Ontario Puts $3.9 Million Into Women in the Trades

Ontario is putting nearly $3.9 million through the sixth round of the Skills Development Fund training stream into four projects meant to move more than 310 women, including survivors of gender-based violence, into the skilled trades. The announcement was in Kitchener. Mentorship, employment supports, employer connections. The government's own pitch is financial independence and a workforce that can hold up against U.S. tariffs.

More than half of the money goes to Women's Crisis Services of Waterloo Region to train 42 survivors as carpenters and machine mechanics, among other trades. A Toronto emergency shelter gets more than $900,000 to put 100 survivors through HVAC, gas fitting and other construction work.

The cash sits inside a $2.5 billion Skills Development Fund. After an October 2025 auditor general finding that the selection process was neither fair nor transparent, the government says it added lobbyist disclosures and tighter project evaluation.

Trades labour is a price. Homes, plants and hospitals do not get cheaper when the crew is short. $3.9 million is a small tap on a large fund. The shortage is the inflation.