Barrie is allocating $250,000 to a skills development program designed to train people from disadvantaged communities for a career in residential housing construction.
In a last-minute amendment to a housing bylaw, deputy mayor Robert Thomson proposed funding a grant for a Barrie-based non-profit, Community Builders, for its Reframe initiative.
“We’re in a housing crisis and one of the issues is a labour shortage,” said Thomson. “Hopefully, this pays dividends in terms of us building houses.”
Reframe provides paid construction training to people facing barriers to employment. Over the course of its three-month program, 15 participants are paid to receive training in one of fifteen skilled trades.
“I’m happy to see this is moving forward,” said Ward 3 councillor Ann-Marie Kungl.
“Community Builders is a social enterprise doing really impressive work around training and accessible jobs in a great way that aligns with our strategy.”
Mayor Alex Nuttall also spoke in favour of the amendment, saying it was “wonderful” that Reframe was giving young people from all walks of life an opportunity to learn a trade.
“In Ontario, more than 700,000 people will be leaving the trades over the next ten years,” he said.
“This donation isn’t going to solve that — but it highlights where we need to see some funding put in place.”
The funds used to pay for the grant come from the Federal Housing Accelerator Fund, which provides local governments with capital to accelerate home construction projects. Through this fund, Barrie will receive $25,684,990 over the next three years.
“This is exactly what the fund is supposed to be used for,” said Nuttall. “We even asked the feds, ‘Does this make sense?’ And they gave us the nod.”
