Manitoba construction groups call for journeyperson-to-apprentice ratio rework

While Ottawa moves to invest billions into skilled trade workers, Manitoba construction groups say the provincial government refuses to budge on its apprenticeship ratio guidelines at the cost of their industry.

The federal government’s spring economic update released Tuesday included a commitment to spend up to $6 billion over the next five years toward the goal of creating 80,000 to 100,000 new Red Seal-certified trades workers.

Meanwhile, the province’s one-to-one ratio of apprentices to journeypersons who supervise them, implemented by the NDP in 2024, has reduced the number of apprenticeship spots available and cost the province workers, said Darryl Harrison, director of stakeholder engagement for the Winnipeg Construction Association.

“They’re not willing to listen to the industry on this topic, and I don’t know why,” he said Thursday.

“The evidence is clear, the stats are clear, it’s clear from the federal government that this is a priority for Canada, but (the provincial government) is not willing to work in lockstep with the federal government and with the industry.”

The previous ratio, brought in by the Progressive Conservatives in 2020, allowed two apprentices per one journeyperson. The NDP made a campaign promise to reduce the ratio, calling it an issue of workplace safety and a way to attract skilled workers.

The federal government’s funding program includes weekly top-ups while an apprentice is in training (up to $16,000) and a $5,000 bonus for completing a Red Seal, the national standard for the trades. It will also provide employers up to $10,000 in subsidies.

New apprentice registrations, including non-construction positions, fell to 2,730 in 2024-25 from 3,128 in 2023-24, according to government data. The number of active apprentices declined by 250 workers, to 11,628 from 11,878.

Harrison said the number of new apprentices had been rising around 10 per cent yearly for several years prior.

The Construction Association of Rural Manitoba said those drops have taken a particular toll outside of the capital city, where contractor crews are often smaller.

“A small crew with two or three journeypersons can only bring on two or three apprentices under the current rules. Go back to (two-to-one) and we can double that,” executive director Shawn Wood said in a statement.

However, less than half of the apprentices in the trades in Manitoba and across Canada are receiving their Red Seal certification, which typically comes with increased wages and is more common in union jobs, said Tanya Paulson, executive director of trade union coalition Manitoba Building Trades.

Completion rates have already improved in Manitoba since the journeypersons began mentoring apprentices one-on-one, she said.

“The point of apprenticeship is not to be an apprentice forever and be low-wage labour for contractors,” Paulson said from Ottawa, where she is discussing funding for increased trade training capacity with the federal government.

“The point of apprenticeship is to take four staggered years and actually become a certified professional in that trade … Putting it down to a simple number of, ‘Well, we can double the number of new entrants overnight,’ I don’t really care, because those entrants are never going to become Red Sealed, because we have a system that’s not going to support them.”

Manitoba Business Minister Jamie Moses pointed to $7.2 million the NDP announced this year for apprenticeship training and a 25 per cent increase in the number of apprentices trained since 2023.

He said exemptions for the one-to-one rule are available if needed in rural and remote areas.

“We will continue our engagement with WCA as this work moves ahead,” he said in an email Thursday.

The province is planning to create an online registry of Red Seal tradespeople, set to launch by the end of June.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca