Construction employers in Manitoba are lambasting the provincial government’s decision to reduce the ratio of apprentices to journeypersons.
However, the building trades are hailing it as a step forward.
The government has signalled it will set the apprenticeship to journeyperson ratio at 1:1 later this year, down from the present 2:1 ratio, arguing the move will increase safety and proper training for the trades.
Employers had been expecting the news as Premier Wab Kinew made it clear in the run-up to the last election that he would change the ratio. But they maintain it will lead to fewer apprentices being trained, especially in northern areas of Manitoba, and have negative consequences for the economy and workforce.
“A regression in ratios will have a particularly negative impact on rural and northern parts of the province,” explains Darryl Harrison, director of stakeholder engagement at the Winnipeg Construction Association (WCA). “There are fewer journeypersons in these parts of the province, making it difficult for prospective apprentices to find the opportunity to work under a journeyperson. Further constricting this with a ratio change hurts those that live outside Winnipeg even more.
“It will cost apprentices jobs and opportunities. This concerns us because the Winnipeg Construction Association works hard every day to raise awareness of the fulfilling careers in construction for everybody – but this change will take away opportunities from people wanting to enter the industry.”
Survey on apprenticeships says…
The ratio has been an issue of contention for some time. In 2020, the provincial PC government changed the apprenticeship ratio from 1:1 to 2:1 for all trades. Recently, the NDP government announced the 1:1 ratio would be restored in response to the death of a worker who was killed while working unsupervised. The changes will be made in consultation with the Apprenticeship and Certification Board.
However, the WCA maintains the change may force apprentices to train under journeypersons who are unwilling to provide their expertise and make it more difficult for apprentices to graduate.
In a survey of WCA member companies, 80 per cent indicated they’d reduce the number of apprentices hired should the ratio change back to 1:1. Sixty-three per cent said they’d be forced to lay off apprentices.
Shawn Wood, executive director of the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba, says the labour situation is dire and employers are already having trouble finding journeypersons, so the new ratio will only put more pressure on the situation by increasing the demand on an already limited workforce.
The industry is forecasting more retirements then it can recruit, so the change will lower the number of experienced workers in the trades, limit the number of skilled trades, and could lead to upward pressure on salaries as employers try to attract journeypersons to their companies, he says.
“Companies will have to hire fewer apprentices as they won’t have the journeypersons to match the 1:1 ratio. We have 60 per cent of our companies that may be in a position of laying off apprentices as they don’t employ enough journeypersons to accommodate the additional apprentices.”
“It’s not a step backwards, it’s a step back to a best practice.”
The trades, however, have a different perspective.
Tanya Palson, executive director of the Manitoba Building Trades, says the province had an apprentice to journeyperson ratio of 1:1 for 20 years before the move to 2:1 and during that time had some of the most productive journeypersons in the country.
“It was working well for all that time, and it will keep working now. It’s not a step backwards, it’s a step back to a best practice.”
Palson says Apprenticeship Manitoba has a robust exemption process, where northern and rural contractors commonly have increased ratios due to the realities of journeyperson supply in those areas.
“My understanding is that this will still be an option.”
Palson, who also chairs the Apprenticeship and Certification Board, says no one is advocating that apprentices hired under the current 2:1 ratio should lose their jobs and she is committed to ensuring that when the regulation is introduced there is a process of exemption for those already registered.
According to Palson, a 1:1 ratio is a safer system for apprentices as there is more supervision of the trainees.
“Would you rather have your loved one supervised and trained in a hazardous workplace by one person, or one-half person? Of course it is safer. We shouldn’t have to wait for the next death or bodily harm incident to prove that.”
To suggest there’s no link between the ratio of apprentices to journeypersons and worker safety in dangerous trades ignores peer-reviewed research as well as research done by regulators, says Palson.
Presently, there is no standard for apprentice-to-journeypersons across provinces, as it ranges from 1:1 up to 5:1 in some jurisdictions and circumstances, she says.
“Interestingly, our Ontario neighbours just returned to 1:1. It was actually the Ontario homebuilders that were begging for that. Whereas here in Manitoba, homebuilders are crying foul about the same ratio. It just goes to show that very much like in economics, there always seems to be two sides to every argument and it makes it difficult to determine at times what is right.”
The proponents of restricting ratios in Manitoba keep referring to “Ontario recently going back to 1:1…”.
Fact Check: Ontario actually relaxed the ratios in November 2019 to 1:1 from a more restrictive 3:1 ratio scheme (3 JPs:1App). Some trades were 4:1!
It’s an unfair comparison to Ontario and misleading to suggest Ontario contractors were begging for 1:1 in contrast to Manitoba contractors complaining about it. In Ontario our ratio was as high as 3 journeypersons to 1 apprentice. Ontario’s ratio was the inverse – requiring more journeypersons to train each apprentice. That’s why the contractors were begging for the 1:1.