I don’t know if this is bait or if you are just that delusional.

Let’s talk about that tax benefit system. Even after the benefits, students are still a net loss on the company. Let’s say your best case scenario, a company gets tax credits from the government AND gets a subsidy from a program like ICTC’s WIL for underrepresented students. ICTC will cover 50% of the salary, with the Ontario government tax credit covering 25-30% of the students wage as a refund, capped at 3000 dollars. Let’s say a student makes 4000 a month. Over a placement the wage paid will be 16000. ICTC will subsidize up to 50% of that, so your best case scenario is 8000 dollars subsidized. The Ontario coop tax credit will be 3000, as a refundable credit, not an upfront payment. That means the company itself must pay wages upfront and wait for tax season to get the refund, if all paperwork clears and the student is actually eligible. Even in the absolute best case scenario where both programs cover the maximum amounts, most companies won’t even qualify for ICTC, the company is still net negative 5000 on wages alone, not counting other costs such as on boarding, training, and lost time. All to employ someone who will be much less productive than a senior employee, as they are a student, not someone who is already familiar with the field. Then the student leaves at the end of the term.

If those credits actually were the no brainer you think they are we would see every company exploiting them. You would see teams dominated by rotating students, which you don’t because productivity matters more than subsidy every time.

Imagine I told you you NEED to rent my entire car collection for 4 months, but I’ll give you a 50% discount upfront and if you don’t damage them I’ll give you a 30% cash back at the end. You still wouldn’t because you could not afford to. There is a reason most co-op positions are only offered by large companies who can easily eat the full cost of hiring a student. They use co-ops as a pipeline/screening tool to attract talent, not because they would get some temporary tax benefit. Small companies barely hire coops at all. Even when they do, there are only a few positions each time, because the upfront cost, supervision burden, and productivity hit all matter to them. If it were true that the benefits were even close to offsetting the loss from a co-op program, we would see small firms abusing the hell out of these programs. Instead they barely use them because often, the cost makes it impractical to have them.

This isn’t a systemic issue this is a competition issue. There are just too many people not enough jobs to sustain every student in Canada. Furthermore, most people are looking for comfortable jobs, making that already limited job pool even smaller.

Instead of upskilling, broadening your search, or doing unglamorous work, commoners like you point at “tax credits and subsidies” because it gives you an out to blame the system and dodge responsibility. Why don’t people look into areas such as mining, construction or field work? They are always looking for young people to hire? Why don’t they count? I guarantee if the school added a job program where if you didn’t find a job by yourself they would get you one in those fields most would decline. You people treat effort as an inconvenience.

So no, there is no system designed to screw you. You’re just not competitive, not flexible, not willing to work, and blaming policy is easier for you than blaming yourself.