The Ontario government announced May 2 it would invest $295 million over the next two years as part of its 2013 budget into a new initiative aimed at increasing youth employment in the province.
The Youth Jobs Strategy aims to create approximately 30,000 jobs for Ontario’s youth by providing hiring incentives to employers and funding for young entrepreneurs to start their own business ventures, the government announced.
The strategy would include $195 million made available for the Ontario Youth Employment Fund in September 2013 to create employment opportunities for 25,000 Ontario youth.
The remaining $100 million would be distributed across three other funds designed to provide financial assistance, mentorships and skills in industrial research to young entrepreneurs in the province.
Although the provincial government created 400,000 jobs since June 2009, only half of those aged 15-24 secured some form of employment in 2012, down from the pre-recession level of 57 per cent recorded in 2007, according to the finance ministry’s budget release.
“We know that a strong economy rests on the shoulders of a strong, educated workforce, and our government is committed to seeing Ontario’s students attain the skills and education they require to keep our province moving forward,” Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Brad Duguid said via email.
The investment represents a “fulsome response” in the government’s bid to curb high unemployment among Ontario’s youth, according to Emily Hedges, press secretary for the Ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities.
Hedges noted it would build upon the government’s summer jobs program announced in March, which gives business owners a $2 per hour incentive for hiring students over the summer.
The Youth Jobs Strategy would likely provide similar hiring incentives to prospective employers willing to give young professionals a chance to acquire the necessary work experience and training, she said.
The budget announcement received mixed reaction from federal and provincial student groups, many of which made reccomendations to ministry leaders on the budget prior to its release.
“We’re excited about the announcement of the Youth Employment Fund in the budget,” said Rylan Kinnon, executive director of the Ontario University Student Alliance (OUSA).
He added that OUSA recommended the Youth Jobs Strategy in its pre-budget submission to the province.
“We look forward to having discussions with the government about how that funding can help students find employment between studying and graduation.”
The budget failed to address other recommendations contained in OUSA’s 2013 budget submission, such as addressing the lowest per-student funding in the country that Ontario universities currently receive, the group stated in a release.
“Students hope that in future years the budget will demonstrate a more focused commitment to improving the affordability, accessibility, accountability, and quality of Ontario’s post-secondary system,” Kinnon said.
Alastair Woods, Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario chairperson-elect, said the province’s budget failed to meet students’ pre-budget requests to freeze tuition.
The government will instead follow a tuition framework it announced in March to increase tuition at a rate of three per cent for the next four years.
“The provincial government seems to think that it is easier to allow colleges and universities to continue to raise tuition fees for the next four years than to actually adequately fund the higher education sector,” Woods said.
“The new policy has lowered the cap on tuition fee increases . . . but they haven’t committed any new funding to college and university education.”
