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Construction industry stakeholders are disappointed with a recent Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) decision to extend the review of journeyperson to apprentice ratios by one year, stating it will delay opportunities in the skilled trades.

The College, however, says the time will be spent laying the groundwork to modernize the ratio review process.

“We are disappointed because we were prepared to engage in the ratio review. Our view has always been that the ratios need to be lowered,” explained Joe Vaccaro, chair of the Ontario Skilled Trades Alliance (OSTA). “We were prepared to make the arguments of why the ratios should be lowered as they have been in other jurisdictions. More importantly, we thought that in 2019 there would be new opportunities for apprenticeships across the province based on the lower ratios.”

Some of the arguments OSTA was prepared to put forward to support lower ratios include mobility agreements between provinces, the skills gap and data that shows there is an employer community with lots of potential that is limited by the current ratio structure.

OCOT is mandated by the Ontario College of Trades and Apprenticeship Act to initiate a review of apprenticeship ratios at least once every four years. The next cycle of ratio reviews was expected to be initiated this April but in February the College’s board of governors asked the minister of labour to extend, by 12 months (to April 2019), the board’s requirement to establish panels to initiate the next cycle of ratio reviews for 33 construction sector trades.

The purpose of the proposed extension, states OCOT, is to enable the College to thoroughly review and assess the criteria and process related to ratio reviews established in the regulation recommended by Tony Dean, who’s report, Supporting a Strong and Sustainable Ontario College of Trades, 2015 made eight recommendations for the next round of ratio reviews including greater collaboration, communication and use of data.

“We’re taking some time to put in place the structure, the process and the substance to drive what I like to say will be a successful, evidence-based, research-based ratio review,” explained George Gritziotis, who took over the role of registrar and CEO for the College six months ago. “Ratio review activities will take place throughout 2018, there is no delay there. It’s the regulatory piece that people are referring to.”

Karen Renkema, senior manager of public affairs for the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), said the College was aware of the problems with the ratio review process five years ago during the last review.

“They’ve had five years since ratio reviews, two years since the Dean Report and less than a month before ratios are to be reviewed, they put a request on the regulatory registry to delay ratio reviews another year,” she stated.

Gritziotis said OCOT intends to do upfront work to help the process run more smoothly so that recommendations can be made in a timely manner once the review begins. The College has initiated work internally related to data collection and a policy and evaluation framework which will be used to enhance the process, he added.

“Between now and April 2019, my intention is to consult with many of the stakeholders so they can see what this framework is going to look like and I would like to get their feedback on it,” said Gritziotis, adding meetings with employer and labour groups will start as early as next month.

“If we’ve done our due diligence and our homework upfront it should be a streamlined process.”

Part of this is to work closely with groups to develop trade profiles that look at the economic outlook, supply and demand, health and safety, technology and the quality of training.

“Give us 12 months to consult on a framework and time to prepare some trade profiles and other evidence and data to put on the table to help inform the review once it initiates,” Gritziotis said. “If we all have the same information and data, we can have some good deliberations on it.”

Both Renkema and Vaccaro agreed creating an effective framework to deal with the ratio review is important and OSTA and the PCA are committed to working with the College.

“That’s a positive in terms of having a better structure,” Vaccaro stated. “It should provide everybody in the system with a little more certainty, a little more focus as to what material they should be bringing forward. We think that structure will actually support lowering ratios in general.”