Members of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce gathered for a luncheon and were addressed by Patty Hajdu, minister of jobs and families and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario (FedNor).
Hajdu’s key message in Thunder Bay is that the federal government stands with Northern Ontario.
“Budget 2025 is designed explicitly for this moment, a hinge moment in the history of our country in challenging economic times with the imposition of tariffs and with the uncertainty that we are facing with our largest trading partner,” Hajdu told the gathering.
“Budget 2025 says we can build up our own strength, we can protect our sovereignty by investing in ourselves, and we can give more to ourselves than any other country can take away.”
Among the many topics, Hajdu (L – Thunder Bay-Superior North) spoke in detail about building skilled trades capacity, which she said involves a two-part challenge.
“One is attracting people to the skilled trades, and that’s work that we all have to do through various levels of education and earlier access to exposure to the skilled trades,” she said, adding that’s provincial work, making sure people know about the value and the opportunity in the skilled trades.
“But the second piece is making sure that people can actually enter, afford to enter and complete their skilled trades training and that’s where the federal government comes.”
She pointed out that the government supports tradespeople through grants and contributions, as well as by supporting unions to enhance their attraction of people to the trades.
She said youths are navigating through tough times trying to find jobs.
Hajdu said younger people are often the first to feel the impact of an economic slowdown, of changes in technology or job availability. To help alleviate this, there will be 100,000 Canada Summer Jobs all across the country and she urges any businesses that are recipients of Canada Summer Jobs to submit their applications.
Hajdu also talked about the impacts of artificial intelligence technology and said she was both fascinated and terrified by it all.
“It’s clear that AI is rapidly transforming workplaces, processes and procedures from scheduling and inventory management to quality control, and logistics,” she said.
“Businesses are already using AI tools to increase productivity and make better decisions. Budget 2025 includes significant investment in AI infrastructure and capacity with almost $926 million over five years to strengthen domestic AI capacity support, digital infrastructure and enable strategic technology deployment across the economy.”
Hajdu says it is important to speak with chamber members.
“Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. They employ well over 95 per cent of the Canadian workforce, and to have a chamber of commerce that’s as vibrant as ours here in Northern Ontario, it’s a really big opportunity for me as a member of Parliament to demonstrate my willingness to partner with those small businesses, to support the efforts of the chamber and to be responsive to the needs that small- and medium-sized businesses are expressing through the Chamber.”