Supporting Employers, Supporting Students, Serving Communities

February 18, 2009

Calling all employers!  The application period for Canada Summer Jobs 2009 started February 2nd.  The deadline for applications is February 27th, 2009

Canada Summer Jobs  helps employers provide students with productive summer work by offering financial assistance to not-for-profit organizations, public-sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees so they can create high-quality summer job opportunities for students between the ages of 15 and 30.

Not-for-profit employers are eligible for up to 100 percent of the provincial/territorial minimum hourly wage and mandatory employment-related costs.
Public-sector employers and small private-sector employers with 50 or fewer employees are eligible for up to 50 percent of the provincial/territorial minimum hourly wage.

The  Canada Summer Jobs program part of the Youth Employment Strategy which is comprised of initiatives aimed at providing secondary and post-secondary students with summer employment opportunities.

Students are eligible to participate if they:

• Are between 15 and 30 years of age;
• Have been registered as a full-time student in the previous academic year and intend to return to school on a full-time basis in the next academic year;
• Are Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or have official refugee protection status under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act; and
• Are legally entitled to work in Canada, according to relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulations.
  

Canada Summer Jobs plays a key role in meeting the needs of students, while supporting organizations providing important services to communities. In 2008, the Government of Canada concluded agreements with more than 20,000 organizations to support the creation of about 36,000 summer jobs for students.

Through Budget 2009, the Government of Canada is providing an additional $20 million over two years for Canada Summer Jobs.  And that’s not all.  Initiatives such as Canada Summer Jobs are only one way the federal government is helping students. 

Other measures the Government has taken include:

• Significantly increasing annual transfers to the provinces and territories for post-secondary education. These transfers are up by more than $1 billion since 2006. The Government is earmarking $3.2 billion for post-secondary education, in fiscal year 2008-2009, through the Canada Social Transfer.
• Committing $123 million over four years starting in 2009-2010 to streamline and modernize the Canada Student Loans Program. Every year, more than 300,000 students take advantage of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s Canada Student Loans Program to achieve their learning goals.
• Consolidating the Canada Student Grant Program.  This will provide $250 every month for low-income students and $100 a month for students from middle-income families.   For low-income students with dependants, the Program will also top-up the monthly payment to $200 per child under 12 years old. As well, the new low- and middle-income grants will be available for all years of undergraduate study, whether university, tech or trade school, or community college.
• Making it easier for students to manage their debt load by replacing the Interest Relief and Debt Reduction programs with the innovative Repayment Assistance Plan. Under this new plan, students would pay no more than 20 percent of their income towards their loans.
• Helping students with permanent disabilities to pursue post-secondary education by forgiving the loans of borrowers who are unable to repay their loans due to a severe permanent disability. As well, the Government will introduce an accelerated version of the Repayment Assistance Plan. This measure will ensure that students with permanent disabilities pay back only what they can afford, but for these students, no debt will remain after 10 years, as opposed to 15 years. It will also take into account the extra costs faced by disabled borrowers when calculating repayment assistance.
• Providing a 20-percent grant on contributions made to a Registered Education Savings Plans to help Canadian families put money aside for their children’s higher learning.
• Helping modest-income families to start saving early for their children’s post-secondary education through the Canada Learning Bond.

For more information on this or any of the Government’s initiatives on behalf of students and youth please go to http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/epb/yi/yep/programs/scpp.shtml or call the Youth Info Line at 1-800-935-5555. 

If you cannot find the information you need, please feel free to contact my office at 470-5075 or ron@cannan.ca