Good morning.
On behalf of the International Union of Operating Engineers, or IUOE, I'm honoured to appear before the committee today.
The IUOE represents nearly 60,000 members across Canada who build and maintain the infrastructure that holds this country together. Our members are usually the first on the job site and the last to leave, and they continually work themselves out of work. Our members operate cranes and heavy equipment, work as mechanics and apprentices and show up every day on the construction sites, energy projects and infrastructure builds that keep Canada moving.
Across the country, our local unions also operate a national network of not-for-profit, state-of-the-art union training centres that deliver accredited, industry-leading programs for the next generation of skilled workers. Apprentices trained at union facilities have a much higher completion and succession rate than those who do not go through a union training centre, at about 90% versus under 50%.
We are here today to express our strong support for the 2026 spring economic update, in particular those measures directed at skilled trades and apprenticeships. The proposed expansion of the union training and innovation program is an initiative our organization strongly supports and believes is critical to building Canada's training capacity for skilled trades. Union-run training centres are the backbone of skilled trades training in this country. Enabling them to upgrade facilities, expand capacity and invest in modern equipment is an investment in the future of Canada's skilled trades workforce.
The team Canada strong initiative is a serious and well-resourced plan to recruit, train and place up to 100,000 new Red Seal trade workers by 2030. The government's investment in support of training and apprenticeships is the kind of on-ramp that the trades have needed for a long time. Combined with the build Canada apprenticeship service and up to $10,000 in wage subsidies for employers hiring first-year apprentices, these measures create real incentives for growing Canada's skilled trade workforce.
We're also pleased to see the apprenticeship training grant, which will provide apprentices with a $400 weekly top-up during mandatory technical training. Apprentices have long faced income gaps when they move between the job site and the classroom. This grant addresses that directly. The $5,000 completion bonus upon the Red Seal certification is equally significant. Completion rates have always been a challenge in the trades, and financial support tied to the finish line is a practical and effective way to change that.
Finally, we also support the modernization of the Red Seal program. Online exams, digital logbooks and a single, national, registered apprenticeship number are long overdue. These changes reduce unnecessary delays and improve consistency across jurisdictions. They make it easier for Canadians to enter the workforce and move within it.
This legislation also proposes improvements to the labour mobility tax deduction for eligible tradespeople by increasing the annual limit on deductible expenses and reducing the distance threshold for eligibility. Our members regularly travel significant distances to job sites as that is the nature of their work in the skilled trades. A deduction that better reflects the real cost of that mobility is a meaningful and necessary adjustment. We are pleased to see those proposed changes.
Taken together, this represents the most significant federal investment in skilled trades and apprenticeship training in a generation. These measures give Canadian workers the tools they need to continue to build Canada's infrastructure and, most importantly, provide for their families.
I am happy to take any questions, and I thank you for your time today.