With so much
uncertainty in the
U.S., the federal
government has
decided to limit new
initiatives. Changes
to existing programs,
while directional, have
very little new money
attached to them.
market development agreements, plus an additional $900 million
over six years to create new workforce development agreements
which will replace the previous labour market agreements (LMA)
for EI-ineligible unemployed.
A $73-million co-op placement fund has also been established to
encourage employers to take on students studying in STEM fields.
Mitacs will receive $221 million in support to help fund the place-ment
of students in post-secondary and graduate level studies to ob-tain
work experience within the private sector.
The budget also signals that further changes are coming to the ex-press
entry system to facilitate the entry of immigrants in high de-mand
in Canada. The temporary foreign worker program will also
be amended to improve
the pathway for tempo-rary
workers to acquire
permanent residency.
These were but a few
of the budget highlights.
For more information,
download CCA’s budget
briefing PDF from bit.
ly/2017BB.
Bill Ferreira is the
vice-president,
Government Relations
& Public Affairs
at the Canadian
Construction
Association.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CCA
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44 Think BIG | Quarter 3 2017 | saskheavy.ca