30 Ontario inspectors laid off despite Doug Ford promise no one will lose jobs

More than 30 inspectors who enforce credentials in the skilled trades have received layoff notices as a result of a decision by Premier Doug Ford's government, CBC News has learned.

The layoff notices went out last week to inspectors in the compliance and enforcement section of the Ontario College of Trades (OCOT), the agency that licenses tradespeople such as electricians, plumbers, auto mechanics and hairstylists. 

The Ford government is dissolving the agency, but all its duties continue. Its inspection role is being shifted to the Ministry of Labour and its work related to apprenticeships goes to a new body called Skilled Trades Ontario.

Despite the continuation of their duties — and even though most OCOT managers and staff get to stay on the provincial payroll with Skilled Trades Ontario — the 30-plus inspectors face being out of work come February.

"Doug Ford said no one would lose their jobs," said Terry Dorgan, an inspector who has been in the job since 2013. "We trusted him." 

Ford stated frequently during the 2018 election campaign, including during one of televised leaders debates, that no public sector workers would be laid off under his government. 

Then in 2019, Ford and his ministers started shifting their tune, instead saying that no "front-line workers" would lose their jobs.  

Dorgan said he feels "gutted, betrayed and lied to" as a result of the layoff notice. 

"We were promised we wouldn't lose our jobs in 2018, when [Ford] said he was winding down the college and replacing it with something better," Dorgan said in an interview from his home near Peterborough, Ont. 

He doesn't understand why he and the other inspectors weren't simply transferred to become employees in the Ministry of Labour, since the ministry is taking over the enforcement of credentials in Ontario's 23 licensed trades.

Instead, the ministry recently went on a hiring spree of new inspectors that excluded "the people that have the knowledge and skills that have been doing this function for 10 years," said Dorgan.     

"We believe 100 per cent that this is an unfair labour practice. You can't take people's jobs and sell them to someone else," he said. 

A spokesperson for Monte McNaughton, the minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development, said ministry inspectors must have the skills and knowledge to enforce a wider range of workplace legislation than the OCOT inspectors handled, such as employment standards and occupational health and safety. 

"Our ministry hires the best candidates for the positions we have available," said McNaughton's press secretary Harry Godfrey in a statement that also described the College of Trades as a failure.