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Canadian Building Trades Push for National Training
Standards
May - June 2004
The deeply flawed apprenticeship and training bill enacted
last year by British Columbia’s Liberal Party leader
and Premier Gordon Campbell has set off alarm bells among
BC and Canadian construction trade unions. And with good
reason, argues BAC Canadian Affairs Director Joe Bognar,
Jr., who says “concern about similar legislation making
its way across Canada is a real possibility.”
The subject of a May/June 2003 Journal article
(“British Columbia Bill Threatens Apprenticeship System”),
BC’s new Industry Training Authority Act has fewer
requirements and less emphasis on skill. “Trainees” – no
longer called apprentices – can take modular or partial
trades training. They, along with their employers, determine
how much training is appropriate to do an assigned task.
Traditional apprenticeship, currently referred to as ‘full
scope’ trades training, is now optional.
Concern has not been lost on the Canadian Executive Board
of the Building and Construction Trades Department, which
established a National Apprenticeship Coordinators’ Committee.
Working with their provincial counterparts, Committee members
are developing national training standards and appropriate
sequencing of training curriculum. The Committee is also
working to increase provincial officials’ awareness
of the importance of setting national training standards
and protecting the integrity of the Red Seal program.
Supporters of BC’s less rigorous approach argued that
the new system’s flexibility and reduced restrictions
would make it more effective at addressing the province’s
skills shortage. Opponents maintain that the de-emphasis
on standards and skill will succeed only in supplying a ready
source of cheap labor to non-union employers and a de-skilling
of the workforce. Since trainees are required to learn only
the tasks necessary to complete a job assignment, Bognar
foresees “construction sites where individual workers
do a little plumbing, a little electrical work, a little
carpentry, and some brickwork – a lot of Jack-of-all-trades
but not a master journeyman to be found.”
Bognar adds, “Adherence to the highest possible training
and craft standards are essential to increasing work opportunities
for our members. The Red Seal has helped our members advance
their careers and our industry. During the coming months,
we’ll be working with BAC Local officers in all the
provinces to make sure that members stay informed as the
debate on national training standards gathers steam.”
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