A climate-focused training program for construction industry professionals will be rolling out to more than 200 union training centres across the country over the next few months, Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) announced last week, just as another union leader called for rapid passage of the federal Sustainable Jobs Act.
The Building It Green training course was developed with C$4.7 million in funding from an Employment and Social Development Canada program that supports training and apprenticeships for Red Seal trades, iPolitics reports. CBTU Executive Director Sean Strickland and ESDC Minister Randy Boissonnault announced the plan on a visit to a training centre run by Local 586 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) in Ottawa’s east end.
“Climate literacy is critical,” Strickland said. “Our skilled trades workers need to be able to connect the big green dots between what they’re training to build and the projects we’re working on.”
That amounts to “big picture thinking that will help Canadian tradespeople innovate and develop new tools and techniques to build a greater Canada,” he added.
Programs like Building It Green will help “train more people faster for the jobs [of] tomorrow that lead to careers,” Boissonnault said, delivering “a vote of confidence that by continuing to work together, you can build an economy that works.”
The Pembina Institute welcomed Building It Green as a chance to build union training capacity and help workers develop green building retrofit skills. “Credible, non-profit training centres like those run by Canada’s Building Trades Unions are well positioned to deliver the kind of training architecture that will arm workers with skills that lead to meaningful careers,” said Kendall Anderson, director of Pembina’s equitable transition program. “This can simultaneously help to remedy skills shortages and capitalize on the human resources needed to build a clean economy.”
“This investment comes at a critical juncture as green retrofits must be accelerated and implemented at scale to reduce emissions, limit total energy use, lower household spending, and provide protection from extreme weather events,” added Pembina buildings director Betsy Agar. “Aligning work force development efforts with these important climate initiatives is a win for the climate and for workers.”
The program announcement comes at a time when large numbers of skilled tradespeople are retiring, but apprenticeship programs are booming, CBC reports, citing Statistics Canada data. “After plummeting during the pandemic, the number of people in apprenticeships has now bounced back and is at its highest level since 2014,” with 81,141 registered in 2022—roughly a 12% increase over the previous year, with Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta leading the trend.
“The growing interest in the trades is good news for industries such construction and manufacturing that have struggled in recent years to find skilled workers, though the uptick in registrations hasn’t yet translated to a surge of certified tradespeople,” CBC writes. While apprenticeships have rebounded, the number of Canadians certifying in trades “still lags below pre-COVID levels”.
The opportunities ahead in the shift to a low-carbon economy make it important for Parliament to swiftly adopt the Sustainable Jobs Act, Bill C-50, Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske and Pembina Institute Executive Director Chris Severson-Baker argued in a Toronto Star opinion piece last week. C-50 cleared the Commons Natural Resources Committee December 11, though not without an amendment that will delay implementation unless it is stripped out of the bill.
The legislation now awaits third reading before moving on to the Senate.
“Since it was tabled, unions and environmental groups have worked with the government and opposition parties to strengthen the bill,” Bruske and Severson-Baker wrote. “Now we must pass it as soon as possible, so we can get started building an economy where sustainable industries are employing workers in good, sustainable jobs in every province and every region of the country. The kinds of good union jobs that power flourishing, livable communities.”
But that will only happen if the government treats the bill as an urgent priority, they warned. “If we don’t get this bill passed soon, we could delay climate action and fail to unlock these opportunities, sacrificing thousands and thousands of good future jobs and billions in future investment. Our workers, communities, and planet cannot afford to let this opportunity slip through our fingers.
