THURSDAY, JUNE 07, 2007

Imposing BC-Alberta TILMA agreement nationally will result in de-skilling of Canada’s workforce and threaten public safety, construction labour unions say

VANCOUVER – BC construction labour unions are strongly critical of an announcement today by Conservative federal Industry Minister, Maxime Bernier that they say will lower trade qualification standards for workers across the country.

Lowering those standards could threaten public safety if unqualified workers are allowed to perform critical construction work that requires highly skilled and trained experts, said Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the BC and Yukon - Building and Construction Trades Council.

“We’ve seen what happens in British Columbia with the leaky condominium crises when unqualified workers construct shoddy buildings and we’ve seen other buildings collapse when key jobs aren’t done right,” Peppard said. “Why on earth would we deliberately legislate a lowering of construction trade qualifications when we know the problems that can cause?”

Bernier said Ottawa will force provinces to “harmonize” their worker qualifications by April 1, 2009 or interprovincial restrictions will be removed by the federal government.

“This will mean the end of the national ‘Red Seal’ trade qualification standard that guarantees top quality skills training,” Peppard, said. The national ‘Red Seal’ standard is the non-binding protocol that enables inter-provincial mobility for trades workers.

“The Federal Government cannot impose credential recognition on the Provinces. The federal government is trying to force the provinces into a process that will push trade credentials to the lowest provincial standard and make the ‘Red Seal’ obsolete,” according to Peppard.

Peppard also predicted an end to compulsory trade requirements. “Provinces that want to maintain compulsory trade certification requirements will be forced to recognize certifications from provinces with less rigorous standards. The spiral down to the lower standards will gradually de-skill the Canadian workforce and increase the risk to public safety from accidents on critical safety systems” Peppard said.

Bernier acknowledged that his announcement conformed to the goals of the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) between Alberta and BC. Peppard questioned the need for TILMA in the first place.

“To date none of the proponents of the deal have been able to point to a single example of any significant mobility barriers between the provinces,” Peppard said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Bernier want to increase worker mobility, they should aggressively promote the ‘Red Seal’ national standard and deal with the real barriers to mobility such as travel and accommodation costs for workers to move away from areas of high unemployment to areas of low employment and high demand, Peppard said.

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For further information contact 

the BCYT-BCTC office:  604-291-9020

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