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Some say its existence can save lives.
The Ontario College of Trades was created one year ago, partly to protect the safety of consumers. It’s operated by professionals in the skilled trades industry.
The college promotes trades to young people entering the workforce as well, but there’s also a lot of criticism about the college, with many saying it should be abolished.
A celebration of the anniversary at Queen’s Park attracted party crashers who say it’s just another cash grab.
Frank Notte is with the Automotive Dealers Association. “Not only have our workers been hit with a trades tax, but job creation has also been threatened for auto dealers. The college’s bureaucratic process is not only creating more red tape disruption for our dealers and are dragging down business which means less jobs.”
Compulsary trade workers are required to pay $120 plus tax every year to be licenced to work. Trades workers used to pay $20 a year to the Ontario government. Voluntary trades workers are exempt.
Vince Kacaba of the Ontario Pipe Trades: “There’s all kinds of individuals out there without a licence doing haphazard work that impact the people of this province. Having someone come in and start wiring haphazardly you have shock hazards, you will kill people.”
John Grimshaw of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: “Those of us who went through apprenticeships and did all our schooling and achieved a licence were very slighted. 50 years we had to go through all that just to have other people taking pieces away from our trade and performing work that was illegal.”
But now consumers can check if who they’ve hired is licenced or not through a public registry. The college has 41 enforcement officers who check if skilled workers are licenced.
Skilled trades reform critic Garfield Dunlop: “They’ve now hired with that membership fee what we call wannabe OPP officers, enforcement officers who run around in new cars, two at a time and go and harass barbers and hairstylists, any construction site they can find.”
The college says it uses the membership fees to promote skilled trades to young people. It also uses the fees to pay for those enforcement officers who are there to check for licences. 131 tickets were issued in the last year.
