KINGSTON--The Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, Honourable Marci Ien, announced the launching of 2022 Canada Summer Jobs Program.
This has been a long-standing Government of Canada Program whose goal is to help youth aged 15 to 30 obtain their first summer work experience. The Boys and Girls Club of Kingston, (BCG), hosted this event, and featured several guest speakers.
Minister Ien visited with youth at BCG South East in Kingston recently to share this announcement, affirming that the CSJ program will offer more than 140,000 placements for young people within the age category of 15 years of age to 30.
She began her visit by stating that, “It’s always a privilege, for me to connect with young people especially this time of the year, when I can talk with you about jobs, more specifically summer jobs. I think we can all remember what our first job was like, the lessons that we learned, the people that we met that broadened our world view and the skills that we have with us today.”
Minister Ien described her first summer job which was at a summer camp, where she developed leadership skills, in her position as a Counsellor. Ien projected her personality and openness with the guests and young adults at this forum, by sharing her own personal experiences as one where she gained so much by working with young people, sharing her hope that, “young people across the country can get that important first job as well.”
Those present heard the Minister speak about the pandemic and how hard those times have been on kids; with COVID-19 restrictions preventing young people from being with friends, and attending school in person. She highlighted the impact this has had on young Canadians stating that this is why the government is investing more money in order to provide more opportunities for young people to thrive, in the future.
Minister Ien expressed her pleasure in making her announcement regarding the CSJ program. “I am so pleased to announce that the hiring season for 2022 Canada Jobs program is now officially underway. Tens of thousands of job opportunities have been posted on the job bank website as well as the mobile APP. The URL is jobbank.gc.ca/youth.” Young people should check this website often as jobs will be updated frequently, until July 24 2022.
During her announcement, the Minister described what the true value of the CSJ program was, pointing out that it is meant to provide young people with opportunities to build confidence, earn income and lay the foundation for future success. She spoke about the importance of what she described as leveling the playing field for all Canadian youth, in particular those facing systemic barriers when looking for jobs.
It was made clear that CSJ gives priority to supporting projects that support youth who have not completed high school or a training program. Their focus as Ien stated is on, “providing opportunities for Black, Indigenous, racialized young people, as well as youth with disabilities and LGBTQ2 youth, because giving everyone equal opportunity is the right thing to do.”
The forum for the launching of Canada’s Summer Jobs program ended by reminding all young people that they should access the website given, apply for the thousands of jobs listed, so that they can begin experiencing the benefits of having their first summer job.