Manitoba non-profits offered subsidy for hiring students during pandemic

The Manitoba government is offering another subsidy to encourage student summer jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government is offering a flat rate of $6,000 to non-profits if they hire at least one student this summer.

It's the latest effort by the province to help students find summer work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Premier Brian Pallister says encouraging more summer jobs will help the province's economic recovery.  "Thousands of Manitoba students are ready, willing and eager to get to work," Pallister says.

He says it naturally builds on the Manitoba Summer Student Recovery Program (non-profits are elligible for up to $25,000 to hire five summer students) and the Manitoba Gap Program to help charities and non-profits build up their workforce, "and join in our Province's recovery efforts."

"We really believe that it's important... young Manitobans need the chance to get to work," he says. "Work beats living on subsidies, we need to give our people in Manitoba a way to work."

While not a criticism against federal subsidy programs, Pallister says in the long term people need to have opportunities to safely reenter the workforce.

In April, he also announced a $7 per hour wage subsidy to any non-profit or small business for up to five students hired for the summer.