Calgary, Alta., March 30, 2023 –
ECO Canada celebrates the Government of Canada’s 2023 budget, which focuses on renewed support and investment to help young professionals transition into the environmental workforce. These measures will ensure that students gain the necessary skills, education, and real-life work experience to transition successfully into careers supporting a robust Canadian economy.
ECO Canada hopes the Government of Canada will make the Student Work Placement Program a permanent program to address the long-term needs for environmental workers. There is also hope for continued industry support from public investments to deliver a sustainable jobs plan that will fill the need for all newly available environmental jobs. With nearly 30 per cent of the current workforce expected to retire in the next decade, there is a growing need to attract new talent, including equity-seeking groups and mid-career transitioners. By 2025, it is expected to develop and upskill existing workers to fill over 170,0000 environmental job openings.
“The announcement from the Government of Canada to continue its support for Work Integrated Learning and Student Work Placement Programs through partnerships between employers and post-secondary education institutions is welcome news,” said Kevin Nilsen, President & CEO of ECO Canada.
These initiatives align with ECO Canada’s organizational mission, and the government’s renewed commitment to job creation, skills development, and green investments will support the growing environmental industry. Continued ongoing funding for the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program and newcomer integration would address the long-term needs of the industry.
This recent budget announcement will continue helping students develop work-ready skills, particularly in an increasingly complex and evolving environmental labour market. ECO Canada’s commitment to the environmental workforce has created more than 14,000 job placements, and the federal subsidies released through our program oversight amounted to over $150 million in the last five years.
“With continued government support, we can continue to build the world’s leading environmental workforce and supplement our Environmental Professionals (EP®) of over 3,000 members,” said Kevin Nilsen, President & CEO of ECO Canada.
ECO Canada remains dedicated to building a robust environmental workforce by helping students transition from post-secondary institutions to the workforce. The organization remains committed to ensuring Canada has an adequate supply of professionals with the demonstrated skills and knowledge to meet the environmental human resource needs. This includes the public and private sectors with training, certification, employment programs and partnerships.
About ECO Canada:
ECO Canada is the steward of the Canadian environmental industry. From job creation and wage funding to training and labour market research – we champion the end-to-end career of an environmental professional. We aim to promote and drive responsible, sustainable economic growth within the industry while ensuring that environmental care and best practice are priorities. Over the past 30 years, we have forged academic partnerships, tools, and research to train and certify environmental job seekers and help fill the labour market.
We work alongside government, policymakers, academia, students, employers, professionals, industry, and international audiences to ensure we support Canada as a global leader in innovative workforce solutions and job creation. We remain the go-to source in the environmental labour market; our research provides unmatched statistics and analysis on the industry’s economic and labour trends that identify workforce gaps.
For more information, contact:
Aaron Wilson
VP, Marketing & Sales
ECO Canada
