May 14, 2009

Ontario industry coalition urges government to boost apprenticeship funding

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

A coalition of Ontario industries is calling on Ontario to invest $180 million over five years in order to strengthen apprenticeships to help reach workforce targets by 2020.

“Trying to ensure, secure and protect apprenticeships when times are good is tough and doing so now, during a recession, it is even more important,” says David Zurawel, vice-president, policy and government relations for the Council of Ontario Construction Associations (COCA). “Protecting apprenticeship training helps protect jobs.”

The call to improve apprenticeship training is a recommendation in “Workforce Requirements: Recession and Recovery,” a report released by Ontario’s Workforce Shortage Coalition.

The coalition consists of 22 organizations and more than 100,000 employers and millions of employees. COCA represents construction’s interests in the coalition.

“The issue for quite some time has never been about apprenticeship registrations, but completions,” adds Zurawel. “Also, trades training needs to get away from a cookie-cutter approach for every trade.”

About 150,000 people in Ontario participate in apprenticeship programs but less than one-third actually complete them, due to issues such as literacy and numeracy challenges.

Also, many employers are dropping their apprenticeship programs due to the recession, reports the coalition.

This leaves Ontario with a shortage of qualified people for many trades, a situation that is challenging now and will get worse after the recession has ended, the coalition believes. For construction, once the recession ends and impending retirements of skilled workers begin, the impact on the skilled labour pool will not be “so much a trickle but a torrent”, adds Zurawel.

Ontario should extend the Apprenticeship Training Tax Credit to include programs currently not covered in areas such as hospitality, the coalition says. The province can also improve the success rate for apprentices by increasing in-class training time and providing continuing education classes to address language and numeracy challenges.

“The report is a good summary of where things are and what needs to be maintained as we move forward,” says Clive Thurston, president of the Ontario General Contractors Association.

Construction workforce shortages were being called for before the recession began. Before the economic slowdown took hold, construction was facing an expected decline of between 10,000 and 20,000 jobs from 2009 to 2011, according to the Construction Sector Council. Workers from the hard-hit residential sector are expected to migrate to the ICI sector and could help eliminate some workforce shortage gaps.

An industry analysis earlier this year by the CSC concluded that Canada’s federal $30 billion fiscal stimulus plan and provincial recession-fighting spending will boost construction spending and employment over the next three years.

The coalition notes that the province needs to help businesses retain skilled workers until the recovery comes. A supportive business climate, including lower taxes and elimination of unnecessary regulation would help, recommends the report. Also, changes to postsecondary and adult retraining programs to accommodate an increased number of students who cannot find jobs, adults who have lost their jobs and need re-skilling must also be a provincial focus.

Incentives for employers and small business owners are important to help tackle future work shortages, Thurston says.

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