Manitoba apprenticeship ratio reduction ‘concerning,’ company says

'As an employer, we're certainly going to feel the impacts of that through layoffs of apprentices, or not being able to hire the apprentices that we need.'

Stakeholders are wondering what’s next after the Manitoba government announced it will be knocking down the number of apprentices that can be assigned to a journeyperson with a new apprenticeship ratio.

On Wednesday, the province said the regulation would be brought from 2:1 to 1:1, which was originally instituted after Michael Skanderberg died working on the job in 1999. It was changed to 2:1 in 2021.

Ron Hambley, president of the Winnipeg Construction Association (WCA), said it was changed for good reason.

“Our members literally had ample and robust discussions about appropriate ratios in the industry, and settled on the 2:1,” he said. “Frankly, the industry was OK with that. Two-to-one lets the industry grow at a reasonable, manageable pace, and in general, the industry was pretty pleased with that situation.”

Now, Hambley wonders how an already existing workforce shortage will be filled, especially looking down the barrel of thousands of construction workers soon to retire.

“The industries that we’re attempting to staff up with higher numbers of apprentices are going to be in a dire situation,” he said, adding that layoffs are likely on the books.

“If you have five journeypersons currently, you can have up to 10 apprentices. If the rules change, which we anticipate they will, it’ll get rolled back to five. So five of those apprentices will have to find something else to do,” he said.

The WCA reports 65 per cent of its members will be forced to let apprentices go.