November 16, 2009

Training

British Columbia watching how College of Trades unfolds in Ontario

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

The building trades in B.C. have been closely following the road taken by Ontario’s College of Trades legislation.

“One issue we have been dealing with is trades training issues. The work done in Ontario getting from (Premier Mike) Harris to now was an incredible challenge and impressive to the rest of us across this nation,” said Wayne Peppard, executive director of the British Columbia and Yukon Building Trades Council.

“The College of Trades is an issue we’ve been watching closely and will be bringing it forward to the NDP opposition.”

Peppard provided an update on his council’s building trades activity at the recent Ontario building trades convention in Ottawa.

The impact of the economy on the west and the building trades has been noticeable but they managed to mitigate how heavy the hit was, he said.

“We managed to extend ourselves beyond the simple large projects and were a little more effective in the subcontracting side of things with most of our affiliates,” Peppard said. “We were able to pick up some of that (work).”

Another highlight for the BC and Yukon building trades was a coalition and lobbying effort it rolled out in a recent municipal election in the Lower Mainland of B.C. Peppard said the election results proved successful in six municipal ridings.

“So we are ramping up our procurement policy issues (municipally), it is not just about fair wage or living wage,” Peppard said.

“We are talking about safety and apprenticeship and the commitment to those issues that help make our contractors a quality production.”

Dave Martin, business manager of the Manitoba Building Trades Council, also reported at the Ottawa convention that the building trades in his province had to ramp up their political efforts on the provincial front.

When former Manitoba NDP premier Gary Doer resigned to become ambassador to the United States a leadership race was held between two final candidates this past October.

The Manitoba building trades decided to back Greg Selinger, the then provincial finance minister. Selinger eventually won the leadership race with 66 per cent of the ballots. He was elected party leader and became Premier-designate.

“It was a tough decision, when someone is holding out all the promises of the world on labour legislation, it is hard to ignore that promise,” explained Martin.

“We felt what was best in our interest was having a premier that was re-electable for awhile and would be working with us over long term goals over the long haul.”

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