Yukon Government Invests $45 Million Into Yukon Workers

Friday, 28 June 2019 15:43

This is a $6 million raise of current investments and has been predicted to benefit over 600 Yukoners.

Yukon's Member of Parliament, Larry Bagnell, and Minister of Education, Tracy-Anne McPhee announced $45 million of investments over 6 years into Yukon workers. This is a $6 million raise of current investments and has been predicted to benefit over 600 Yukoners.

Bagnell says the Yukon is making history with its low unemployment rates "Canada is at record levels of employment... it's amazing. Over a million jobs created, and the Yukon, even more amazing, was leading in all of Canada. As most of you know who have been around for awhile, the north has a harder time creating jobs than in the south."

In December of 2018, Yukon had the lowest unemployment rate in Canada at only 4%. In the fall of 2018 statistics showed that there were approx. 890 available jobs in the Yukon, and approx. 900 unemployed people.

The goal of the agreement is to better support those who are often under-represented in the workforce, such as people with disabilities, women, LGBTQ, and Indigenous people.

Bagnell says that this new agreement will help those in the workforce keep up with evolving technology, "There's another reason we need to have more training at this time in world history. You know, in the old days you train someone to be a mechanic for a car, they go out and work for the rest of their life. If you put out a mechanic who was trained 15 years ago today, they wouldn't know what to do because technology is changing so fast that everyone needs training in their job."

Through the agreement, training for employment, financial assistance for apprenticeships, work experience opportunities, employment assistance, and labour market research will be more readily available.

McPhee says she is pleased at the flexibility the agreement offers "We are very pleased to have signed these two long term funding agreements. The new agreements provide more funding and, more importantly, flexibility in our efforts to meet the diverse needs of our local Yukon First Nations, employers, service organizations, and job seekers."

The hope is that the agreement will prepare Yukon workers for the jobs of today, as well as the jobs of tomorrow.