Canada Summer Jobs 2025: Applications Open

Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) applications for 2025 are open. Applications are due December 19, 2024 at 11:59pm PST. As always, charity leaders need to make up their own minds as to whether they are comfortable with the terms and conditions attached to CSJ funding. To help you decide, we’ll look at the requirements for 2025 as set out in the Applicant Guide and the Articles of Agreement.

Key Dates

• December 19, 2024 – deadline to apply
• April 21, 2025 – earliest job start date
• July 21, 2025 – latest job start date
• August 30, 2025 – latest job end date

Funding confirmation will be sent to employers starting in April 2025 and will continue into the summer months.

Understanding & Navigating the CSJ Application

The first place to go to understand what the CSJ program requires is the CSJ Applicant materials, including:

• 2025 Applicant Guide
• Articles of Agreement
• Application
• Employee Consent Form
• Employer and Employee Declaration

Quick Overview

Most of the program requirements are the same as the 2024 CSJ Program [link to blog] requirements. There are vey few significant, substantive changes. The Applicant Guide has been restructured in helpful ways, with more information on how to change something in your application, what information becomes public, and addressing technical issues.

It seems Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) also wants to remind the public of a few things:

• Applications that are incomplete or contain errors may be refused
• Applications must meet all 15 eligibility requirements
• Past performance or issues of project defaults may impact eligibility
• Read the privacy notice statement
• Approved applications create a legally binding contracted by the Government of Canada and the applicant organization

Eligibility Information

The eligibility criteria is essentially unchanged. Minor edits have to been made to clarify that “youth teleworking outside Canada” is an ineligible job activity. But the core elements remain the same.

Eligible Employers *UNCHANGED*

Eligible employers includes not-for-profit employers and the Applicant Guide again explicitly includes faith-based organizations (for example, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques).

Ineligible Employers *UNCHANGED*

Recall that a new category of “ineligible employers” was added to last year’s guide: organizations that engage in activities that directly or indirectly infringe, undermine, weaken, or restrict the exercise of human rights legally protected in Canada

Eligible Projects *UNCHANGED*

Eligible Projects must meet 15 requirements and the conditions of the Articles of Agreement. The 15 requirements are:

• Submit before the deadline
• Check attestation
• Complete application
• Employer is eligible
• Project activities are eligible
• Job is 6-16 consecutive weeks
• Job is 30-40 hours per week
• Declare other sources of funding
• Salary must respect minimum wage requirements
• Declare money owing to the Government of Canada
• Demonstrate adequate health and safety measures
• Demonstrate harassment and discrimination-free hiring, work environment
• Have a supervision plan
• Have a mentoring plan
• Past results of CSJ applications

Ineligible Projects & Activities *UNCHANGED*

The list of ineligible projects and activities remains the same. Ineligible projects and activities includes: activities outside of Canada, that are of personal service to an employer, are partisan political activities, that are fundraising activities to cover the youth’s salary and, project or job activities that:

• Restrict access to programs, or services, or employment, or otherwise discriminate, contrary to applicable laws, on the basis of prohibited grounds, including sex, genetic characteristics, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression;
• Advocate intolerance, discrimination, and/or prejudice; or
• Actively work to undermine or restrict a woman’s access to sexual and reproductive health services

The Attestation *UNCHANGED*

The 2025 Attestation remains the same. The applicant must attest that he or she:

• Has read, understood and will comply with the CSJ Articles of Agreement;
• Has the necessary authority, permission and approvals to submit the CSJ application;
• Certifies that the application information is true, accurate and complete;
• I confirm that neither the job activities nor any of the activities of my organization which are directly or indirectly supported by the job activities in any way infringe, undermine, weaken, or restrict the exercise of rights legally protected in Canada.
• Recall that the fourth statement was added to last year’s guide.

Assessment Criteria

Summary of Assessment Criteria

Applications are assessed against three main criteria (the bold criteria have changed):

• Provide quality work experiences for youth (30 points)
  • Provide a salary above minimum wage (10)
  • Retain the youth as an employee after the CSJ agreement ends (5)
  • Youth receives supervision
• Provide youth with opportunity to develop and improve their skills (45 points)
  • Youth receives mentoring (15)
  • Skills development (30)
• Respond to national and local priorities to improve access to the labour market for youth who face unique barriers (35 point)
  • National priorities 25)
  • Local priorities (10)

New Skills *MODIFIED*

The skills listed on the application form have stayed the same with one addition: reading and/or writing. This skill includes reading emails, reports, news articles, blog posts, instructions, completing forms/applications, writing emails, creating social media posts.

National Priorities *MODIFIED*

Three of the five national priorities for 2025 are similar to 2024:

• Opportunities for youth with disabilities or with organizations that provide services to persons with disabilities
• Opportunities for youth that are underrepresented in the labour market, including Black and other racialized youth, Indigenous youth, 2SLGBTQI+ youth
• Opportunities for youth in rural areas, remote communities, or Official Language Minority Communities (the Guide defines rural, remote, and OLMC)

Two of the 2025 national priorities have been modified:

• Opportunities related to sustainable jobs that support climate change mitigation and/or adaptation or protect the natural environment (2024: Opportunities related to sustainable jobs that support the protection of the environment or delivering positive environmental outcomes)
• Opportunities with organizations in the housing construction sector (2024: Opportunities that provide exposure or experience related to the skilled trades, which may include opportunities in the residential construction sector)

Local priorities continue to be used to assess applications. Those vary from constituency to constituency.

What Will Happen this Year?

Each year we consider this question, and each year we recognize it’s not a question we can really answer. What we have seen is that results can be unpredictable. Applicants with similar statements of faith will see vastly different outcomes. Perhaps this is a result of objective application assessments, or perhaps it is a result of subjective perceptions. When the criteria moves from an external Attestation (like in 2018) to internally applied considerations, unpredictability ensues.

Every year since the 2018 Attestation controversy, we know that faith-based organizations’ applications have been rejected for a variety of reasons, including statements of faith that adhere to a biblical definition of marriage, where all staff agree to sign statements of faith, and other similar reasons. We also know that many religious organizations successfully apply for CSJ funding.

We also know that the target is 70,000 jobs funded for CSJ 2025. In 2024 there were requests for 234,000 jobs. That means it is a competitive program and it can be hard to precisely identify why some applications are successful and others are not, and whether religious discrimination is at work.

What to do?

As always, charity leaders need to make up their own minds as to whether they are comfortable with the terms and conditions attached to CSJ funding. From a CCCC perspective, we’re still of the view that the phrasing of the Attestation ought not deny the right of religious organizations to speak or teach or live their religious views, even if that doesn’t line up with the government’s worldview. And therefore, as the Guide notes, not-for-profit employers, including “faith-based organizations (for example, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques)” are eligible to apply for CSJ 2025.

If your charity is interested in CSJ 2025, ensure your application is complete, that it meets as many of the listed priorities as possible, and that your charity is prepared for the possibility of additional scrutiny and questions. And if you’re looking for some practical help understanding and navigating the 2025 CSJ Application from a Christian perspective, we’ve got resources for you in our Member Knowledge Base.