Province invests $120K to employ ex-inmates in Waterloo region, addressing labour shortage

The provincial government announced it's investing $120,000to employ 96 former intimates who served time in Waterloo region to address the labour shortage whileoffering them a second chance.

The grant was offered through the Skills Development Fund to the Community Justice Initiatives (CJI), whichwill implement the initiative and offer training or education to ex-intimates and potential employers. The fundingwill also allow CJI to do research into the field.

"One of the priorities for the government is to ensure that we fill labour shortages," Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills DevelopmentMonteMcNaughtontold CBC News.

"I think this is a great opportunity to lift all boats. I mean, there's over 300,000 jobs going unfilled today."

McNaughtonexplainedthat in the province, there are one million people with a criminal record.

"The overwhelming majority are for non-violent and petty crimes," McNaughton said, explaining that the initiative is "life changing."

According to a press release by Cambridge MPP Brian Riddell about the announcement, it's significantly more difficult to land a second job interview for people who have a criminal record

"We want to ensure that we're lifting people up. The single biggest way to reduce poverty and end the cycle of incarceration: by helping those with a criminal background finding meaningful and purpose driven careers,"McNaughton said.

Bringing more businesses on board

Kate Crozier, the CJI director of programs, says they to collaborate with more businesses in the community.

"We're looking to recruit businesses who are interested in hiring criminalized people and to support them with that endeavour," Kate Crozier told CBC News.

"For example, we heard from a call centre that they have a desperate need for employees and they were interested in us potentially referring people leaving prison to work at this call centre for a six-month period of time until they moved on to find other work."

The program officially began on April 1 despite being announced Thursday, and is targeting any ex-inmate regardless of the crime, Crozier said.