Youth Employment and Skills Program: Step 3. Before you apply

Review and consider the following information before you apply.

Sources of funding

You must clearly identify all sources of funding for the project, including your contribution and other industry and/or sources of funding including:

• other federal government departments^{Endnote 1}
• provincial/territorial governments^{Endnote 1}
• municipal government^{Endnote 1}
• Industry and/or partners such as:
  • industry associations and networks
  • businesses
  • academia

Your portion of the cost-share must be cash contributions. In-kind contributions are ineligible.^{Endnote 1}

Priority of applications

Applications from indigenous applicants will be prioritized for the 2023-2024 program year. The remaining applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Categories and definitions — Youth facing barriers

Indigenous

First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis are 3 main Indigenous groups the program aims to serve better in the labor market. A youth may self-identify as belonging to more than one of these 3 Indigenous groups. The program serves all of the Indigenous subgroups, including Non-Status First Nations.

Living with a disability (physical, mental health-related or learning disability)

Disability means any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment — or a functional limitation — whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person's full and equal participation in society.

Racialized youth (formerly visible minority)

Racialized youth are a group of people categorized according to ethnic/cultural characteristics and subjected to structural discrimination. The use of the term "racialized" acknowledges that race is a social construct that can negatively impact a person's social, political and economic life. (Examples: Black, East Asian, Latino/Latina/Latinx, Middle Eastern and/or North African, Pacific Islander, South Asian, Southeast Asian, mixed, another identity)

Recent newcomer to Canada

A newcomer youth is defined as having obtained permanent resident status in Canada; or, been granted permanent refugee status in Canada within the last 5 years.

2SLGBTQI+

2SLGBTQI+ is the acronym used to refer to the community of individuals in Canada who self-identify as Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and additional sexually and gender diverse people.

Person living in an Official Languages Minority Community (OLMC)

OLMC are defined by both their geographic location and collective identity associated with the use of an official language in a minority setting. A resident of an OLMC is an individual whose first official language is not the majority language in their province or territory. This includes:

• A Francophone residing outside of Quebec
• An Anglophone residing in Quebec

Residing in a remote, northern and/or fly-in community

The program recognizes that the lines separating remote, Northern, and Fly-in communities are not clear, and often overlap. For simplicity;

• A remote community is defined as one with no or little access to the services of the closest community with more than 1,000 residents and/or one that is without year-round road access.
• A northern community is considered to be any community in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon.
• A fly-in community refers to any community that requires scheduled or chartered flights to enter or leave for most of the year.

Living in a low income household

The program adopts Statistics Canada's definition of a Low-income household (after tax). The Low-income measure is a fixed percentage (50%) of median adjusted (after-tax) income of households.

• For a 1 person household: $26,570 or less
• For a 2 person household: $37,576 or less (for example, a child and one parent/guardian)
• For a 3 person household: $46,021 or less
• For a 4 person household: $53,140 or less
• For a 5 person household: $59,412 or less
• For a 6 person household: $65,083 or less
• For a 7 person household: $70,298 or less

Employee is a single parent

This refers to the participant as a single parent, and does not include youth who grew up in a single parent household.

Early school leaver of high school

An early school leaver is a person who has not completed the final year of secondary school (high school), or an equivalent level of education, and is not undertaking full-time study.

Considerations

M-30 Act (Quebec organizations only)

The Province of Quebec's M-30 legislation may apply to Quebec-based applicants only. It is the Act Respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif (R.S.Q., c. M-30).

More information on the act is available online or by contacting the Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation at dpci@mapaq.gouv.qc.ca.

All Quebec-based organizations will have to address this matter and demonstrate their compliance with the act during the application assessment process, and prior to entering into a contribution agreement.

Official languages

Language of service

Applicants and recipients are encouraged to communicate with AAFC in the official language of their choice. AAFC reviews and assesses applications and project deliverables in both official languages.

Language obligations of recipients

All public information documents related to the Project prepared by or paid in whole or in part by the Minister must be made available in both official languages, when the Minister determines that this is required under the Official Languages Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 31 [4th Supp.]).

Confidentiality

It is the Applicant's responsibility to clearly identify, on any documentation submitted to AAFC, the information that is considered commercially confidential. This information will not be disclosed unless required by law, including the Access to Information Act, or upon the express authorization of the Applicant.

Environmental considerations

If you answer "Yes" or "Unsure" to Question A and "Federal lands or lands outside Canada" or "Reserves, surrendered land or other land set apart for the use and benefit of a band and that are subject to the Indian Act" to Question B, further assessment may be required by AAFC. AAFC will contact you as necessary.

The purposes of the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) include ensuring that projects to be carried out on federal lands or outside Canada are considered in a careful and precautionary manner in order to avoid adverse environmental effects. Before AAFC provides financial assistance for the purpose of enabling a project on federal lands to proceed, it must determine whether the carrying out of the project, in whole or in part, is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help you answer the questions in the Project Application Form, examples and more information follow.

A. Is the proposal a "project" as defined by the IAA?

Examples of projects include:

• construction of a greenhouse
• installation of a permanent irrigation system
• building construction or demolition
• any other activity related to a permanent human-made work

Activities that are not considered projects include:

• administrative or marketing activities
• workshops
• training or hiring staff
• installation of temporary or portable systems
• any other activity not related to a physical work

B. Where does the project take place?

AAFC has certain obligations under the IAA, if providing financial assistance to projects on federal land. Under the IAA, "federal lands" means:

1. lands that belong to [His] Majesty in right of Canada, or that [His] Majesty in right of Canada has the power to dispose of, and all waters on and airspace above those lands, other than lands under the administration and control of the Commissioner of Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut;
2. the following lands and area:
   1. the internal waters of Canada, in any area of the sea not within a province,
   2. the territorial sea of Canada, in any area of the sea not within a province,
   3. the exclusive economic zone of Canada, and
   4. the continental shelf of Canada; and
3. reserves, surrendered lands and any other lands that are set apart for the use and benefit of a band and that are subject to the Indian Act, and all waters on and airspace above those reserves or lands.