2023 Federal and Ontario Budget Proposals in Support of Skilled Trades

March 30, 2023

Matt Masters

Both the federal and Ontario 2023 budgets include measures intended to draw and maintain workers in the skilled trades. Both budgets tie the need for more workers in the skilled trades to plans to increase the building of new homes in the coming years.

Canada’s 2023 Budget aims to assist tradespeople in purchasing equipment through increasing an available tax deduction. The maximum employment deduction for tool expenses for tradespeople would be increased from $500 to $1000. The new maximum deduction would be in effect for the 2023 tax year.

Ontario’s 2023 Budget seeks to address a shortage of workers in the skilled trades with a suite of measures prioritizing training workers in the skilled trades and attracting workers to the skilled trades, both from in and out-of-province. Some of these measures include:

• An addition of $75 million over three years to the Skills Development Fund, a fund used to provide a variety of training projects;
• The introduction of a new capital stream of the Skills Development Fund intended for “bricks-and-mortar” training facilities, said to include union training halls;
• An addition of $15 million over three years to Better Jobs Ontario, a program that provides up to $28,000 to eligible workers for certain expenses related to short-term training programs; and
• Increased funding to the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, aimed at speeding up application processing times.

For our summary of Federal Budget 2023 announcements concerning increases to Registered Education Savings Plan withdrawal limits, extending Registered Disability Savings Plan qualifying family members provision, and new T4/T4A reporting requirements in connection with insured dental plans, see our Employee Benefit Plan Round Up.

---