GTA Construction Report staff writer<\/p>\n
The provincial Progressive Conservative party has released part of its platform, suggesting that changes to apprenticeship ratio reviews and eliminating the Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) will create 200,000 jobs, as part of what it calls it’s \u201cMillion jobs plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Million Jobs Plan does away with cumbersome and outdated apprenticeship rules that limit the number of job opportunities in the trades,\u201d the election platform statement said. \u201cWe will make it easier for people to get jobs as electricians, plumbers or precision machine operators by making trades training a community college course like any other. We will abolish the College of Trades, a new bureaucracy that creates red tape and new taxes that actually stop many young people from joining the trades. By removing these barriers, our plan will connect workers with 200,000 opportunities in the skilled trades, jobs our young people and our economy desperately need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Background observations in the document also assert:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Conference Board of Canada found the skills shortage costs Ontario\u2019s economy\u00a0$24 billion in economic activity,\u201d the PC platform said. \u201cThe Canadian Federation of Independent Business warned, ‘If ratios are not reduced immediately, Ontario would lose more of its skilled labourers to other provinces.’\u201d The C.D. Howe institute concluded, \u201cIf provinces want more workers in the trades, they should allow firms to hire more apprentices,\u201d The PC statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GTA Construction Report staff writer The provincial Progressive Conservative party has released part of its platform, suggesting that changes to apprenticeship ratio reviews and eliminating the Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) will create 200,000 jobs, as part of what it calls it’s \u201cMillion jobs plan.\u201d \u201cOur Million Jobs Plan does away with cumbersome and outdated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national-news"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\nThe Tories quoted the president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce as saying that many members view the OCOT as \u201cunnecessary bureaucracy\u201d and \u201canother financial burden on business and workers.\u201d<\/p>\n