On February 17, 2026, a federal grant started topping up Employment Insurance on the days a worker is not working. The Worker Retention Grant, written into Natural Resources Canada’s 2026-2030 Sustainable Jobs Action Plan, runs until March 31, 2027. It is expected to help up to 26,000 people already on reduced hours, including steelworkers. Canadian steel producers exported just over half their output in 2024. More than 90 per cent of those shipments went to the United States.
The grant is not a standalone labour bulletin. It sits inside the first full five-year plan required by the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act, which received royal assent on June 20, 2024. The Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, signs the opening message. The Act names two ministers for the work: Energy and Natural Resources, and Jobs and Families. A sustainable job, the plan says, is any job compatible with Canada’s pathway to a net-zero-emissions and climate-resilient future that also reflects decent work. That means fair income, job security, social protection, social dialogue, and work that can support a worker and a family over time, including a job in which the worker is represented by a trade union that has entered into a collective agreement.
The plan’s three pillars are Build, Empower, and Protect. The steel numbers live in Empower.
Nine in ten shipments
“Canadian steel producers are highly trade exposed, exporting just over 50 per cent of their annual production in 2024, during which over 90 per cent went to the U.S.,” the plan states. It then records the federal response. Seventy million dollars over three years, through Labour Market Development Agreements with provinces and territories, is set aside for steelworkers. Supports are to be developed with workers, employers, and provincial and territorial governments to retrain and upskill up to 10,000 people. The money is for targeted training, reskilling supports, and job retention. The plan says these measures will benefit mid-career, long-tenured steelworkers affected by U.S. tariffs and global market shifts.
The Strategic Response Fund is attributed $5 billion over six years starting in 2025-26 for large projects in industries hit by trade disruptions, including steel, aluminum, forest products, and automotive. One billion of that is recorded for the steel industry’s transition toward new lines of business and stronger domestic supply chains. A Skills Partnership Agreement Framework, led by Employment and Social Development Canada, is to travel with that money. If a plant is re-tooled, the employer is expected to train existing workers, recruit new ones, and meet targets for underemployed groups so they can run the upgraded facility. “The SRF grows the organization’s infrastructure; the language proposed through the SPAF ensures the organization grows its people,” the plan says.
In 2025, the government introduced temporary Employment Insurance flexibilities for workers affected by tariffs. The one-week waiting period is waived. Some rules on monies paid at separation are suspended. Long-tenured workers get 20 extra weeks of income support. Work-Sharing, the program that pays EI to employees who agree with their employer to cut hours rather than take layoffs, got temporary enhancements the same year to ease access and extend the duration of agreements. The February 17 grant sits on top of that. It is available to eligible employers in every sector who already have an active Work-Sharing agreement and who commit to training the people on reduced hours. The top-up is for training days. The expected caseload includes steel, softwood lumber, automotive, and other high-tariff-exposed sectors.
The auto industry, the plan says, supports over 500,000 workers and contributes over $16 billion a year to GDP. Forestry and softwood lumber get $500 million over three years for new products and markets, a single-window pathfinding service, and a Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force. Labour Market Development Agreements carry $570 million over three years for training and employment assistance for workers hit by tariffs and global market shifts. A further $382.9 million over five years, plus $56.1 million ongoing, is recorded for Workforce Alliances and a Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund.
The alliances are to be set up in six areas: housing and construction; transportation and supply chains; advanced manufacturing, including AI; energy and electricity; mining and minerals; and the care economy.
Canadian steel in federal concrete
Build sits beside it. In August 2025, the government launched the Major Projects Office as a single point of contact to advance nation-building projects and speed federal decisions. In September it referred five projects and six transformative strategies to that office, representing over $60 billion in investment and the potential to create up to 34,000 jobs. A second tranche in November 2025 would add more than $56 billion and could support 68,000 good-paying careers.
The Darlington New Nuclear Project in Bowmanville, Ontario, would make Canada the first G7 country with an operational small modular reactor. The first of four planned units would supply power to 300,000 homes, support 200 long-term jobs, and create 1,600 jobs during construction. The McIlvenna Bay Foran Copper Mine, in collaboration with the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, would create 400 jobs, send copper to be smelted in Québec, and is expected to be Canada’s first net-zero copper project. The Iqaluit Nukkiksautiit Hydro Project, 60 kilometres from the capital on the Kuugaluk River, is described as 100 per cent Inuit-owned. It proposes a 15 to 30 megawatt facility to replace imported diesel. Wind West Atlantic Energy aims at more than 60 gigawatts of offshore wind potential, with a first 5,000 megawatt phase that could generate 24 terawatt-hours a year. Pathways Plus, an Alberta carbon-capture initiative, is recorded as currently under consideration. Alto, Canada’s first high-speed rail line, would run roughly 1,000 kilometres from Toronto to Québec City at speeds up to 300 kilometres an hour, target 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide savings, and aim to create 51,000 jobs over 10 years.
The construction steel has a procurement rule attached. Effective December 2025, new federal procurement rules under the Buy Canadian policy require that large federal construction and defence purchases use Canadian-produced steel, aluminum, and wood products. The Build Communities Strong Fund, $51 billion over 10 years starting in 2026-27 and $3 billion a year ongoing, is to encourage recipients to consider unionized labour and Community Employment Benefits Agreements. Build Canada Homes, launched in September 2025 with $13 billion in initial funding, is to prioritize low-carbon materials, low-carbon technologies, and Canadian materials.
The Clean Economy investment tax credits carry a wage test. For the carbon capture, clean technology, and clean hydrogen credits, claimants who do not meet prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements see the credit rate reduced by 10 percentage points.
