Dear Members of the Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council:
I am writing to thank you for the Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council’s first annual report, which was presented to me and the Minister of Jobs and Families on November 14, 2025. I recognize the considerable work of the Council, including its in-person engagement activities, and appreciate its expertise and advice. I am pleased to respond to the Council’s recommendations and to provide an update on continued collaborative efforts across departments to support the objectives of the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act.
The Council’s work and recommendations are timely and relevant as Canada undergoes significant economic shifts related to geopolitical and global trade dynamics. Alongside these dynamics, countries around the world are transitioning to clean energy and low‑carbon industries, and Canada must not be left behind. The Climate Competitiveness Strategy, announced in Budget 2025, creates the conditions to drive the investments needed to build a prosperous net-zero future in which Canadian businesses and industry are well positioned to compete and lead in the global low-carbon economy.
The Government of Canada is building one strong Canadian economy by driving investment, accelerating nation-building projects, and diversifying its trade relationships, while advancing climate competitiveness. Clean and conventional energy, natural resources, and sectors critical to the net-zero transition are key drivers of job creation, economic growth, and export opportunities.
Across the country, there are strong examples of Indigenous leadership in critical sectors, including energy and natural resources, demonstrating clear alignment between Canada’s mandate and notable examples of self-determined economic priorities being advanced by Indigenous nations. The Government of Canada remains committed to building a strong economy in partnership, seeking opportunities to align economic interests and priorities, and working together with an unwavering commitment to upholding Indigenous rights and creating opportunities for meaningful Indigenous participation, including equity opportunities.
Industrial Strategies: The Council’s report recommends developing long-term industrial strategies that contribute to the creation of sustainable jobs and address current job losses, including by leveraging public procurement and new approaches to enable private capital for industrial investments, investing in regional economies, and supporting Indigenous ownership, participation, and oversight models for major projects.
Building the economy of the future requires ensuring that workers and industries are equipped to seize opportunities. The Government of Canada is taking a three-pronged approach to its industrial vision, focusing on protecting industries and jobs, creating jobs and industries, and attracting investment and talent.
The Government of Canada recently launched the Strategic Response Fund to protect good jobs in key sectors such as steel, aluminum, automotive, and forest products by supporting large-scale projects that build economic resilience in industries affected by trade disruptions. Several of these sectors are fundamental to Canada’s net-zero transition and to ensuring climate competitiveness, such as green steel, clean technology manufacturing, and electric vehicles. The Government is also implementing the Buy Canadian Policy, which prioritizes Canadian content and suppliers in strategic federal procurement while strengthening Canada’s domestic economy for businesses and workers. This approach, including prioritizing Canadian materials such as steel and forest products, has strong potential to increase opportunities for Canadian workers, including in businesses and industries directly linked to net-zero objectives.
Through the Major Projects Office, the Government of Canada is advancing projects and transformative strategies to connect Canada’s economy, diversify its industries and trade opportunities, and create high-paying careers. Many of these projects will advance Canada’s climate competitiveness and clean growth, including various critical mineral projects, the Darlington New Nuclear Project, the Wind West Atlantic Energy strategy, and others. The Government is committed to accelerating the development of these projects as part of its industrial strategy, in consultation and partnership with First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Modern Treaty and Self-Governing Peoples, including upholding historic and modern treaty and self-government commitments, as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
The Government of Canada recognizes that industrial strategy and workforce development must go hand in hand to drive Canada’s economic transformation. The Government’s economy-wide actions on workforce development will have direct positive impacts on net-zero sectors and the workers within them. Key recent actions include:
- Launching new Workforce Alliances to bring together employers, unions, and industry groups to address urgent labour market challenges, coordinate investments in skills development, and implement tailored workforce development strategies, including in sectors undergoing significant shifts to lower emissions and that are of high importance to net zero, such as energy and critical minerals.
- Investing in the Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund to help businesses in key sectors and regions recruit and retain the workforce they need. This investment will help drive growth and advance industrial strategies while responding to federal priorities, as well as sectoral, regional, and local workforce development needs.
Skills Development and Training: The Council’s report recommends strengthening skills and training for existing workers and new entrants to the workforce, including enhanced First Nations, Inuit, and Métis capacity building. It also highlights forecast labour shortages in key sectors such as energy and construction, and the need for enhanced collaboration with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments on skilled trades, labour mobility, and credential recognition.
The Government of Canada is taking action to expand access to skills development and supports for workers and employers as industries evolve. Strengthening training systems and ensuring workers can adapt to industry transitions, including the shift toward low-carbon energy and clean technology, is essential to Canada’s long-term economic success.
To meet growing skills demands, the Government has invested in training and workforce development in the low-carbon economy, including:
- The Sustainable Jobs Training Fund, which supports a series of training projects that help workers upgrade or gain new skills, including in artificial intelligence, for jobs in the low-carbon economy. The Fund focuses on low-carbon energy and carbon management, green buildings and retrofits, as well as electric vehicle maintenance and charging infrastructure.
- The Union Training and Innovation Program – Sustainable Jobs Stream, which invests in projects that support unions and their partners in leading the development of green training for workers in the trades. The program supports projects that develop and deliver green training for journeypersons and apprentices in Red Seal trades that are key to reducing Canada’s emissions and advancing economic resilience.
- Labour Market Development Agreements with provinces and territories, which are investing $570 million over three years starting in 2025–2026 to support training and employment assistance for workers impacted by tariffs and global market shifts. The funding is helping provinces and territories deliver reskilling and employment supports for affected workers, including up to 66,000 workers in the steel and softwood lumber industries, as well as other sectors impacted by tariffs and global market shifts.
In addition to these targeted sustainable jobs programs, the Government of Canada, led by Employment and Social Development Canada, is also investing more broadly to address skilled trades workforce needs. This includes $75 million over three years (starting in 2026–2027) for the Union Training and Innovation Program to expand union-based apprenticeship training in Red Seal trades, particularly for construction and housing projects.
As announced in Budget 2025, the Government of Canada, led by Employment and Social Development Canada, proposes to invest $40 million over two years, starting in 2026–2027, to create a Youth Climate Corps, which will provide paid skills training and work opportunities for young Canadians in support of Canada’s transition to a low‑carbon and resilient economy in the following areas:
- climate adaptation and mitigation; and
- emergency response, recovery and resilience in communities across the country.
People-Centered Approach: The Council’s report recommends prioritizing a people-centered approach to creating and maintaining sustainable jobs, including reaffirming the principles in the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act, such as decent work, and ensuring federal funding programs are consistent with these principles. It also highlights investments in community infrastructure and social supports.
The Government remains committed to the guiding principles of the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act. Its approach to building a resilient economy includes ensuring that workers across Canada are supported throughout economic transformations, including the low-carbon transition. This includes ongoing dialogue through engagement and the work of the Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council.
Canada is focused on creating the conditions for high-quality jobs, including union jobs, across the broader economy, notably by advancing major energy and natural resource projects to create high-paying careers. The Government of Canada’s actions are fostering higher productivity, reducing barriers to labour mobility, accelerating project delivery, and improving upskilling opportunities for workers to strengthen industries and protect jobs in a changing global economy.
The recently published 2026–2030 Sustainable Jobs Action Plan could not have been developed without the Council’s input, and I thank the Council for its work and recommendations that have helped shape the Government’s approach.
Once again, I would like to thank the Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council for its continued partnership and leadership.
Yours sincerely,
The Honourable Tim Hodgson, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources