Canadian Govt Funds $5,000 Bonuses for Employers to Hire Anyone Other Than Straight White Men

B.C. construction companies which hire trade apprentices who self-identify as other than a straight, white male with no disability will receive double a new government incentive, pushing it to $10,000 for the first year of employment.

The $10 million Apprenticeship Services program, being offered by the B.C. Construction Association (BCCA) and announced September 27, provides cash incentives to small and medium-sized construction employers who hire and register first-year apprentices in up to 39 Red Seal trades.

Funding for what the BCCA calls the "most far-reaching construction trade apprenticeship drive ever undertaken in British Columbia" is under the federal government’s Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy, which launched in September 2022.

Since then the project has issued financial incentives for the hiring and registering of 1,329 apprentices and sent payments to more than 700 employers.

The BCCA will pay employers $5,000 for each first-year apprentice they register in any eligible Red Seal trades. However, if an applicant self-identifies as a woman, person with disabilities, Indigenous, racialized Canadian or from the 2SLGBTQI+ community, the incentive doubles to $10,000.

[...] So far, 51 per cent of the project apprentices have declared themselves to be a member of one of an "equity deserving group," according to a BCCA release.

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— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 23, 2023