In our industry, our members employ a variety of trades, including electricians, but primarily refrigeration technicians, mechanics, gas technicians, plumbers, sheet metal mechanics and a few others. As Mr. Strickland said, the requirements differ from one province to the next.
We also have the challenge that in some jurisdictions, the way the licence is regulated is quite different. As a case in point, the gas technician licence is a trade in some provinces, but not in others. In Ontario, it's not even regulated under the same regulatory body; it's under the fuel safety regulator, the TSSA, and that creates challenges if there's no apprenticeship to be served there. It makes it difficult for that program to be aligned with others across the country where it could be designated as a Red Seal trade. That's a simple example.
We have a particular challenge in our sector in the residential space where we're seeing decarbonization policies or programs—electrification, if you want to call it that. We're seeing a shift in technology, and we therefore need to see a shift in skills. The problem is that the way the residential sector is regulated varies quite considerably from province to province. We need to see some harmonization there to allow for our members and technicians to adapt to the changing needs of the marketplace in a consistent way across the country.