Question Period Note: WORKFORCE SUPPORT MEASURES IN RESPONSE TO TARIFFS

Following the release of Budget 2025 and announcements of supports for tariff impacted sectors, how is the Government of Canada continuing to support workers and businesses to adapt to new economic realities?

The Government of Canada is committed to protecting and supporting workers in this period of uncertainty and change with one labour market. We will advance new opportunities among a one economy agenda and invest to ensure Canadians have the skills for in demand jobs.

To build a strong, confident workforce to support this, the Government is implementing a suite of new workforce measures, complementary to existing tariff measures, aimed at supporting both workers and employers.

These measures will benefit workers from coast to coast, including mid-career, long-tenured workers affected by tariffs from the United States and global market shifts, as well as underrepresented groups, such as persons with disabilities, women and Indigenous Peoples.

To weather the uncertainty resulting from the ongoing trade-dispute, the Government of Canada implemented a series of measures over the last several months to help workers and businesses in trade-exposed sectors.

These measures included temporary Employment Insurance (EI) flexibilities for income support and enhanced access to EI Work-Sharing. Temporary EI measures are enhancing income supports for Canadian workers whose jobs have been impacted by the economic uncertainty caused by foreign tariffs while the temporary flexibilities to EI Work-Sharing are helping employers avoid layoffs while supplementing employees reduced income with EI benefits.

In addition, the Government invested in the Labour Market Development Agreements to provide training and employment services for affected workers in the steel and softwood lumber industries.

Through announcements on September 5, 2025 and Budget 2025, our Government has built on these existing measures by implementing a new reskilling package for workers, making Employment Insurance more flexible and with extended benefits, and will launch a new digital jobs and training platform with private-sector partners to connect Canadians more quickly to careers. Measures that complement ESDC’s existing tariff response include:

investments of $570M/3 years starting in 2025-26 in a comprehensive employment assistance and training package through Labour Market Development Agreements with provinces and territories to support training and employment assistance for up to 66,000 workers impacted by tariffs and global market shifts;  

$50M/5 years, starting in 2026-27, +$8M ongoing to implement a new digital tool to facilitate job search and applications, and launch a national online training platform in partnership with the private sector through the acceleration of Job Bank’s AI transformation to modernize job matching; 

$382M/5 years, starting in 2026-27, +$56M ongoing to launch new Workforce Alliances and Workforce Innovation Fund to bring together employers, unions, and industry groups to work on ways to help businesses and workers succeed in the changing labour market and coordinate public and private investments in skills development;

$594.7M/2 years, starting in 2026-27, for Canada Summer Jobs to support around 100,000 summer jobs in summer 2026;

$307.9M/2 years, starting in 2026-27, for the horizontal Youth Employment and Skills Strategy to provide employment, training, and wraparound supports (e.g., mentorship, transportation, mental health counselling) to an additional 20,000 youth facing employment barriers annually;

$635.2 million/3 years, starting in 2026-27, to ESDC for the Student Work Placement Program to support around 55,000 work-integrated learning opportunities for post-secondary students in 2026-27;

six-month extensions of two of the three temporary EI measures to April 2026: suspending the rules on separation payments ($423.8M over two years) and waiving the one-week waiting period ($417.6M over two years). (Analysis supported ending the third temporary measure that adjusts EI unemployment rates upwards in light of recent, gradual increases to unemployment rates); and  

introducing a new six-month EI measure that will provide 20 extra weeks (scalable) of EI income support to long-tenured workers, providing them with a longer bridge to unemployment in a challenging economic environment. 

These measures will provide training and income support to workers laid off due to tariffs so they can acquire new jobs as quickly as possible; work with businesses to support workforce development in impacted sectors; and create a modern digital platform to help job seekers find new opportunities.

With respect to training and employment services investments, work is under way with provinces and territories to develop a tariff response framework to ensure funds are targeted effectively. As part of these discussions, provinces and territories have been advocating for a broader tariff support package, one that not only addresses immediate impacts but also strengthens long-term workforce resilience and industrial competitiveness across the country.

The funding formula for employment and training measures is still in development but funding would be allocated across provinces and territories based on metrics associated with the tariffs as well as direct and indirect employment-related impacts. 

The investment in Canada’s National Employment Service, Job Bank, will make it easier for users to find jobs by integrating AI on the Job Bank platform including by automatically enrolling EI claimants and aligning their jobs matches align with their skills profile.

The investment will also launch a national online training platform to help adults find short-duration training courses by skill type, location, and format. The Government of Canada is working in partnership with companies like Indeed, Jobillico, Career Beacon and Zip Recruiter, as well as online learning and digital training leaders like eCampus Ontario and the Skills Council of Canada. Job seekers will be able to apply to jobs via the Job Bank mobile application.

The Workforce Alliances and the Fund will directly help businesses and industry leaders navigate the workforce and training systems and ensure federal, provincial and indigenous-led work is complementary and aligned to strategic outcomes.

Businesses and sector associations face challenges in navigating up to 14 jurisdictions with programming to meet their business needs and the federal government has no targeted mechanism to bring the parties together. As a result, businesses are duplicating efforts and lack the capacity to have national reach on their outcomes.

Canadian and international experience shows that federal convening power alone to bring workforce ecosystem partners together is not enough. A spending envelope is needed to move ideas into action and leverage and coordinate private investments.

KEY FACTS

Economic uncertainty from our changing relationship with the US exacerbates economic trends, such as demographic shifts, technological change, global supply chain disruptions, and energy transitions which, taken together, pose profound challenges for Canada’s economy and labour market.

The unemployment rate decreased by 0.2% in September 2025, bringing the national rate to 6.9% per cent. Further, there is evidence of rising Employment Insurance (EI) claims, most notable in regions heavily impacted by tariffs (e.g., Windsor, Oshawa, Chicoutimi Jonquière, Central Ontario).

To weather the uncertainty resulting from the ongoing trade-dispute, the Government of Canada implemented a series of measures over the last several months to help workers and businesses in trade-exposed sectors. Through Budget 2025 and other recent announcements, the Government of Canada introduced broader supports to invest in workers so that they can drive Canada’s economic transformation with new skills and training.