The apprenticeship system for residential construction in our province does not recognize residential trades. They are just starting to do that. We're trying to build a system that is similar to Quebec's, where you have a journeyperson and a ratio of apprentices under them.
A good example is one of our utilities that goes to one of our electrical companies and hires two journeymen electricians away from them. There is a third one who leaves for Alberta. That's three journeypersons gone on a Friday. Come Monday morning, he has to let six apprentices go. He's wiped out a third of his company.
Ratio is a real problem right now. You have to be able to change ratios in a hurry, but you can't in this apprenticeship system. I mean, the unions will fight to the death that this ratio means something. It doesn't mean something when you can't supply people. It means nothing. You have to set the rules better and get checks in there.
Instead of one apprentice, a journeyperson should be allowed to have two or three, depending on process. The apprenticeship program should be able to react fast enough to make these changes to accommodate this situation.
That utility hires nothing but journeymen. Where is their social responsibility to hire apprentices? It ticks us off. They wipe out our private sector industry overnight in some of these companies. We need a collective approach so industry and large government-owned utilities play by the same rules.