Effective Jan. 1, Manitoba will tighten its tool belt and change legislation regulating electrical work and workers to ensure that only licensed electricians and registered apprentices will be able to act as electricians.
"These changes were necessary for the construction electrician and industrial electrician trades to be made compulsory (restricted to certified or registered personnel) in Manitoba," says Joe Black, executive director of apprenticeship and trades qualifications for Manitoba Advanced Education and Training.
"The general public can rest assured that when people do electrical work on their premises they will be trained, competent and certified to do that work, or they will be in a training program leading to certification," says Black, whose office worked in a consulting role to the Department of Labour and Immigration's mechanical and engineering branch to help facilitate the changes.
Some companies in the industry are concerned, however, with one of the changes to the Electricians' Licence Act - the elimination of the category of "helper," a worker employed to assist a licence holder to do electrical work.
"In essence, there were changes to the act that made sense at face value for the sake of safety. We agree with those fully," says Laurence Rosenberg, president of Winnipeg-based Accurate Technology Group, which specializes in the installation of home theatre and security systems as well as structured cabling for TV, phone, satellite computer networks or fibre optics.
"But the problem is the Electricians' Licence Act is based on an act that was written in 1911," he says.
"Technology has greatly changed since then."
Rosenberg says eliminating the helper role means high-tech/low-voltage installation and repair businesses will now be forced to hire licensed electricians for some jobs.
He estimates as of Jan. 1, there may be 4,500 Manitobans, from stereo installers to hospital machinery technicians, who will be unable to practise the professions they have been to date.
"For example, someone might run a phone line along an office wall and put in a conduit (a protective enclosure of metal or PVC) so nobody puts their chair up against it. According to the new law, (a low-voltage worker) isn't allowed to put in conduits, even though they are not a current-carrying device.
"A framer can put it in, a cabinetmaker can put it in, a cleaning lady can put it in - but by mere virtue that if you are (a low-voltage worker under the Manitoba Electricians' Licence Act), you can't do it."
Rosenberg has met with Don Hurst, assistant deputy minister of workplace safety and health, to discuss these issues, and at press time was awaiting word on whether definitions in the Electricians' Licence Act would be further amended to recognize high-tech, low-voltage workers.
Whether or not the tighter legislation will put a pinch on the electrical workforce is also on the mind of Rob Gordon, general manager of SVE Commercial/Industrial Electrical Contractors, which employs 20 workers in Manitoba and 10 in Alberta, including six indentured (registered and enrolled in a recognized training program) apprentices.
"I've been in agreement (with the act) from the beginning. The only issue I have is that it will cause more of a shortage in labour than we have already," Gordon says.
"I have one person who's been with me for eight or nine years who is not (certified). He's exceptionally skilled, trained and paid well because he's a competent tradesperson, but basically, he's tried to go to school and can't.
"He's going to be writing a limited licence, but that's going to limit the kind of employment I can offer him. Whether it will be viable to keep him employed is questionable - and that's unfortunate."
Black says the Manitoba government will not abandon anyone affected by the changes.
"For those who are currently working in the trades and are not certified, we have a process where long-term practitioners can apply for certification and meet a particular set of standards that anybody else would have to meet and write a certification exam to prove competency," he says.
"We're also more than willing to take people into the system who were formerly helpers and guide them through an apprenticeship program."
Gordon says another issue that needs to be tabled in relation to both licensing and a labour shortage is the ratio of on-the-job electrical journeymen to apprentices.
"In Alberta, it's one journeyman to one apprentice for every company. But in Manitoba, we're still back in the '50s - it's one apprentice to two journeymen. From what I understand, they've brought in this legislation without changing the ratio and it's putting some in a tight situation," he says.
"If they gave us a better ratio, that would be huge. It would help us out immensely as far as getting better people and providing one-on-one training, which is the best way to go."
Black says Manitoba's new legislation will help align the province's electrical workforce with the standards of others across the country.
"It's good for Manitoba. (We're) one of the few provinces where working in the electrical trades is not compulsory, so I think it'll put Manitoba on similar footing with other provinces where it's been compulsory for years."
Rick McMurray, manager of Arco Electric in Calgary and a member of the executive board of the Alberta Electrical League, says that his province has had similar legislation for a quarter of a century.
"For the last 25 years, being an electrician in Alberta has been a compulsory trade, so you have to be a journeyman or an indentured apprentice," he says.
"I'm a contractor, so the way it works is that if I hire someone off the street who wants to become an electrician, I have to have him fill in his application papers for the apprenticeship branch on his first day.
"You don't even get a three-month trial period or anything - you're in or you're not.
It sounds like Manitoba is moving to that."
Manitoba's neighbour to the east is applauding the legislation changes.
"This is a positive step for Manitoba," says Dale MacDonald, manager of Honey Electric in Chatham, Ont., and chair of the Provincial Advisory Council's (PAC) Construction and Maintenance Electricians.
"You're supposed to be a registered apprentice or qualified electrician, but in reality, there are a lot of workers out there who are acting in an unofficial capacity. With due diligence and insurance issues these days, it just makes sense to not take that risk."
MacDonald says that in Ontario, legislation similar to Manitoba's is helping to solve a problem with unqualified workers.
"It tends to be new immigrants who need a job and unscrupulous employers who will clear those guys illicitly to get them working.
"Contractor licensing will help address those kinds of issues where to be an electrical contractor in Ontario, you must have your licence.
"You have to be a master electrician or have one working for you and be able to prove you're properly insured, you're paying workers' compensation and that you're in good standing with the Electrical Safety Authority (the agency that oversees electrical safety and inspections in Ontario). That's going to clean up the trunk- slammers."
MacDonald is confident that Manitoba electrical workers will benefit from moving to a compulsory trade.
"It's going to help legitimize the people in the industry. Instead of some guy who thinks he can (do the job), you can actually show accreditation that proves you're capable of that trade."
(Barbara Chabai can be reached at chabai@businessedge.ca)
