Canada is getting ready to make another push to ease labour shortages in construction and health care.
The government has laid out budget plans to expand apprenticeship training and make it easier for newcomers to start working in their fields. On November 4, Finance Canada will present the budget.
They also gave a sneak peek at a plan to get more skilled workers to job sites and hospitals faster.
The main goal is to expand the Union Training and Innovation Program, which is a federal program that helps union-based apprenticeship training in Red Seal trades.
The plan sets aside $75 million over three years, starting in 2026-27. This is meant to help close gaps in the building trades as Ottawa relies on big infrastructure and housing projects to boost growth.
More Read
Ottawa also wants to set up a Foreign Credential Recognition Action Fund with $97 million over five years, using money from existing departmental resources.
This fund will work with provinces and territories to make it easier and faster to recognize foreign professional credentials.
The government says the effort will focus on high need areas like health care and construction, where professionals trained abroad often have to wait a long time to get their licenses.
The Employment Department has framed the credential initiative as part of a larger effort to improve efficiency, with officials moving money from areas that haven’t produced good results.
According to The Canadian Press, the credential fund will use existing employment resources and is meant to speed up decisions by regulators and licensing bodies. This is in response to years of complaints from employers and workers about backlogs.
The budget will also create a refundable Personal Support Workers Tax Credit for the tax years 2026 to 2030.
This will give eligible workers up to $1,100 a year in provinces and territories that don’t have separate wage boost agreements.
The measure acknowledges the important role support workers play in home care and long-term care, while also addressing the problem of keeping workers in the country.
As part of a plan to make it easier for people to move around for work, the government says it will limit the use of non-compete agreements in federally regulated workplaces.
The goal, according to Finance Canada, is to protect workers’ right to change jobs or start their own businesses and make competition stronger.
The government also says that talks about the changes to the law will start in early 2026. The change is part of a larger trend in North America to look more closely at non-compete agreements and is meant to make it easier for workers to move to better-paying jobs.
Demographic changes and a quick build-out of housing and infrastructure are putting a lot of stress on Canada’s construction and health systems.
Union programs that give out training money can quickly teach people the skills they need, and speeding up the process of recognizing credentials could free up thousands of professionals who have already been trained abroad and are now living in the country.
The targeted tax credit for personal support workers is meant to stop people from leaving jobs that are likely to cause burnout and have a direct impact on the quality and availability of care.
The training money needs to go to programs that can quickly add more seats and meet the needs of the area.
The provincial regulators and licensing bodies decide whether or not credentials are valid, so the federal government will need to make sure that there are clear agreements and processing times.
And any limits on non-compete clauses will need to be clear so that both employers and workers know what they mean.
Once the budget is presented on November 4, markets will look for signs of overall fiscal restraint and the time frame for putting these measures into effect.
Employers who are having trouble hiring want to know if money and policy changes will lead to faster hiring processes by the next construction season and better staffing in health care.
The combination of training support, a new tax credit, and easier job changes for workers suggests that the budget is more focused on labour supply and mobility than on broad-based stimulus.
