Manitoba stakeholders concerned as federal government tosses apprenticeship grants

Curtis Haines has been apprenticing as an electrician for four and a half years.

With the completion of each level, except the third, he’s received a $1,000 federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant.

When he finishes his fourth, and final, level this November, he’s looking forward to a completion grant worth $2,000.

“I’ll take some of it and put it towards new tools, new boots. It’s something to help with work. And then some of it will go into just my chequing account for rent and food,” he said, adding it can also be a good wage supplement when he is making about half his normal pay while taking classes.

But both the incentive and completion grant are being removed. The last day to apply is March 31, 2025.

President of PowerTec Electric Inc. Daniel Hartley said this is another twist in the path for Manitoba apprentices as stakeholders look down the barrel of a potential reduction to the apprenticeship ratio.

“On one hand you have government saying that they want to attract more people into the trades. I mean, there’s an obvious shortage of people across the country and trades. And then on the other hand, you have them making it more difficult to do that,” he said.

“We need more people in the trades and that makes it just a little bit harder to entice people.”

Darryl Harrison, the director of stakeholder engagement with the Winnipeg Construction Association (WCA), said it’s concerning to see apprenticeship incentives taken away.

“These changes that are happening make it harder for apprentices to be to choose an apprenticeship and also makes it harder on the employers to try and find apprentices,” he said, noting that the WCA is constantly trying to recruit people.

“We’re trying to attract more Indigenous, more newcomers and women into the trades. And the removal of this grant seems like a backward step to us,” he said.

In an email to Global News, Employment and Social Development Canada said that from 2021 to 2022, Manitoba was one of only two provinces that didn’t see an increase in apprenticeship registration. It actually declined nine per cent.

While Haines won’t have to face the loss of the grant, he says it isn’t hard to imagine what life would be like if he didn’t have access to it.

“I’d probably really need to start scrimping,” he said. “It would make going to school more challenging because we’re on (employment insurance) — close to a 50 per cent pay cut. So I always factor in that grant to my budgeting.”

Haines said losing the grant wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for him, but it will certainly be an added consideration for his peers and colleagues.

“If they maybe have a mortgage payment or daycare, things like that, any amount will help,” he said.

Harrison said the average age of an apprentice in Manitoba is 27 years old, which also means an apprenticeship is a career development — or restart — choice.

“In pursuing that apprenticeship, sometimes in the first and second year, they have a pay cut from what they were making before. This was a top-up to help them get through those tough first and second years,” he said.

The federal government said the grants have “mixed results” when it comes to addressing “barriers to the progression and completion of apprenticeships.”

It adds that the take-up for the funds decreased about seven per cent between 2010 and 2018.

Apprenticeship Manitoba said the grants’ cancellation will mean an annual loss of about $3.2 million for apprentices in the province.

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