Carney touts $6B skilled trades plan to hire 100,000 workers during Oakville stop

Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Oakville today to meet with skilled trades workers and promote his government’s $6-billion plan to hire up to 100,000 new workers over the next five years.

The prime minister toured a training facility before speaking further about the initiative, which he has dubbed “Team Canada Strong.”

“We’re creating something called Team Canada Strong which is more than a slogan,” Carney said. “It’s a slogan, but it’s more than a slogan.”

Carney said the government is committed to recruiting, training and hiring between 80,000 and 100,000 skilled trades workers within the five-year window.

“We are building this country strong. We are going to build for decades, and because of that it’s going to be a great time to be in the trades,” he said.

After the tour, Carney was asked about Canada’s involvement in a proposed multilateral defence bank, designed to help fund the rearmament of nations facing heightened risks.

“The core of what it would do is to finance the private sector in helping to build out in Canada and in other countries … to build out our defence capacity,” Carney said.

Speaking of defence, Carney insisted his government is doing an effective job of keeping Iranians associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) out of the country, after one former IRGC official was granted a visa.

“The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been listed as a terrorist organization for several years. The members are prohibited from coming. We have a series of screenings and we take action. And no members have entered the country, action has been taken appropriately.”

Carney is also downplaying efforts by Conservative MPs travelling to Washington to hear from White House officials about Canada-U.S. trade negotiations.

Carney said opposition members talking to American officials does not hurt his government’s ability to negotiate with President Donald Trump’s administration — but said it’s not going to help, either.

“In the end there’s one negotiator for Canada and that’s the government of Canada,” Carney said.

WATCH MORE: Canada projects lower deficit, tables $55B in new spending amid global trade uncertainty