Time for an Alberta Apprentice Tax Credit

Alberta has a record 72,748 registered apprentices. The employers training them get nothing from the province. Not a small grant. Not a modest credit. Zero.

Ontario pays employers up to $17,000 per apprentice. Nova Scotia — fewer than a million people — pays up to $30,000. B.C. and Manitoba both write cheques. Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only major provinces that don't.

Ottawa's Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit doesn't close the gap: $2,000 a year, Red Seal trades only, first two years only, and non-refundable. The small contractor without much tax payable — the shop training most of Alberta's apprentices — gets the least out of it.

So ICBA Alberta has an ask, laid out in a new policy brief. A refundable Employer Training Tax Credit worth 25% of apprentice wages, capped at $5,000 per apprentice a year, running through Years 1 to 4, with a top-up when an apprentice makes journeyperson. Then a second tier for employer-led school programs like McKee Homes' Building Futures in Airdrie, which has put more than 330 Grade 10 students on real job sites over 13 years.

Start with Years 1 and 2 — roughly $47 million to $93 million — then review and expand.

Against that: BuildForce Canada says Alberta needs 59,000 more construction workers by 2034, and more than 43,000 current ones will retire. Importing them is the expensive option.

88% of Alberta's construction workforce is open shop. They're already training the province's tradespeople. Alberta just isn't backing them.

Read the full ICBA Alberta policy brief here.