Fund to help create at least 7,500 jobs a year for ‘at-risk’ youth

George Smitherman’s plan to have business owners pay $10 million a year to subsidize jobs for “at-risk” youth played well in a Cabbagetown gym but might not be so welcome on Main Street.

The Get Youth Working Fund was among policies Smitherman released Thursday, Sept. 2, he said will create at least 7,500 jobs a year for young people when he’s mayor.“People need jobs and youth especially are struggling” to get a first job, the former MPP said after speaking with several young men and teens at the Cabbagetown Youth Centre.

The fund, he said, would cause commercial and industrial taxes to rise a “miniscule amount,” perhaps $70 on a $10,000 tax bill and “nowhere near” a percentage point, In return, it will cover training and up to 20 per cent of wages for employees under 25 and “at risk of long-term unemployment.”

A camera store owner before he was first elected, Smitherman suggested many retailers would respond to the incentive, “but those that don’t would subsidize those that do.”

TABIA, an association representing the city’s 68 Businesses Improvement Areas, disagrees with the plan.

John Kiru, its executive director, said any tax increase on commercial property, no matter how small it seems, “is a step backward.”

Small businesses are predominate employers of the city’s young people, but still don’t have a property tax rate competitive with Toronto’s neighbours, said Kiru, who argued keeping taxes low is the best way to encourage hiring.

“We are hiring what we can and how we can and will continue to do so.”

Smitherman also announced he would expand TTC, Toronto police and other city summer programs for youth employment and training. They are good but too small, he said.

The candidate would also arrange for youth jobs and apprenticeships whenever the city deals with contractors, and previously released a pledge to add $15 million to the city’s parks and recreation budget prior to the 2015 Pan-American Games.

A developer and carpenters union created as many as 50 youth apprenticeships for the re-development of Regent Park, and Smitherman said there is strong support in the local Building Trades Council for more such programs.

Around a table at the youth centre, less than a block from where he once lived, Smitherman heard from Michael Danchuk finding a job seems harder this summer.

A cook’s apprentice and mover in the past, Danchuk has lately been telemarketing, He has a son to support and dreams of an apprenticing in a trade so he can get a job paying more than minimum wage.

“Finding a day job is top priority right now,” he said.

Kaushik Jamadagni of St. Jamestown hopes to afford tuition for the University of Waterloo and also found searching for a summer job hard. “I tried at Tims and McDonalds and never got one,” he told Smitherman.

His brother, Kautilya admitted being a bit discouraged after applying for a job to a Toronto Police summer program. “People keep saying, ‘You apply for two or three years, then you get one,” said Jamadagni who volunteered instead as a videographer and librarian.

- Mike Adler

Posted in Mayoral race, News