October 10, 2014
Homegrown Manitoba Business Cashes in on First Canada Job Grant
– – –Grant Creates More High-skilled Jobs, Increased Business Opportunities: Premier Selinger
Winnipeg-based business, Oxygen Technical Services Ltd., will almost double its workforce after being awarded the first Canada Job Grant, Premier Greg Selinger announced today.
“We congratulate Oxygen Technical Services on being the first grant recipient and are proud to be the first province in Canada to have been awarded a Canada Job Grant,” said Premier Selinger. “We have a strong track record of supporting employer-led training that responds to the needs of industry. We look forward to continuing our successful partnerships with local business to grow our workforce and create good jobs for Manitoba families.”
Oxygen Technical Services will now be able to provide training to 15 current employees and hire an additional seven people. This will build capacity and expertise within the company, and allow them to expand their services and business lines, Premier Selinger said.
Oxygen Technical Services provides information technology consulting services and service contracts to small and medium-size businesses allowing clients to access the latest computer and network designs, high-speed connectivity, website design and e-commerce solutions.
“We are thrilled to be the first company in Canada to receive a job grant,” said Brian Oleksiuk, president, Oxygen Technical Services. “The training our staff will receive will provide them with valuable skills and will enable us to increase our service delivery capacity, expand to new markets and accelerate our plans for continued growth. Growing, dynamic companies like ours value this kind of support. With it,we are able to measure immediate success and we are grateful to both levels of government for making it possible.”
Throughout negotiations with the federal government, Manitoba emphasized the importance of making sure Manitobans more broadly maintained access to training support including vulnerable workers and smaller companies.
“We are glad that our local small and medium-size enterprises like Oxygen will be able to access this funding to expand their businesses and create new jobs,” said the premier.
Labour market survey statistics released by Statistics Canada today indicate strong growth of 7,000
full-time jobs in Manitoba last month. All of these jobs were in the private sector and over half were in construction and manufacturing. Manitoba’s unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 5.3 per cent for September 2014, third lowest among provinces and below Canada’s rate of
6.8 per cent.
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