Ontario Labour Minister and local MPP Monte McNaughton has been talking about the need for more people getting into the skilled trades for well over a year now, and Thursday he announced a new plan of action.
“Today, I introduce the Building Opportunities in the Skilled Trades Act. If passed, this new act would simply the system and make it much easier and faster for people to get trained,” McNaughton says. “A digital system instead of paper log books and wet signatures. A clear path from start to finish, not bouncing between two bodies.”
The proposed legislation would create a new Crown agency, Skilled Trades Ontario, to replace the Ontario College of Trades. McNaughton says the move is based on recommendations from a panel put together last year.
“This panel held dozens of meetings and heard out the concerns of tradespeople, apprentices, unions, businesses, and what they told us in their first report is that we need a simpler, customer-focused system so that more people can get what they need to move quickly into jobs and support into economy.”
McNaughton says one in three journey-persons in the province are 55 and older and will soon be retiring, creating an even larger need for people to enter these fields like electricians, welders, and pipe fitters.
The legislation is being met with praise from those in the industry.
“The Building Trades Council welcomes Minister McNaughton’s legislative direction to protect the construction trades classification system and his goal to ensure that compulsory construction trade work is only performed by certified journeypersons and apprentices, and that non-compulsory trades remain fulsome,” says Patrick Dillon, Business Manager of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario.
However, Dillon says there is room for improvement, citing scopes of practice, compliance and enforcement, and the establishment of trades training boards.
“The Building Trades will work diligently with the government to provide important input during the process to ensure that the final legislative results are worthy of full support from the Council which would be in the best interest of construction tradespeople and consumers in the province of Ontario,” Dillon says.