Ontario Announces Intentions to Modernize Apprenticeship System

Oct 29, 2018

Ontario’s new government says it is taking steps to modernize and transform Ontario’s skilled trades and apprenticeship system.

The current regulatory framework for employers and apprentices creates barriers to apprenticeship, the government says, making it difficult for Ontario to keep up in training the skilled tradespeople that will be required by the economy. About one in five new jobs in Ontario in the coming years are expected to be in trades-related occupations.

The government has proposed a number of changes, including

• setting all ratios at one-to-one. Currently, Ontario’s journeyperson to apprentice ratios are among the highest in Canada, limiting the number of apprentices an employer can train relative to the number of journeypersons they employ. For trades that are subject to ratios, the change to a one-to-one journeyperson to apprentice ratio would simplify and streamline how employers can hire and oversee apprentices, reduce costs and provide more flexibility for employers. Setting a single, lower ratio would better align Ontario with other provinces and territories in Canada.

• implementing a moratorium on trade classifications and reclassifications. There are currently 133 voluntary and 23 compulsory trades in Ontario. Anyone practicing a compulsory trade must have a certificate of qualification or be registered as an apprentice or journeyperson candidate and must be a member in good standing of the Ontario College of Trades, unless they are exempt under the legislation. The moratorium would mitigate the risks of increasing regulatory burden and costs for businesses, the province says.

• winding down the Ontario College of Trades. There have been persistent challenges in how the skilled trades in Ontario are regulated, the amount of College membership fees that apprentices and journeypersons are subject to and the complexity of the rules that apprentices, journeypersons and employers are bound by. The government intends to develop a replacement model for the regulation of the skilled trades and apprenticeship system in Ontario by early 2019.

Without providing specifics, the government also says it will propose further improvements to the apprenticeship system that would promote the skilled trades in Ontario and to improve access to the apprenticeship system for both apprentices and employers.