Ontario budget overview

The Ontario Construction Secretariat has published an overview of the just-released 2022 Ontario budget from a construction and trades perspective. Lots of investment in here in infrastructure and skilled trades development. Highlights for our sector:

The Skills Development Fund, announced in the 2020 Budget, supported innovative, market‐driven solutions to address challenges to hiring, training, or retaining workers, including apprentices, during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Building on the success of the program, Ontario is providing an additional $15.8 million in 2022–23 to support the development and expansion of brick‐and‐mortar training facilities, which could include union training halls, to help more workers get the skills they need to find good, well‐paying jobs and ensure employers can find the talent they need to build and grow their businesses.

The government is relaunching the Second Career program as Better Jobs Ontario, which will now support a larger, more diverse range of Ontario workers, with $5 million in new funding in 2022–23.

Ontario is investing an additional $114.4 million over three years in its Skilled Trades Strategy to break the stigma associated with the skilled trades, simplify the system, and encourage employer participation. These investments include:

• $73.8 million over three years for in‐class training for apprentices to accommodate an increase in enrolment, assist students with accessibility and accommodation needs and support additional in‐demand classes.
• $10 million in 2022–23 to maintain the Infrastructure Talent Accelerator grant, which helps apprentices participating in the in‐demand trades train to help build historic infrastructure projects, such as the Ontario Line Subway Project and Scarborough Subway Extension.
• $15 million over three years for the Tools Grant, which provides increased financial support for apprentices completing their apprenticeship program and receiving certification by helping apprentices pay for their tools and equipment.
• $6.3 million over three years for the Achievement Incentive program, which encourages and supports skilled trades employers, including those in group sponsor arrangements, when apprentices meet training and certification milestones.
• $6 million over three years for the Group Sponsorship Grant, which improves apprentice progression and completion by supporting small‐ to medium‐sized employers to come together to train apprentices in the full scope of their trade.
• $3.3 million over three years for the Apprenticeship Capital Grant to provide supports for Training Delivery Agents to meet the evolving needs of the workplace with innovative technology.

The Ontario government is investing $1 billion annually in employment and training programs to help people retrain and upgrade their skills and is providing $268.5 million over three years in additional funding through Employment Ontario to strengthen the government’s skills training and employment programs.

The Ontario government is increasing the general minimum wage to $15.50 per hour on October 1, 2022 and investing $15.1 million over three years in the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), which nominates applicants for permanent residence who have the skills and experience to match Ontario’s labour market needs.

Ontario is supporting municipal transit and shelters including matching, dollar‐for‐dollar, the recent federal commitment of $316.2 million, for total provincial and federal funding of $632 million.

The government is investing about $14 billion in capital grants over 10 years to support school infrastructure. This includes $1.4 billion to renew and maintain schools for the 2022–23 school year.

$2 billion in capital grants over the next 10 years, to help colleges, universities and Indigenous Institutes modernize classrooms by upgrading technology, carrying out critical repairs and improving environmental sustainability.

Read the full report here.