Ontario College of Trades

Ontario College of Trades
Established 2009[1]
Type Professional association, Regulatory College
Headquarters 655 Bay St., Suite 600 Toronto, ON M5G 2K4
Location
Region
Ontario, Canada
Membership
Over 500,000[2]
Board of Governors Chair
 Pat Blackwood
Board of Governors Vice-Chair
 Rob Brewer
Website Official website

The Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) is the professional body for Certified Tradesmen in Ontario, Canada. The OCOT is mandated to protect the public interest by regulating and promoting the skilled trades. Although it is far from the first Regulatory College, it is the first of its kind as a College of Trades.[3] It is the largest regulatory college in Ontario with over 500,000 members. The OCOT was founded in 2009 through the Ontario College of Trades and Apprenticeship Act, 2009, S.O. 2009, c. 22.[4]

Organisation

The OCOT is governed by a board of governors with 21 members—4 members from construction, industrial, motive power, and service fields. In addition each trade is represented by a trade board consisting of 4-12 members, consisting of an equal number of employers and employees.[5]

Unlike other professional associations such as Professional Engineers Ontario or OACETT, and also unlike other professional colleges such as the College of Nurses Ontario, the Ontario College of Pharmacists, or the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, there is no election process for any members of the board of governors. All members of the governing structure are appointed by an independent Appointments Council, who are in turn appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.[6]

Membership

Skilled trades in Ontario consist of 2 broad categories:[7]

Under the Ontario College of Trades Act, one cannot hold themselves as certified in either a compulsory trade or voluntary trade(subject to some exclusions) unless they are a member of the college. As well, all apprentices must be members of the college.

Individuals holding certificates of qualification in voluntary trades from before 2013 are not required to present their certificate of qualification to inspectors. As well, they cannot have their certificate of qualification suspended or revoked by the Ontario College of Trades.

To maintain membership, members are charged a membership fee.

There are a number of different membership classes:[8]

Controversy

In Ontario, presenting yourself as certified in a skilled trade requires registration in the college, requiring an annual fee. By contrast, no other Canadian jurisdiction requires ongoing registration fees to maintain trade certification. As a result, the OCOT has been called a "Liberal tax grab" by PC candidate Paula Peroni, Garfield Dunlop, MPP (Simcoe North) and hairstylists from across Sudbury.[9]

The largest construction union in North America, LiUNA, has become part of the Ontario Skilled Trades Alliance (OSTA) to oppose the OCOT, in part because the OCOT has proposed making carpentry a compulsory trade requiring certification.[10]

In the 2014 Ontario Election, the Ontario College of Trades was a minor election issue. Conservative leader Tim Hudak promised to scrap the college of trades as part of their platform.[11]

Dean Report

In 2015, former Secretary of Cabinet Tony Dean released a report making a number of recommendations to support the development of the College of Trades.[12]

The recommendations in the report encompassed many areas including governance models, noting that most professional organizations have some membership elected representation. However; the primary areas covered were scopes of practice, trade classification and reclassification reviews, ratio reviews, and enforcement.[13]

A number of construction trade unions, including the Ontario Sheet Metal Workers Conference and the International Brotherhood of Metal Workers opposed the report because it lacked consultation with stakeholders.[14] However; the largest construction union in North America, LiUNA, has expressed cautious optimism and support for the report.[15]

See also

References

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