Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today the Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development, made an announcement which may be beneficial to UBJCA apprentices in Ontario.
The Minister announced that apprentices who have taken advantage of the “Loans for Tools” program will be eligible to have the unpaid portions of their outstanding loans forgiven.
In addition, the Minister announced a new “Ontario Tools Grant” program which is designed to provide money for apprentices to buy tools. Eligible apprentices in the construction trades will qualify for up to $600.00 in grant money. To be eligible, an apprentice must:
have completed their Level 1 training on or before April 1, 2020;
have an active “registered training agreement”; and,
have been registered as an apprentice for at least 12 months.
The exact details, including how to apply, are not available yet. As soon as we have more information we will let you know but, in the meantime, could you inform potentially eligible apprentices and ask them to provide their names and contact information (email addresses) to their local unions so that we can also provide them with information directly as these programs get rolled out.
As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the Legal Department.
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