Today, our Executive Director Sean Strickland provided testimony in front of the House of Commons on behalf of advancing Bill C-59. On behalf of our industry and our valued members, Sean spoke about the positive impact that the Investment Tax Credits will have on our sector, notably the impetus to pay good wages – union wages and benefits – to the skilled trades workers who are building projects to support Canada’s transition to net-zero. The rollout of the Investment Tax Credits will further support the development of the trades in Canada as provisions with the program require organizations to hire apprentices – a critical component of growing our workforce.
To read more of Sean’s testimony, see below.
“The prevailing wage requirement in the Investment Tax Credits is, without doubt, the best definition of prevailing wage in Canadian labour history. Regardless of whether a skilled trades worker is one of our members or not – they will be paid the robust wages and benefits we’ve negotiated through our multi-employer collective agreements.
This bill is also a monumental win for developing our Canadian skilled trades workforce. The provisions of the Investment Tax Credits require companies to hire apprentices.
This is important. Developing the skilled trades workforce of the future requires high-quality, well-paid apprenticeship opportunities.
It’s critical that companies are incentivized to invest in training of the next generation clean economy workforce, and the ten per cent apprenticeship requirement is an outstanding measure to help ensure we’re doing what we need to do for the clean economy workforce of the future. Moreover, because of the strong prevailing wage requirements, many more Canadian workers will likely be attracted to the skilled trades, to the benefit of them and their families.
There are tens of billions of dollars in final investment decisions awaiting the certainty that the passage of this bill will bring. From new net-zero petrochemical production facilities in Alberta that can take advantage of the carbon capture and storage credits, to small modular reactor projects in Ontario and New Brunswick, hydrogen projects in Atlantic Canada,” -Sean Strickland, Executive Director, Canada’s Building Trades Unions.
