Harper Government helps youth in Courtenay get jobs

COURTENAY, BC, July 7, 2015 /CNW/ - The Harper Government is helping equip youth in Courtenay with the skills and experience they need to find jobs. The announcement was made today by the Honourable John Duncan, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Island North, on behalf of the Honourable Pierre Poilievre, Minister of Employment and Social Development.

Through the Government's Youth Employment Strategy, the Comox Valley Art Gallery will deliver a project to help nine youth in Courtenay with an investment of more than $59,000. This project will help young people successfully transition to the job market or return to school.

Project participants will learn or improve job skills, such as time management, and will gain work experience with local employers. Through these placements, participants will learn how to use new technology, and as a group they will research, plan and produce a series of video projects aimed at raising awareness of issues important to the community.

Today's announcement is one example of what the Harper Government is doing to help Canadians. To help hard-working families, the Government is also enhancing the Universal Child Care Benefit, introducing the Family Tax Cut and making improvements to the Child Care Expenses Deduction and the Children's Fitness Tax Credit.

Quick Facts

• Since 2006, the Harper Government's Youth Employment Strategy has helped over 611,000 youth.
• The Government is helping Canadian youth get the skills employers are looking for with the Canada Job Grant, apprenticeship grants and the new Canada Apprentice Loan. The Government also offers tax credits, such as the tuition, education and textbook tax credits, the tradesperson's tools deduction and the Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit.
• Economic Action Plan 2014 introduced the Canada Apprentice Loan, which provides apprentices registered in Red Seal trades with interest-free loans of up to $4,000 to complete their technical training. Loans are interest-free until apprentices complete or leave their apprenticeship training program, up to a maximum of six years. Since January, over 6,000 apprentices across Canada have benefited from the Canada Apprentice Loan.
• The Universal Child Care Benefit will increase from $100 to $160 per month, totalling up to $1,920 per year, for children under the age of 6, and parents will receive a new benefit of $60 per month, up to $720 per year, for each child aged 6 through 17.

Quotes

"Today's youth are tomorrow's workforce, so by investing in them, we are helping contribute to Canada's long-term growth, competitiveness and overall prosperity. We are proud to work with organizations like the Comox Valley Art Gallery so young people, including those in Courtenay, can develop the skills they need to succeed in the job market."
– The Honourable John Duncan, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Island North

"The Comox Valley Art Gallery is thrilled to be hosting, for the third consecutive year, the Youth Media Project—an initiative that provides support to youth facing barriers to employment through media and employability skills development. We are grateful to the Government of Canada and to the Skills Link program for funding this valuable community initiative."
– Sharon Karsten, Executive Director, Comox Valley Art Gallery

Associated Links

Youth Employment Strategy
Skills Link Program
Economic Action Plan 
Helping Families Prosper

Backgrounder

The Youth Employment Strategy (YES) is the Harper Government's commitment to help youth make a successful transition to the workplace. With annual funding of approximately $330 million, YES helps youth between the ages of 15 and 30 get the information and gain the skills and work experience they need to succeed in the workplace. YES includes the Skills Link and Career Focus programs, as well as the Canada Summer Jobs initiative, which creates thousands of job opportunities for students every summer.

Skills Link helps youth facing barriers to employment—including single parents, youth with disabilities, young newcomers and youth in rural and remote areas—to develop the skills and gain the experience needed to find a job or the confidence to return to school. Skills Link has helped over 191,000 youth since 2006.

Career Focus helps post-secondary graduates transition to the job market through paid internships and helps to provide youth with the information and experience they need to make informed career decisions, find a job or pursue advanced studies. Since 2006, Career Focus has helped over 29,000 youth.

Canada Summer Jobs provides funding to not-for-profit organizations, public-sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees to create summer job opportunities for young people aged 15 to 30 years who are full-time students intending to return to their studies in the next school year. Since it began in 2007, Canada Summer Jobs has helped over 304,000 students.

Through Economic Action Plan 2014, the Harper Government is investing $40 million towards supporting up to 3,000 internships in high-demand fields and $15 million annually towards supporting up to 1,000 internships in small and medium-sized enterprises under YES.

The Government also provides a range of support—including Canada Student Loans, Canada Student Grants, the Canada Learning Bond and the Canada Education Savings Grant—to help young Canadians save for and pursue post-secondary education, so that they can acquire the skills and training they need to succeed in the job market.

Visit youth.gc.ca and CanLearn.ca for more information.

SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

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