Brad Smith, Executive Director for Mainland Building Trades; from mainlandbuildingtrades.ca
Too few apprentices are making it through their education.
That’s according to Brad Smith, Executive Director for Mainland Building Trades, a construction worker advocacy group.
He said apprenticeship completion rates are one of the biggest bottlenecks for the construction industry.
Smith said government must address recruitment and retention.
“We have to take advantage of the big opportunities of being more inclusive in the trades and supporting more underrepresented groups in the trades,” he said. “50 per cent of the population are female, but they’re really underrepresented in the trades, and also indigenous, the black community, many others that could have very strong careers in the trades.”
Smith said apprentices also need to be better supported to finish their apprenticeships, so they can fill the ranks of the industry’s fully trained journeypeople.
This comes after Premier Tim Houston announced last week the province will work to recruit and retain more apprentices, review apprentice training ratios, and offer a tax break, removing provincial income tax on the first $50,000 for construction workers under 30.
