Ottawa hopes Canadian labour will support building agenda, Hajdu says

The Liberals’ fall budget — the first under Prime Minister Mark Carney — is expected to focus heavily on speeding up home construction and the development of nation-building projects across Canada.

At the press conference at a long-term care home in Ottawa where Hajdu made the pre-budget announcement, the minister was asked whether the federal government can achieve its building goals without importing additional workers.

“The hope is that we can have as much Canadian labour as possible,” she replied.

Hajdu said the federal government will work with unions in the skilled trades to “make sure that Canadians are positioned first and foremost to take advantage of those jobs.”

The federal Conservatives have accused the Liberals of letting multinational corporations use temporary foreign workers to scoop jobs from Canadians and are calling for the program to be scrapped.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Hajdu criticized the Conservative line of attack and said the Official Opposition was using the temporary foreign worker program as a stand-in for all forms of immigration.

“The temporary foreign worker program is very specific. It’s driven by the demand for a worker where no Canadian can be found to do that job,” she said.

The Liberals have reduced the number of temporary workers and international students entering Canada over the past year after a rapid run-up in labour supply during the pandemic recovery. Carney said last week the upcoming fall budget will include his government’s new immigration strategy.

The suite of jobs programs Hajdu announced Monday includes $75 million over the next three years to boost the Union Training and Innovation Program, an apprenticeship training program focused on the building trades.

Hajdu told The Canadian Press she has been hearing about a major shortage of workers with Red Seal Trade certifications allowing them to work anywhere in the country.

The Red Seal certification covers a broad range of trades, from construction and automotive professions to hairstyling.

The government said it also intends to work with provinces to speed up the recognition of foreign professional credentials through a $97 million fund, using money pulled from existing employment department resources.

Hajdu said that’s part of the broader government directive to find savings in all departments.

“The department has done a very thorough job of proposing reductions to areas where we’re not seeing the kinds of outcomes that we need to be seeing,” she said.

“This money is about trying to really elicit a faster and stronger reaction from provinces and territories, as they are the regulators that work with the licensing bodies. And it’s ultimately at the licensing bodies that we need to see the really fast work.”

The minister declined to say which areas of her department are losing money to pay for this program.

The upcoming budget bill will also include an amendment to the Canadian Labour Code to restrict the use of non-compete agreements in federally regulated workplaces, and a new refundable personal support worker tax credit worth up to five per cent of eligible income.

The credit is expected to save workers up to $1,100 a year in provinces that don’t already have sectoral wage supplement agreements with the federal government.

British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Northwest Territories struck such agreements with the federal government in 2023, but Hajdu said Ottawa could not reach deals with the rest of the provinces at the time.

“This is an opportunity to get money in the hands of the workers immediately through a tax credit,” she said.

Hajdu’s office estimates there are about 380,000 personal support workers in Canada.

Monday’s announcement was met by cheers from members of the Service Employees International Union working at the Extendicare Medex long-term care home in Ottawa.

Kelly Stephenson, an SEIU member and personal support worker for more than 20 years, was visibly emotional at the microphone as she thanked Hajdu for listening to PSWs’ calls for help after years of difficult conditions in the COVID-19 pandemic were compounded by the rising affordability crisis.

She described having little to nothing left after paying for rent and groceries, and said she knows PSWs who have resorted to living in their cars.

“We work shoulder to shoulder with doctors, nurses, technicians, and so many others who have the dignity of a middle-class life. I love that for them. But we too deserve financial security,” Stephenson said.

Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, welcomed the federal government’s announcements in a media statement Monday.

“These measures signal a shift toward putting workers at the heart of Canada’s economic strategy,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2025.

Note to readers:This is a corrected story. An earlier version misspelled the last name of Kelly Stephenson.