Ontario Celebrating Workers on Labour Day

David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, issued the following statement to mark Labour Day:

“Today on Labour Day, we honour the workers who build our province and power our economy. You are the backbone of Ontario and the driving force behind our collective success.

Under Premier Doug Ford, our government has an ambitious plan to build the homes, highways, hospitals, and community infrastructure our growing province needs. Workers are the very heart of our plan. To get the future we want, we have to build it.

Thanks to our strong partnership with labour organizations, Ontario is leading the country in pro-worker policies, with first-in-Canada measures to support and protect workers including banning the use of Canadian work experience as a requirement in job postings; requiring menstrual products be provided on larger construction sites; and requiring washrooms provided to workers to be kept clean and sanitary – bringing clean bathrooms from Bay Street to Main Street.

We’re protecting the health and well-being of workers and frontline heroes by introducing the highest fines in Canada for bad actor employers who exploit their workers and reducing the duration of service for presumptive skin cancer coverage for firefighters, investigators, and wildland firefighters to 10 years – the lowest duration of service in Canada.

By bringing labour and industry together, we’re opening new pathways to employment and connecting jobseekers with employers. We delivered on our promise to bring streamlined, outcomes-oriented employment services to every region in the province under the Employment Services Transformation to connect vulnerable Ontarians with secure, fulfilling employment. We’re increasing the minimum wage to $17.20 per hour, the second highest in Canada. We’re growing Ontario’s workforce by training nearly 600,000 workers through our Skills Development Fund (SDF) – and we have announced the biggest round of SDF yet with up to $260 million to train and upskill workers for highly in-demand careers in construction, manufacturing, and health care.

Together with our labour partners, Ontario is delivering better training, better jobs, with bigger paychecks for workers across the province.

Today on Labour Day, and every day, our government is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our workers who are building a brighter future for Ontario.”