Tories called out for changes to apprenticeship laws

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This article was published 05/03/2021 (2029 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ORGANIZED labour criticized the provincial government after it revealed the text of two of its “mystery bills,” which will require fewer apprentices for public projects and give more control of apprenticeships to the minister.

“The Pallister Conservatives are taking Manitoba in the wrong direction,” Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck said.

The Apprenticeship and Certification Amendment Act (Bill 61) and The Reducing Red Tape and Improving Services Act (Bill 55) are among 19 bills introduced by the government in November, that weren’t made public until the house resumed sitting on Wednesday.

The red tape reduction bill repeals The Apprenticeship Employment Opportunities Act (Public Works Contracts), which mandated that contractors hire apprentices on public projects.

“Public projects employ large construction workforces, and without a mandate of apprenticeship education, employers are likely to seek labour for the lowest wage possible,” said Sudhir Sandhu, CEO of Manitoba Building Trades.

The province is setting the stage for employers to save money at the expense of young workers who are beginning their apprenticeships and looking for opportunity, Sandhu said in an email. “(It) is signalling to industry that low-wage unskilled labour is equal to or preferred over skilled apprentices in training.”

A spokesperson for Economic Development Minister Ralph Eichler said repealing the law, which requires public works contractors to employ apprentices, will help an industry struggling to find enough apprentices to meet the requirements of the law.

In the past six years, the province has received more than 600 requests for exemption, Andrea Slobodian said in an email. “Exemption letters are issued to contractors who can demonstrate a limited ability to provide suitable scope of trade, provide supervision to an apprentice or hire an apprentice, and are therefore exempt from compliance with the legislation.”

Getting rid of The Apprenticeship Employment Opportunities Act directly contradicts any supposed support for apprentices and the future of Manitoba’s skilled construction workforce, said Sandhu. “The impacts may not be immediate, but they will be real, and they will be long lasting.”

Eichler said the government is following the recommendations of an auditor general’s report on apprenticeship programs and schools.

“We heard from businesses and high school and post-secondary apprenticeship programs that the program was just not working,” he told reporters Thursday. “It’s been two decades since we actually had an update on apprenticeship in Manitoba.”

The province needs to increase its skilled workforce and one of the ways it aims to do that is by allowing a two-to-one ratio for apprentices who are supervised by journeypersons. Prior to December, the ratio was one-to-one, requiring that each apprentice be supervised by a journeyperson.

Rebeck said he’s concerned about the minister having more control of apprenticeships under Bill 61.

It shifts the designation of trades and occupations and the establishment of apprenticeship programs from the apprenticeship board to the minister — “the same minister who just weakened on-the-job training for apprentices and made their jobs less safe.”

The change puts the job security of skilled journeypersons in the province at risk, said Sandhu.

By instituting a two-to-one ratio, the government is artificially reducing the demand, and therefore job availability, for journeypersons in Manitoba by half and reducing the incentive for apprentices to advance in their careers, he said.

The new legislation will drive skilled people out of Manitoba and hurt the economy, NDP labour relations critic Tom Lindsay said in a statement.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca