The premier’s office has quietly ordered that the Ontario College of Trades have a review conducted by an independent third-party, the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) says in its May 1 newsletter.
“The extent and terms of reference is yet to be announced but it will put on hold any new public consultations of any Trade Classification Reviews,” the OGCA report says. “This means that the long anticipated proposal to declare carpentry a certified trade will be put on hold pending the findings. It is important that the terms of reference are broad enough to identify the real problems. The lack of credible review process for ratio reviews and trade classification reviews were the focus of criticism from OGCA and the Ontario Skilled Trades Alliance.”
The OGCA report says “the core problem is the governance system that has awarded control of the organization to narrow interests.
“It is vital that this review have the scope to expose these failures,” the OGCA report says.
“The college has continued to build its unneeded and burdensome regulatory structure. A decision was recently released that recommends sprinkler fitters be a compulsory trade. As the first review it was significant in that it established the bar for approval. That bar was established very low in that it swung on the “intuition” of the panel.
“It is anticipated that the College and in particular its proposal to certify the carpentry trade will be an issue during the expected provincial election,” the OGCA newsletter said.