Winnipeg company earns first Canada Job Grant

WINNIPEG-It is a little later than Ottawa had expected, but the Canada Job Grant Program has its first recipient.

“We are receiving $37,000 and we are putting in $18,000,” said Brian Oleksiuk, the president of Oxygen Technical Services.

The Winnipeg-based IT company currently has 23 employees. The grant will allow for 15 of the workers to be further trained and an additional seven more will be hired within a year.

The money also allows the company to compete for bigger contracts. It just signed a deal with Dell.

“The funding allows us to go into markets that we haven’t gone into before a lot quicker than we planned to,” said Oleksiuk.

Stephen Harper was in Winnipeg Friday to congratulate Oleksiuk.

The Conservatives Job Grant Program was initially planned by the provinces because of how much money they would have to put in.

“It’s very challenging because it came out of our existing envelope of money,” said Greg Selinger, Manitoba’s Premier. “We’ve been able to negotiate sufficient flexibility that we can apply it to a wider array of people looking for work in Manitoba.”

Selinger says the program still isn’t perfect.

“We still have things to discuss and evaluate but we are off to a good start,” he said.

While in the city Friday, Harper was celebrating more that just the Job Grant Program.

“We had extremely positive job numbers,” said Harper to a room of camera people. Television reporters were not allow to be in room for his comments.

New numbers from Statistics Canada Friday showed the country’s economy generated 74,100 net new jobs last month.

The national unemployment rate is also at its lowest level in nearly six years.

Manitoba’s unemployment rate is now 5.3 per cent, down from 5.5 per cent the month before.