The federal government is advancing a new generation of workforce development policies linked directly to Canada’s emerging industrial strategy. Somewhat reminiscent of the tripartite era of sector councils, unions are once again being invited to participate in a new workforce development structure, this time called the “Workforce Alliances.”
Unlike previous workforce initiatives, these new sectoral institutions are explicitly intended to support Canada’s evolving industrial strategy, particularly the federal government’s major projects agenda. Ottawa has announced six Workforce Alliance tables, which largely mirror the government’s industry, energy and transportation infrastructure initiatives. On a parallel track, a historic $6 billion funding stream to support Red Seal skilled trades training has also been launched.
Unions have ample experience with supply-side training programs. Too many have focused solely on meeting the labour supply needs of employers, with limited benefits for workers and no opportunity to build union power. Could this iteration of workforce policy be an opportunity for the labour movement to do better? Does it create an opening to influence industrial policy, labour standards and worker rights?
At a special panel during the 2026 conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) at Laval University in Quebec City, unions and labour academics came together to review the new Workforce Alliances and their associated training initiatives, and examine the opportunities for trade union engagement.
The presentations to the CIRA conference are collected in this compendium. Our goal is to start a bigger discussion among trade unionists and progressive researchers about a labour strategy that links workforce policy with labour standards and conditionalities across the industries and sectors receiving federal funding, including a larger role for unions in shaping industrial policy.
Several common themes emerge from the contributions collected here. First, workforce policy cannot be reduced to labour supply measures aimed solely at meeting employers’ skills needs. Second, sectoral institutions and public investments must be linked to stronger labour standards, worker retention and equitable employment outcomes. Finally, the Workforce Alliances raise broader questions about industrial governance and whether unions can use these new institutions to exercise meaningful influence over economic strategy and democratic decision-making.
Fred Wilson’s introductory paper traces the evolution of workforce policies from the old sector councils, to industry-led labour market information programs and now back to partial joint governance in the Workforce Alliances. In each case, the primary purpose has been to provide “labour market information,” or LMI, and training programs to meet employer needs. Yet, in this latest version of workforce policy, to meet the government’s promise of “not just jobs, but careers” will require going well beyond the LMI model. Labour’s goals in the new workforce policies must address sector and industry-based standards and industrial policies that create and sustain high-quality, value-added jobs.
Ken Delaney, the managing director of the Canadian Skilled Trades Employment Coalition (CSTEC), Canada’s longest-standing “sector council” model, speaks to the limits of the former sector councils that were confined by government agendas. CSTEC’s work highlights the promise of workforce programs to address worker transition, equity and inclusion, especially if workers are allowed to maintain EI benefits in training. The organization’s programs also demonstrate how the career-building potential of Red Seal training can be adapted to meet the needs of skilled workers in manufacturing and other sectors. Delaney encourages unions to seize the opportunity in the Workforce Alliances to integrate industrial policy with labour market policy.
Professor Evelyn Dionne’s study of the construction sector in Quebec warns that sector programs to increase labour force supply and speed up construction can lead to “a downward spiral marked by declining skill levels, lower-quality housing, inefficient green buildings and high turnover.” Dionne calls for project labour agreements (PLAs) to be incorporated into housing and construction projects in order to establish common and high-quality terms and conditions governing all workers and contractors. “By embedding training, equity and labour standards into procurement processes,” she writes, “PLAs can help ensure that accelerated construction does not come at the expense of quality or working conditions.”
After pressure from within the Liberal caucus, reinforced by advocacy from social policy and feminist advocates, the federal government agreed to establish a Workforce Alliance for the care economy. Laurell Ritchie, a member of the Care Economy Initiative, emphasizes that in the care economy, worker retention is as important as recruitment. Like industrial sectors, meeting workforce goals in the care economy will require sector-based programs and standards, and strong government leadership. The inclusion of the care economy among the Workforce Alliances is itself recognition that industry and workforce policy can be influenced by advocacy from unions and women’s organizations.
Unifor Research Director Angelo DiCaro’s contribution on the interrelationship between industrial policy and workforce policy underscores the need for the state to act as a “conductor” of a complex orchestra involving multiple public and private players. A weak state role leaves the government as a passive enabler of the private sector, resulting in “industrial improvisation” rather than industrial strategy. For the Workforce Alliances to make a real difference, they must go beyond workforce development—filling vacancies, and sponsoring training—to become well-rounded tables for “peak-level social dialogue” with “a whole-of-supply-chain approach” to labour standards and industrial growth.
As DiCaro aptly puts it, the Workforce Alliances could be “a vital cog in the wheel of industrial growth and rising workplace standards.” Alternatively, they could become an “unambitious and burdensome exercise, simply facilitating training fund transfers, and entirely delinked from future-facing industrial strategy.”
Prime Minister Carney has described this as a “hinge moment” for Canada, as we collectively face up to the unprecedented threat posed by Donald Trump and aggression from Washington. It is also a hinge moment for labour. The potential reorientation of Canada’s economy away from deep dependence on U.S. export markets, with a greater role for active industrial policy and even public investment, carries both opportunities and risks for unions and the workers they represent.
The Workforce Alliances are an opportunity for unions to shape this historic economic moment, leveraging workers’ position at the point of production to demand both material progress and democratic power as this pivot unfolds. Canada’s unions must demonstrate that they have the organizational capacity and political leverage to bring a working-class agenda to the Workforce Alliances, and help to shape this new era of industrial policy in favour of workers.
The Centre for Future Work is a resource for Canadian researchers, unionists, and policymakers on the key issues underlying workforce and industrial policy, including economic policy, worker voice and sectoral bargaining.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives intends to serve as an ongoing hub for research, dialogue and policy development on the Workforce Alliances and related questions of industrial strategy and labour market governance.
About the authors
Ken Delaney
Ken Delaney is executive director of the Canadian Skilled Trades Employment Coalition (CSTEC) and a veteran labour relations and workforce policy practitioner. He has held senior positions with the United Steelworkers and advised governments, universities and industry organizations on industrial strategy, labour adjustment, and workforce development.
Angelo DiCaro
Angelo DiCaro is Director of Research at Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union and the primary union and lead voice of autoworkers in Canada. He is a member of the CCPA’s Trade and Investment Research Project (TIRP).
Evelyn Dionne
Evelyn Dionne is Professor of Labour Relations in the Department of Organization and Human Resources and School of Management Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal UQAM, and PhD candidate in Industrial Relations, Université Laval.
Peggy Nash
Peggy Nash is a former senior union negotiator, a former member of parliament, and is a senior advisor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her book, Women Winning Office: An activist’s guide to getting elected, is available at Between the Lines.
Laurell Ritchie
Laurell Ritchie is a retired national representative with the Canadian Auto Workers/Unifor and a long-time organizer and activist with labour, feminist and social justice coalitions including the Good Jobs for All Coalition.
Jim Stanford
Jim Stanford is an economist and the director of the Centre for Future Work.
Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson is retired Director of Strategic Planning with Unifor (previously Assistant to the President with the Communications Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada). Author of A New Kind of Union (Lorimer, 2019). Follow his writing on labour and issues at medium.com/@jefred.wilson
