Toronto, Ontario — The Provincial Government of Ontario is beginning to recognize the labour shortages in the trades industry across Canada and has announced its investment of $550,000 into skill trades training.

The investment was announced last Friday by Monte McNaughton, the minister of labour, training and skills development for Ontario. The funds will go towards Sheridan College’s Brampton campus pre-apprenticeship program which will increase the program’s bandwidth to allow for an additional 50 students.

“In Brampton and throughout the province, there are thousands of jobs that go unfilled each day,” said McNaughton. “Those are paycheques waiting to be collected, but the workers aren’t there. Our mission is to bridge that skills gap in Brampton and beyond. Today’s announcement at Sheridan, training two in-demand trades like machinist and millwright, is the next step.”

At the announcement, Premier Doug Ford said the allocated funds towards Sheridan College is a part of a $20.8 million provincial initiative to expand pre-apprenticeship training programs, with the goal to bring more than 1,800 workers to the trades industry.

“Over the next five years, one in five jobs created will be in the skilled trades,” Ford said. “We need more skilled workers to help us build the roads, transit, and infrastructure we need, both now and in the future.”