CALGARY — The feds are spending over $180,000 on a baking apprenticeship for youth in Saint Lucia, which was announced quietly on their website.The country located in the eastern part of the Caribbean, will receive $181,813 of Canadian taxpayer money which began being dispersed in February, to be given to the country's unemployed youth ages 18 to 29 to work at 12 different bakery operations. The program claims to target 30 youth from "underserved communities with limited access to skills training and certification."These youth will undergo over 12 months of training to earn a certification, which will qualify them for "improving employability and helping meet workforce needs in the baking sector.".Global Affairs Canada purports to encourage "inclusion" through accepting 20% of the candidates from its "Offenders’ Reintegration Project," who were previously convicted of crimes.In doing so, they believe they are also "supporting gender equity."Overall, the feds hope to see a shift from the "negative perceptions of the baking industry" and "strengthen socio-economic prospects for youth across key communities in Saint Lucia."While this may be an attempt to aid youth employment in Saint Lucia, some online are criticizing the efforts for not prioritizing the unemployment crisis among Canadian youth. ."Liberal Ottawa just put $182,000 into a baking apprenticeship program in St. Lucia," wrote L. Wayne Mathison on X."Meanwhile, Canadian youth unemployment hit the highest level outside a recession since 1997, and the teen rate is near 20%."Youth (ages 15 to 24) unemployment was 13.4% in May, and in April, this statistic was 14.3%.According to an April report by the Fraser Institute, the gap between the unemployment rate for youth and that of adults (at 5.7%) in 2025 reached an all-time high..Bank of Canada admits another forecasting miss as recession concerns grow.They also cite the youth unemployment rate reaching an unprecedented level for an economy "not in recession."Statistics Canada admitted at the end of May the economy met the definition of a recession. "We are training bakers in the Caribbean while our own kids can’t get hired at the corner cafe," continued Mathison in response to the apprenticeship grant."Tell me again who this Carney government works for."
