.