$20M fund on the table as College of Trades is dissolved

Questions are being raised about what will happen to licensing​ and enforcement of the trades, as well as a $20 million dollar reserve fund, as the Ontario government moves to dismantle the Ontario College of Trades.

When it was introduced on Oct. 23, Bill 47, also known as the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, made headlines for the changes it will make to the minimum wage.

But the act also outlines a plan to dismantle the Ontario College of Trades and relax the ratios around how many ​certified tradespeople are in a workplace, compared to trainees. 

The province says getting rid of the Ontario College of Trades is about cutting red tape and getting more people into skilled trades. 

Skills Canada estimates that 40 percent of new jobs created in the next decade will be in the skilled trades, but getting those workers through the college system and getting them certified has been too slow, said Kitchener South — Hespeler PC MPP Amy Fee.  

"So it's about homeowners who are struggling. They have work they want done ,and they can't find tradespeople. Then it's also our apprentices who are struggling to find journeymen or journeypersons to take them on," said Fee.

She said apprentices are having trouble just getting their foot in the door. 

"I remember one particular gentleman that I talked to early on in my campaigning, in the spring, who talked that he had been looking for months trying to find somewhere," said Fee. "He wanted to stay local, his family is here in Cambridge and he wanted to stay in this area and he was struggling to find someone to take him on. We're certainly hearing stories like that across the province."

Reduced ratios coming

The big change for people working in — or looking to get into — the trades, will be an across-the-board 1:1 apprentice to journeyperson mentorship ratio in workplaces.  

Previously, the ratios had been set according to industry. Most started at one apprentice for every one staff journeyperson, but those ratios went up on a sliding scale depending on the industry. 

"The ratios, as they exist today, are fact-based, evidence-based ratios. Set by the individual crafts, employers, owner-clients and workers," said Patrick Dillon, business manager of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario. 

"Who in government has the magic evidence as to what the ratio for the painter should be, vs. the ironworker vs. the electrician?"

$20M reserve fund

The college was supported through yearly membership fees ($120 a year, $60 for apprentices).

Over the past six years, the college has built up a reserve fund of about $20 million from those membership fees and what will happen to that money isn't yet clear.  

The board is a non-governmental body, established in April 2013 by the previous Liberal government.

It received some startup money, that has since been paid back, so what will happen to the $20 million remains unclear.

Don Gosen, chair of the board of the College of Trades and an electrical instructor at Conestoga College in Kitchener, said they ran a lean operation — maybe too lean, in retrospect. 

It had plans to start spending the money, and Gosen said they were supposed to roll out a new initiative this week, with a special focus on apprenticeships.

Now that isn't going to happen and part of the reserve money will go to wind down the college as well as to severance for employed staff.

The Ministry of College, Training and Universities told CBC News it has not yet decided what will happen with the money, only that any costs will be determined during the transition period.

Public safety, licensing and enforcement

Also unclear is what will happen to the college's enforcement and certification role, which has to do with public safety. 

Gosen recently met with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and said enforcement was not discussed.

When asked what the Ontario government had planned for the future of that enforcement role, Fee would only say the ratios are the province's priority and the rest would be sorted out during the transition period. 

That has Dillon and the trades council worried about what may come: a de-regulation of the industry.

"Compulsory licensing of a trade protects is the consumer interest and the worker interest, also," said Dillon. "And the experience of British Columbia in de-skilling or dismantling the trades was a major mistake out there 15 years ago and they're paying a big price for it now."

'Doomed to failure'

"Our view of the college of trades, is it is an experiment that really failed to deliver on the most core mandate it had. And that was to grow the number of apprentices in Ontario," said Sean Reid, the Ontario regional director for the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada.

"In many ways it was doomed to failure from the start because it really wasn't speaking for the lion's share of the skilled trades sector."

The college was a hard sell, admits Gosen​.

"We never got complete buy in from all of our members. And that is maybe an area where we haven't succeeded to the extent that we should have," said Gosen.

"Among other things, the college of trades was our opportunity to step up and see skilled trades as professionals at the same level as other careers in trades."