QUESTION PERIOD — Employment and Social Development
Team Canada Strong
April 29, 2026
Senator Moreau, yesterday, Prime Minister Carney and Minister Champagne released the spring economic update. One of the key initiatives outlined in the update included the exciting new workforce strategy called Team Canada Strong, which will invest $6 billion over five years to recruit, train and employ 80,000 to 100,000 new skilled trade workers between the ages of 15 and 30. This workforce investment is designed to help deliver planned major infrastructure projects and industrial investments, supporting Budget 2025’s major projects, which include building a clean national electricity grid and the Wind West Atlantic Energy project, both designed to support economic growth while helping to achieve Canada’s climate targets.
Senator Moreau, how will the Team Canada Strong national workforce strategy be implemented to support these and other projects designed to power both economic growth while significantly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions?
Thank you, Senator Coyle, for that important question. The direct answer is that we will use that workforce for infrastructure; light and heavy rail; electricity grid modernization, which is quite clean energy; and to implement renewable sources of energy and nuclear energy.
We will need trades workers, and that is exactly what those investments are aimed to do. The progress Canada has made on climate action was already achieved thanks to the hard work of trades workers. The government is ensuring with this program that they will have the skills, apprentices and certifications to continue to get the job done.
