Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Vancouver Kingsway for his question and for his continued interest in young Canadians and the challenges they face in finding employment.
I want to assure the hon. member and all colleagues that we share his concern, and I will point to the plan we have and the array of programs we put together to build a skilled workforce for the future.
That is why we are working hard with employers, service providers and trade unions to ensure that our young people have the skills and job opportunities they need to enter the labour market.
Many Canadians share the priorities that the member opposite raised about investing in communities and infrastructure, about investing in people and in our workforce, and certainly about investing in and protecting public health care.
I want to pick up on this issue of youth employment, and I want to talk a little about some of the programs we have put in place to help build that workforce for the future. As we proceed as a government to investment in major projects, as we proceed to invest in programs like Build Canada Homes, which is going to see an investment in affordable housing on a scale we have not seen since the Second World War, the one shared constant is that we are going to need the people and the talent to help us achieve these goals and to help us build the projects and the homes we need.
It starts with young people. It starts with education and training. It starts with programs like Canada summer jobs, which has a proven track record. Since 2019, it has provided more than half a million young people with summer jobs. Last year an audit of the CSJ program by the Auditor of General of Canada found that participants in Canada summer jobs benefit from better long-term earnings than non-participants. Our government added an additional 6,000 summer job opportunities this past summer, and 70,000 jobs are already planned for this year.
However, we go beyond this. We are supporting approximately 160,000 opportunities for youth and students through the youth employment and skills strategy, or YESS, which includes Canada summer jobs, the student work placement program, the supports for student learning program and the Canada service corps. This year the YESS program delivered, in collaboration with 12 departments and agencies, job supports and skills development opportunities to more than 20,000 youth. These interventions work. An estimated 73% of young Canadian emerge from the YESS program employed or returning to school.
Picking up on the member's point about trades workers, right now in Canada over half a million skilled trades workers are on track to retire by 2031. This represents a massive challenge that needs both immediate and long-term solutions. We are going to need tens of thousands of skilled trades workers to build our country, to help solve our housing crisis and to deliver the major projects we are setting out to build. It is why the Government of Canada is investing nearly $1 billion each year to support skilled trades apprentices.
I have been to those training centres. I have spoken with trades programs. I have spoken with the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum. The return on investment for every dollar we invest in apprenticeships for trades generates $1.83 back to our economy. These are important programs and services. Along with the Canadian apprenticeship strategy, which offers financial supports for apprentices to encourage their certification in the skilled trades, we can help build the workforce we are going to need for the future.
We are also making post-secondary education more affordable for those who cannot afford it. We are doing so by extending increases to student grants and loans through—