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Federal money for student jobs

Ottawa announces money for 197 summer student jobs in Central Okanagan this year.
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Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr. —Image credit: Alistair Waters/Capital News

The federal government is funding student summer jobs in the Central Okanagan again this year.

Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr says 197 students will benefit this summer from the funding through the Canada Summer Jobs program.

“I want to thank all of our local employers for partnering with the Government of Canada and providing locals students with the opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience while earning money for the upcoming school year,” said Fuhr, who made the announcement on behalf of Patty Hajdu, the federal employment, workforce development and labour minister.

Interested students can access a list of local organizations and businesses who are partnering with the Government of Canada through the CSJ program by going to: Canada.ca/Canada-summer-jobs.

The Canada Summer Jobs program provides funding to help employers create summer job opportunities for students in their communities. Young Canadians can then obtain the experience and skills they need to get a strong start in their careers.

“I invite all students who are looking for a summer job to take advantage of this opportunity to develop their skills, gain valuable work experience and earn money,” said Hajdu.

Last year, the Ottawa nearly doubled the number of jobs available through the CSJ program across the country, to 65,800 jobs from 34,000 jobs . Since its inception in 2007, CSJ has helped approximately 330,000 students.

Canada Summer Jobs is an important part of the federal government’s Youth Employment Strategy (YES). Each year the Government invests more than $330 million in YES to help young people gain the skills, abilities and work experience they need to find and maintain good employment.

In 2016 the federal government significantly increased its investment in the Canada Summer Jobs program over the next three years. An additional $339 million was allocated to create more summer jobs for young Canadians. As a result, in 2016 the CSJ program funded roughly 65,800 jobs, which nearly doubled the number of jobs created over previous years.

In addition to the funds provided for Canada Summer Jobs, the federal government provided $165.4 million in 2016–17 for YES to create new green jobs for youth, increase the number of youth who access the Skills Link program and support employment opportunities in the heritage sector.

In March, Budget 2017 proposed a further $395.5 million over three years for YES, starting in 2017–18.

Since 2005, YES has helped over 820,000 young Canadians get the training and work experience they need to enter the labour market.