The federal government and the City of Toronto announced Thursday that they will invest in a new employment support program for racial, sexual and francophone minorities in the technology sector.
The program, named Elevate Talent, will aim to provide tools (training, job search, partnerships with companies) to 5,300 minority job seekers in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton to integrate into a sector with 70,000 open jobs.
To do this, Ottawa is providing $ 5.8 million to the non-profit organization Elevate, which connects applicants and businesses and will manage the program.
Our message is clear,” said the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, during a virtual press conference: “We are here to support a strong, skilled, diverse and inclusive economy for all.
The City of Toronto, which will help fund Elevate Talent, wants to “leverage our burgeoning technology industry, world-class post-secondary institutions and community partners to ensure that everyone is involved in our economic recovery, ”in the words of Mayor John Tory.
Sharp rise in unemployment among some minorities during the pandemic
Members of certain cultural communities were particularly affected, in terms of work, during the pandemic. Over the past winter, the unemployment rate rose 7.6 percentage points among Canadians of Southeast Asian origin from December to January, according to Statistics Canada. The increase was 5.5 percentage points among blacks and 4.5 percentage points among Canadians of Latin American origin over the same period.
In comparison, the unemployment rate rose by only 0.6 percentage point for the general population.
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