Jobs, Growth, and an Economy That Works for Everyone

The 2022 Fall Economic Statement makes investments in workers to grow Canada’s economy, create good-paying jobs, and tackle Canada’s investment and productivity challenges.

Canadian workers need a robust industrial policy that will deliver good jobs by seizing the opportunities of the net-zero economy, by attracting new private investment, and by providing key resources to the world. Investing in Canada’s future is an investment in workers.

The 2022 Fall Economic Statement makes investments in workers to grow Canada’s economy, create good-paying jobs, and tackle Canada’s investment and productivity challenges.

Investing in Skills for a Net-Zero Economy

The 2022 Fall Economic Statement builds on the government’s previous investments in jobs and skills training with the following measures.

$250 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, to help Canadian workers thrive in a changing global economy. Specific measures include:

1. The Sustainable Jobs Training Centre to bring together workers, unions, employers, and training institutions across the country to examine the skills of the labour force today, forecast future skills requirements, and develop curriculum, micro-credentials, and on-site learning to help 15,000 workers upgrade or gain new skills for jobs in a low-carbon economy. The Centre would focus on specific areas in high demand, starting with the sustainable battery industry and low-carbon building and retrofits.
2. A new sustainable jobs stream under the Union Training and Innovation Program to support unions in leading the development of green skills training for workers in the trades. It is expected that 20,000 apprentices and journeypersons would benefit from this investment.
3. The Sustainable Jobs Secretariat, a one-stop shop that would provide the most up to date information on federal programs, funding, and services across government departments to support workers on the road to sustainable, good-paying jobs.  

$60 million over three years, starting in 2023-24, to create a new rapid response fund for workers to supplement existing federal and provincial or territorial labour market programming.

Further details on all these measures will be provided in the first half of 2023.

Investing in Jobs for Young Canadians

To provide youth—particularly those from marginalized communities—with the support and opportunities they need to develop the skills required to find and keep good jobs, the 2022 Fall Economic Statement proposes to provide $802.1 million over three years, starting in 2022-23, to the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy. This includes:

1. $301.4 million over two years, starting in 2023-24, through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program, to provide wraparound supports and job placements to young people facing employment barriers;
2. $400.5 million over two years, starting in 2023-24, to Canada Summer Jobs to support a total of approximately 70,000 annual summer job placements; and,
3. $100.2 million over three years, starting in 2022-23, to continue supporting work placements for First Nations youth through the Income Assistance-First Nations Youth Employment Strategy Pilot.

These measures will help young Canadians gain valuable skills and work experience, setting them up for a lifetime of success in the job market.

Canada’s Immigration Plan

Immigration is a key driver of Canada’s economic growth and the government has a plan to ensure increased immigration targets address persistent labour shortages, including in healthcare, manufacturing, and the building trades.

The government will also continue to invest in increasing capacity to ensure that applications are processed as quickly as possible and to eliminate backlogs.

1. To support the processing and settlement of new permanent residents to Canada as part of the 2023-25 Immigration Levels Plan the government has committed $1.6 billion over six years and $315 million ongoing in new funding.
2. To address ongoing application backlogs, speed up processing, and allow for skilled newcomers to fill critical labour gaps faster, the government has committed an additional $50 million in 2022-23 for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Protecting the Rights of Road Transportation Workers

In the trucking industry, there is a long history of companies using the misleading “Drivers Inc.” practice, whereby drivers are encouraged—against their will—to self-incorporate and claim to operate as independent contractors without being provided information on the downsides of the practice. By not classifying drivers as employees, companies are denying them access to important rights and entitlements under the Canada Labour Code, such as paid sick leave, health and safety standards, employer contributions for Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan, and provincial or territorial workplace injury compensation.

To protect truck drivers against this illegal practice, the 2022 Fall Economic Statement proposes to provide:

• $26.3 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, to take stronger action against non-compliant employers through orders, fines, and prosecutions to enforce the Canada Labour Code. This will improve working conditions for thousands of gig workers, newcomers, and racialized Canadians while creating fairer, safer workplaces for everyone by ensuring that federally regulated transportation employers are not illegally misclassifying their drivers.

Launching the Canada Growth Fund

The 2022 Fall Economic Statement outlines the design, operations, and investment strategy of the Canada Growth Fund, which will help to attract private capital to invest in building a thriving, sustainable Canadian economy with thousands of new, good jobs.

The Growth Fund will attract private sector investment in Canadian businesses and projects that meet the following important national economic policy goals:

• Reduce emissions and achieve Canada’s climate targets;
• Accelerate the deployment of key technologies, such as low-carbon hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS);
• Scale up companies that will create jobs, drive productivity and clean growth, and encourage the retention of intellectual property in Canada; and,
• Capitalize on Canada’s abundance of natural resources and strengthen critical supply chains to secure Canada’s future economic and environmental well-being.

The Growth Fund will be launched by the end of 2022 and the government will take steps to put in place a permanent, independent structure for the Growth Fund in the first half of 2023.

An Investment Tax Credit for Clean Technologies

Following the adoption of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, the need for a competitive clean technology tax credit in Canada is more important than ever. The 2022 Fall Economic Statement proposes a refundable tax credit equal to 30 per cent of the capital cost of investments in:

• Electricity Generation Systems, including solar photovoltaic, small modular nuclear reactors, concentrated solar, wind, and water (small hydro, run-of-river, wave, and tidal);  
• Stationary Electricity Storage Systems that do not use fossil fuels in their operation, including but not limited to: batteries, flywheels, supercapacitors, magnetic energy storage, compressed air energy storage, pumped hydro storage, gravity energy storage, and thermal energy storage;
• Low-Carbon Heat Equipment, including active solar heating, air-source heat pumps, and ground-source heat pumps; and,
• Industrial zero-emission vehicles and related charging or refueling equipment, such as hydrogen or electric heavy duty equipment used in mining or construction.

The Department of Finance will consult on any additional eligible technologies (e.g. large-scale nuclear and large-scale hydroelectric).

To incentivize companies to create good jobs, those that adhere to certain labour conditions will be eligible for the full 30 per cent credit, while those that do not will only be eligible for a credit of 20 per cent. The credit would be available as of the day of Budget 2023 and no longer in effect at the start of 2035, subject to a phase-out starting in 2032.

An Investment Tax Credit for Clean Hydrogen

Canada will be a reliable, premium supplier of energy in a net-zero world, and clean hydrogen is an essential part of this. In the 2022 Fall Economic Statement, the government is proceeding with its commitment, announced in Budget 2022, to establish an investment tax credit to support investments in clean hydrogen production.

In the coming weeks, the Department of Finance will launch a consultation on how best to implement an investment tax credit for clean hydrogen based on the lifecycle carbon intensity of hydrogen. The lowest carbon intensity tier that meets all eligibility requirements is proposed to receive an investment tax credit of at least 40 per cent. If a company does not meet certain labour conditions, the maximum tax credit rate will be reduced by 10 percentage points, which will help incentivize companies to support and create good jobs for the workers our economy relies on.