WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2008

The British Columbia and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council

NEWS RELEASE Wednesday November 26, 2008

Hard-hitting BC Auditor-General’s report on Industry Training Authority inadequacies demands immediate action to overcome “6 lost years” of apprenticeship and trades training, says BC Building Trades Council

VANCOUVER – A hard-hitting report today from BC’s Auditor-General shows why the province suffered six lost years when apprenticeships and trades training dropped dramatically despite the construction industry doubling in size, says the BC Building Trades Council (BCYT).

“Now the BC government must urgently address the multitude of problems the Auditor-General identified at the Industry Training Authority (ITA), the agency with a $110 million budget that is responsible for construction industry trades training and apprenticeships,” says Wayne Peppard, BCYT Executive Director.

“The Auditor-General clearly identified the many reasons why in the midst of an unprecedented BC construction boom our industry actually had lower apprenticeship and Red Seal trades certificate completions,” Peppard said. “Auditor-General John Doyle found a litany of problems that still have not been addressed by government – and must be fixed on an urgent basis.”

“In 2000, BC had 4014 completed apprenticeships – that number dropped to 2899 in 2005-06 and 3551 in 2006-07 despite a province-wide construction boom” Peppard said. “It has taken till 2007-08 to finally exceed 2000 levels – a completely unacceptable situation that has seriously hurt our construction industry to this day.”

“While the government and ITA claim the problems are being fixed one statistic cited by the Auditor-General strongly contradicts that – Mr. Doyle found that a stunning 49% of registered apprentices had not taken any in-school training as of March 31 this year,” Peppard said. “If half of all apprentices in BC haven’t even set foot in a school for a single day of classroom training something is seriously wrong.”

“Doyle’s report criticizes the ITA’s lack of “sufficient consultation” with all stakeholders, including unions and labour organizations, “inadequate” quality assurance practices, “inaccurate reporting”, “incomplete information”, “inadequate disclosure” of performance measures, “poor records management throughout our assessment”, “problems with the quality of some exams”, “misinterpreted” waitlist information, and much more,” said Peppard.

“The Building Trades have complained for years about the problems with the ITA and now the Auditor-General has validated our concerns,” Peppard said. “To start catching up with British Columbia’s trades training deficit from six lost years will require the consultation and involvement of all stakeholders immediately – let’s get to work.”

For more information: Call Wayne Peppard at cell 778-388-0014 or 604-291-9020 or Bill Tieleman, West Star Communications, at 604-844-7827 or cell 778-896-0964. Website: www.bcbuildingtrades.org

For further information contact 

the BCYT-BCTC office:  604-291-9020

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