Six More Organizations Join Campaign Against the Liberal Government's College of Trades

The Stop the Trades Tax campaign welcomes six new members

TORONTO, April 24, 2014 /CNW/ - Six more Ontario construction industry associations today joined the Stop the Trades Tax Campaign to call on the Liberal Government to scrap its Ontario College of Trades.

Joining the campaign to abolish the Liberal College of Trades today are the Ontario Concrete and Drain Contractors Association (OCDCA), the Ontario Formwork Association (OFA), Masonry Contractors' Association of Toronto (MCAT), the Residential Framing Contractors Association of Metropolitan Toronto and Vicinity Inc. (RFCA), the Residential Low Rise Forming Contractors Association of Metropolitan Toronto and Vicinity, and the Residential Tile Contractors Association (RTCA).

"The Stop the Trades Tax campaign is thrilled to welcome six new members to its fight to stop the Liberal Government's job-killing bureaucracy," said Karen Renkema, Chair of the Stop the Trades Tax Campaign. "The College's threat of broad-based certification is becoming more and more worrying for construction workers in Ontario concerned for their jobs and livelihood. Despite clear objections from tradespeople, the Liberal government has not shown any signs of backing down from making carpentry and many other trades compulsory certified."

"Our Association is very concerned with the Liberal Government's College of Trades move towards the broad-based compulsory certification of trades," said Joe DeCaria, General Manager of the Masonry Contractors' Association of Toronto. "This will force tens of thousands of talented tradespeople out of jobs they have been doing successfully for many years. This will cripple our industry and we are calling on the Liberal Government to scrap this terrible plan."

The Liberal government opened the doors of its multi-million dollar new trades bureaucracy last spring. Ontario apprentices and journeypersons are being forced to pay membership fees to fund the College, while getting no benefit in return. To make matters worse, the College of Trades is preparing to make it even harder to work in the trades by enacting an agenda that includes broad-based compulsory certification for all Ontario trades. This will mean every tradesperson with a job in Ontario will need a licence, for example, to pick up a hammer in order to keep working in the province. Thousands and thousands of tradespeople successfully working today will be forced out of work or back to school to keep their jobs.

"By pushing forward with mass compulsory certification of trades, the Liberal Government is only going to put tens of thousands of tradespeople out of work," said Renkema. "Ontario is facing a shortage in the skilled trades and we all need to do our part to encourage people to enter and stay in the industry. Unfortunately, the Liberal Government has chosen to work with a narrow group of unions and is creating barriers in the construction industry instead of supporting hardworking tradespeople."

The Stop The Trades Tax campaign was launched in 2011 to stop the Ontario government from imposing a new, multi-million dollar trades tax on tradespeople and employers. The campaign has grown to 46 organizations, whose members represent over 195,000 skilled tradespeople and over 8,600 businesses across Ontario. For more information please visit www.stopthetradestax.ca

SOURCE: Stop the Trades Tax

Jessica Georgakopoulos, [email protected], 416-994-7901
Karen Renkema, Stop the Trades Tax Campaign chair, [email protected], 416-768-4848.