Alec Caldwell
Opinion: Self-employed contractors in Ontario need to turf the Liberals on June 12th
Canadian Contractor Business Damage Market"If the Ontario Liberals are allowed to form another government in Ontario, the Ontario College of Trades, a smoke-and-mirrors organization that can't even tell us the truth about its policies, its backers and its agenda, will be here to stay. Vote NO WYNNE!"
Your NO WYNNE vote is needed in the upcoming Ontario election on June 12. I believe that contractors – especially self-employed ones such as my members at CARAHS – need to boot out the Liberals to save their jobs.
Everyone doing home renovations for a living in this province – especially those doing carpentry and drywall – need to GET OUT AND USE THEIR VOTE and say NO to the Liberals and their cronies, including their special friends at Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) and their behind-the-scenes backers at the carpenters, drywallers and other unions.
They have all used smoke and mirrors to hide the truth about OCOT.
If you are a self-employed, non-union contractor in Ontario, their goal is unemployment for you and others like you. They aren’t interested in grandfathering you in. With their recent moves to force the compulsory certification of anyone doing carpentry or drywall in Ontario, they are determined to force you into the underground.
Do you want to become part of the underground market? Even if you are a very reputable tradesperson or business owner with decades of experience in your trade, they want to have you looking over your shoulder, living in fear, wondering when you’ll be caught working without a Certificate of Qualification and/or an OCOT membership card.
If you don’t want to live this way USE YOUR VOTE to defeat the Liberals. If reelected, Kathleen Wynne will undoubtedly allow the Ontario College of Trades to continue to harass you. Meanwhile, the PCs have pledged to abolish the College of Trades, period.
John Dickinson, in his revolutionary war song The Liberty Song (1768) wrote: “Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!”
Then in music we had “United We Stand,” performed by The Brotherhood of Man.
Let our brotherhood of man, including the self-employed home renovators of Ontario, the union LiUNA (Labourers’ International Union of North America), PC MPP Garfield Dunlop (a licensed plumber), The Stop the Trade Tax coalition, join us at CARAHS and the many, many readers of Canadian Contractor who have posted thousands of comments on this site decrying the damage that the Ontario College of Trades is doing to this industry, stand together and vote to get rid of this corrupt Liberal government.
CARAHS was founded as a non profit association to advocate and mentor independent self employed renovators and home services (Canadian Association of Renovators and Home Services)
GOLD members toll free hot line 1-866-366-2930 for issues on WSIB, Safety MOL, reducing fines or job site closure to customer issues and more. Unlimited usage.
CARAHS has over 130 online Health & Safety e-courses
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Yes, get out and vote. Another 4 years of this wretched party and the working class is doomed while the government thrives on our backs
It doesn’t matter who you vote for, at this time they will say anything to get your vote, once in office they end up doing whatever special interests want.
Forgive me for not being totally in tune with what the OCT mandate is regarding compulsory certification, I am a carpenter (renovation contractor) (non-CofQ but grandfathered so I can have an apprentice).
The current debate regarding compulsory certification is ridiculous. We have competent, trustworthy building inspector’s in our area, if they see something wrong they are going to call you on it.
If the OCT wants to do something useful, they should be lobbying the Government to change the ridiculous apprenticeship ratio requirements. As of now (for carpentry) 1:1, if I want a second apprentice, I need 3 more journeymen. That’s absurd!.
All three parties are campaigning to some degree about more apprentices, who can hire them with these ratios, not me!
The ratios are fine, the problem I see is the abuse of the ‘helper’ status.
Ask any trades person how hard it is to get indentured? very difficult, I know guys 6+ years in my trade and are still ‘helper’ status, the only reason for that is PAY, 6 years of experience pay him $20/h and the employer is happy, the kid on the other hand is shafted as he could be a journeyman making double that wage performing the same exact same job.
The Liberals definitely have to go. The most frustrating aspect of this whole mess with mandatory WSIB and the OCOT is that the general public ( i.e. Mr & Mrs Homeowner) don’t about this and are unaware of how this will effect them.
We need to make them aware of this before the election.
Most Ontarians think the Liberals deficit is about $12 billion but that does not include the WSIB’s $14 billion hole.
Apparently the province of Ontario become attractive for all source of wallet grabs government creations craftsmanship. Illegal aliens allowed to work and those are looking for work the very first time and others which last their jobs can’t find the way of survival. The liberals love to feed their cronies using our tax dollars, for all source of stupid projects, including the unions training sites. This can’t run for ever, the people of Ontario is waking up for this insane spending with proudly and glory sociopaths.
For trades people one photo ID, triple or quadruple all in one card, SIN, health, skills, and optional licence drive. No need for any side cronies agencies.
The companies can only take skilled people only with photo ID, the costumers will ask for ID, in the skilled trades, no need for side cronies getting paid for an exorbitant amount just to see if someone as their membershit card.
This may eliminate a lot of illegal aliens, and fix a lot of problems.
A certified mechanic, fix a broken car, inspected and takes it to the road, signs for it also for his apprentices. Now, an Certified electrician, needs a ESA/ECRA/OCOT became reduced to nothing, Its a disparate what this province was turned into it.
with the free trade agreement between Canada and Europe, a lot of people which have their Certificates from there may well be allowed here, and the ESA/ECRA/OCOT will do nothing for it, because its international, and also most are for life. The OCOT and others are illegal and bias, were created only from a few companies apparently to serve them not the compulsory trades and general skills, and public. where, only a few not for profit org, can decide for the electricians all over this province?. wake up guys smell the corruption close to your nose, smells like sulfur, sam hill extreme.
will be interesting if Wynne and Andrea lose their own ridings like Quebec, it could happen, will sent a warning to politics and the unions messing where they shouldn’t.
The OCOT is pure extortion. Fight back, and join the Grim Reapers! We are a 13% club, and don’t let anyone shove their shit down our throats. The OCOT enforcers will be taking the next shitnado back to Kansas when Mr Hudak gets elected.
We earned our trade licences, they can’t take them away!
Finally – Some good news: The OCOT carpentry issue is beginning to boil over!
Toronto Sun Tuesday November 11, 2014
Changes may be needed at the Ontario College of Trades, Premier Kathleen
Wynne says: “We need to make sure that the college does what it was set up to do” ” And so that’s why we’re doing a review of the college.”
The Toronto Sun says: “The Ontario College of Trades is being asked to designate carpentry as a compulsory trade — a controversial move that critics argue would devastate the province’s construction industry”
“Critics argued it drives up costs for employers, particularly in construction, and bans people from working in certain trades even after decades of on-the-job experience’
Progressive Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop said “tens of thousands of Ontario construction employees would have to obtain certification to continue working legally in Ontario if their trade were to be listed as compulsory by the college”
“This is so absolutely insane,” Dunlop said Thursday. “I don’t know how any government could possibly allow this to happen. Compulsory certification of the carpentry industry will cripple the construction industry in Ontario.”
“Up to 90% of construction in Ontario is done by people who don’t hold a certificate of qualification in carpentry, something that will be compulsive if the College of Trades follows through with the plan” he said.
“All these guys you see out there framing houses and building kitchen cabinets, doing work on footings, the guys who do the fine trim on houses — they’re all classified as carpenters,” Dunlop said. “The college has already said there would be no grandfathering (of trades people).”
“Homeowners doing renovations could feel the impact in their wallets because only licensed carpenters would be allowed legally to do carpentry, much like how only certified electricians can do wiring”
“The bigger problem will be finding certified carpenters” Dunlop said.