Status of Women committee  That's a loaded question. I can say a lot on the subject, and I'm trying to think how to approach this. With unions and colleges, they have two different paths. When someone goes through a college career, they're paying to go to school, usually up front, and they're continuing

Status of Women committee  Yes. I think the curriculum system needs to change, and there are compulsory credits that should be looked at. Everybody should do home ec. Everybody should have some understanding of psychology, healthy boundaries and empathy. I also believe everybody should know the basics of f

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. There is a serious lack of people to fill the labour shortage gap right now. There is a lot of opportunity. We have failing infrastructure that needs to be strengthened. We have factories that need to be built. We have an increasing population and not enough people to

Status of Women committee  We do have those programs. Through the Ontario youth apprenticeship program—and I'm pretty sure they have programs like this across Canada—students can enter skilled trades as soon as grades 11 and 12. It's up to 400 co-op hours towards their apprenticeship. Some of those are pai

Status of Women committee  Yes, I believe we do. We also need more awareness. We need to speak to educators more about talking about these pathways to students. We also need to talk to parents and educate parents that these are very good pathways as well. I just want to touch on what you were talking abou

Status of Women committee  I feel that normalizing gender equality in the trades is very important, just normalizing that women are here and under-represented groups are here. In doing that, what we need to focus on is having kids see real role models going into schools, having credible role models talking

Status of Women committee  Yes. You know, when you go out and work with somebody in the first place, I think sometimes there's a pride factor in the skilled trades, right? Men don't want to admit to their wives that women can do the same job and not come home sore and tired and ask for a foot rub.

Status of Women committee  Once you get past those barriers and you prove that you're all there, the work site goes so easily. Women and men both bring a different aspect to the trades. It's awesome when you can work in a culture together. When we can work together and use our creativity and different body

Status of Women committee  That is absolutely true. I will use an analogy. I like to use this with students and people who come to my presentations. It's like building an Ikea cabinet. Women go to Ikea, take all the instructions and lay everything out on the floor to put it together. Men don't do that. Me

Status of Women committee  I think we need to focus more on early childhood education. For example, bring skilled trades into early childhood education in schools. Let kids know at an earlier age that these are career pathways. Let them understand the infrastructure around them and see what a crucial rol

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. It is a fantastic career. It is sustainable. It's great in terms of finances. It offers you independence, and the greatest thing about the skilled trades is that they're not just in one place. You can work anywhere in the world.

Status of Women committee  I do not.

Status of Women committee  Yes. As somebody who promotes actively in this community, I don't find that there are any issues with getting anyone to be interested in the skilled trades, but we do have a lot of issues when it comes to the skilled trades, because they're not viewed as viable or lucrative pathw

Status of Women committee  —or I'll at least try to. Win, lose or draw, at times I'll have some people come up to me who are really difficult personality styles to deal with. Once I prove myself, they shake my hand and tell me I've proven myself as a woman in the skilled trades. I like to refer it back to

Status of Women committee  All right. I'm very new at this, but thank you very much. I'm speaking from the perspective of a woman in the trades. By “woman in the trades”, I mean that I am a contract worker, so it's very different from full-time employment. I am a very proud woman in trades and love to sup