The federal government is increasing funding to a youth intern program called Science Horizons, aimed at bolstering the clean technology industry.
Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna promoted the program in Calgary on Wednesday, saying the benefits of that sector are enormous.
“When it comes to clean technologies, the opportunities are in the trillions of dollars,” she said.
McKenna said the government is increasing funding to the Science Horizons program by more than $10 million, for a total of $14 million.
“We want to be supporting the companies that start small and are growing, and are creating good jobs now and even more jobs in the future.”
The program supports green jobs for youth by providing wage subsidies to companies that hire interns in the environmental and clean technology sectors. They must be recent college or university graduates eligible to work in science, technology, engineering or math.
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Companies receive a subsidy of $15,000 to hire an intern, which the minister staunchly defends.
“We have really smart young people, so I think it’s a great opportunity to make sure young people get the experience they need, and hopefully many go on to start companies, and create good companies that create good jobs here and also technologies we can export.”