Four weeks of additional training
The plan cites Statistics Canada on environmental and clean technology jobs: 296,596 in 2020, 325,567 in 2021, 359,023 in 2023, and 363,094 in 2024. It also cites the Centre for Civic Governance for a much larger figure, an estimate that investments to support Canada’s net-zero commitments could generate up to 9.5 million jobs by 2050 in construction work alone.
The occupations it lists as in demand are not new titles. Construction trades helpers. Crane and heavy equipment operators. Industrial and power system electricians. Steamfitters, pipefitters, and sprinkler system installers. Welders. Millwrights. Power engineers. Plant operators. Civil engineers, the plan says, have a median wage in Canada of $48.56 an hour. Heavy equipment operators: $32.50.
Several studies, the plan reports, find that many workers already hold skills that transfer. Research from the C.D. Howe Institute found that industrial engineers in the fossil fuel industry possess many of the skills needed for roles in wind energy. A report from the International Energy Agency, cited globally rather than as a Canadian count, estimates that half of all workers in fossil fuel sectors who face redundancy risks this decade have skills demanded by growing clean energy sectors and could switch into new roles with around four weeks of additional training. A Conference Board of Canada report with the Future Skills Centre said core skills such as communication, problem-solving, and adaptability will remain relevant.
The training lines already in motion are smaller and named. The Ontario Masonry Training Centre is to upskill 350 bricklayers across five provinces in low-carbon retrofitting. The Carpenters’ Regional Council is to upskill 1,600 apprentices and journeypersons across seven provinces in mass timber, building envelopes, and rigging and hoisting. The Union Training and Innovation Program’s Sustainable Jobs Stream, according to the interim progress annex, announced more than $67 million across 10 projects in March 2025 to help about 29,300 apprentices and journeypersons. As of November 2025, Employment and Social Development Canada had committed $58.6 million to eight active projects. The Sustainable Jobs Training Fund announced eight projects with over $75 million to help more than 10,000 workers in low-carbon energy and carbon management, green buildings and retrofits, and electric vehicle maintenance and charging infrastructure.
A Youth Climate Corps is recorded at $40 million over two years starting in 2026-27, for paid climate-related and emergency-response skills training. Natural Resources Canada’s Science and Technology Internship Program, Green Jobs, has created over 6,000 green jobs for youth since 2017. About 80 per cent of participants secure employment after the program. About 80 per cent are from an employment-equity group.
On critical minerals, the plan restates the 2022 strategy and the 2023 scale: $40 billion in GDP, about 110,000 direct and indirect jobs, and nearly half of the world’s publicly listed mining and mineral exploration companies based in Canada. Budget 2025 measures recorded here include a First and Last Mile Fund of $1.5 billion until 2030, a Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund of $2 billion over five years, and $443 million over five years, with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, to support the Defence Industrial Strategy, including processing technologies and a stockpiling mechanism. Electricity and nuclear strategies are committed for 2026. The electricity discussion paper’s stated goal is to double Canada’s electricity systems while pursuing a low-carbon grid by 2050. The federal government, the plan says, recognizes a shortage of skilled tradespeople for that buildout.
Coal is already moving. The government is taking steps to phase out unabated coal-fired electricity by 2030. Alberta completed its phase-out in 2024. Remaining active stations are in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan. The Canada Coal Transition Initiative and its infrastructure fund were allocated $185 million in total. In Coronach, Saskatchewan, $1.95 million for a fibre-optics upgrade is recorded as maintaining 100 jobs and creating, maintaining, or expanding 60 businesses. In Leduc County, Alberta, $17.7 million for the Nisku Spine Road is expected to create about 950 local jobs. In Belledune, New Brunswick, $1.7 million went to a port master plan for the coal phase-out.
What the codes cannot see
The Act requires the plan to draw on the best available labour market and economic data. An environmental scan of federal data products, the plan says, found strong demographic coverage and job-quality indicators, and also found a gap. Most federal data products rely on four-digit NAICS codes, which often group net-zero and net-zero-enabling activities with other related industries. That makes it difficult, the plan states, to distinguish zero-emission vehicle manufacturing from internal combustion engine vehicle manufacturing, or to disaggregate clean-tech workforces by age, gender, or job quality without raising privacy concerns in small or nascent industries.
About 80 submissions came in from Indigenous organizations, provincial and territorial governments, industry, labour, environmental groups, municipalities, training bodies, equity organizations, and academia. The Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council, whose two co-chairs and eight members were appointed in February and March 2025, is to give annual independent advice. The minister is to provide a formal response.
The next progress report on this Action Plan is due by June 1, 2028. Additional progress reports are required every fifth year after that. The plan is to be updated every five years, with the next edition scheduled for early 2031, covering 2031 to 2035. The grant already has a start date. The steel export figures already have a year. The wage test on the tax credits is already in the text.
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Source Documents
Natural Resources Canada. (2026). Building a prosperous future for workers and communities: Canada’s 2026-2030 Sustainable Jobs Action Plan (Cat. No. M4-286/2026E-PDF).
This article seems to describe an amazing string of practical, interrelated, sustainable, governmental actions to midwife a new after-tariffs national economy. Hansard excels.
e.g. "It also cites the Centre for Civic Governance for a much larger figure, an estimate that investments to support Canada’s net-zero commitments could generate up to 9.5 million jobs by 2050 in construction work alone."
Trade with the USA will happen. Trump or no Trump.
Doesn't paying people's wages and training for jobs that may exist many years from now or perhaps not at all bother you?