Skill set

In April, the Ontario College of Trades began registering new members, including those in trades requiring certification. Proponents say that mandatory certification in certain auto repair trades, for example, could help raise the standard of the work and improve public safety.

But critics characterize having the college enforce mandatory certification requirements as a redundant layer of regulation that could lead to higher cost of auto and property restoration claims, and convince some property restoration specialists to go underground.

The college – intended to be similar to other self-regulatory, professional bodies in Ontario, such as those for engineers, architects and health professions – will govern 157 different occupations. As of April 8, anyone wanting to perform one of the 22 trades for which certification is mandatory (these include auto body and collision damage repairer and automotive service technician, although the college’s review panels have the power to make trades compulsory) had to pay an annual fee of at least $60 per apprentice and $120 per journeyperson.

The move has automotive technicians such as Christine Aarlaht concerned. The Hamilton, Ontario firm that Aarlaht owns, CT&G Automotive Specialists, now pays $120 every three years in licensing costs for two technicians. But with two journeyperson technicians and an apprentice, she estimates the new requirements will drive her licensing costs to about $1,200 every three years.

Aarlaht has provided her response to several calls from the college for stakeholder input. “I have asked quite a few times what the money is going towards,” she said in an interview.

SUPPORTING EDUCATION

Among the things the college plans to do is work with high school guidance counsellors to promote careers in skilled trades and employ inspectors who will travel to work sites to verify that those performing work have the certificates of qualification required by provincial law, says Ron Johnson, chair of the College of Trades.

Aarlaht suggests for repair shops like hers, a certification process already exists, alluding to the Interprovincial Standards Red Seal Program.

There are also certification processes in place for trades people in property restoration, adds John White, owner of Winmar in London, Ontario. As an example, White cites the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification, which has standards for, among others, rug-cleaning technicians, senior carpet inspectors and water damage restoration technicians.

White says he initially had concerns certain trades would need certification. “If it’s true that painters, drywallers, etc. will have to be certified, it will drive some of these people underground,” he cautions. From what he has heard from other construction contractors, the new requirement will create an unnecessary bureaucracy and “will make our jobs more expensive to the consumer and to the insurance industry, no question.”

Aarlaht argues the new fees will also drive up the cost of auto claims because collision repair centres will pass on their costs to those paying for repairs. Todd Bourgon, executive director of Trillium Automobile Dealers Association in Mark-ham, Ontario, agrees. “When costs go up, everyone pays,” says Bourgon, whose association represents new vehicle dealers.

But one major auto insurer suggests the type of oversight provided by the college will help improve quality of work and encourage more people to enter the auto repair trades. “A self-regulatory body overseeing the auto body and collision repair trade will help raise the standard of technicians’ knowledge, competence and skills,” a spokesperson for CAA Insurance Company (Ontario) notes in an e-mail to Canadian Underwriter, pointing out that vehicles are becoming more complex as a result of new materials and computer systems. The hope is the college would “increase the general profile and awareness of auto body repair as a career choice and help bring more apprentices into the field.”

Beyond its mandate of attracting young people into the trades, the college will maintain a public register of members on its website and is required to investigate complaints against those members.

For example, insurance carriers or claimants unsatisfied with the quality of work could lodge a complaint about the performance of a repair shop, says Johnson. “The college would do an investigation and could determine who was responsible for that work and if, in fact, there is an issue of incompetence,” he says. If so, the issue “would be addressed accordingly.”

The response could include revoking or suspending a member’s certificate of qualification or statement of membership, imposing a fine of as much as $2,000 or ordering a member to pay the costs of the proceedings against him or her. At press time, the college said its officers would be “prepared to enforce” provisions under Ontario’s College of Trades and Apprenticeship Act by June 6.

Johnson says most people he has spoken with in auto repair support establishing the new oversight body because their business prospects are being eroded by those non-qualified people working under the table in home garages.

But critics such as Bourgon and Garfield Dunlop, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party critic for apprenticeship programs, point out that auto repair facilities are already subject to inspections from the provincial labour, transportation and environment ministries.

On April 10, Dunlop tabled a motion in the Ontario legislature to abolish the College of Trades. Johnson argues there is no redundancy since the college and ministries are focusing on different obligations. While college enforcement officers will check, for example, that a person doing brakes in a garage is certified to do so, labour ministry inspectors will be enforcing things such as the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

He emphasizes that ensuring someone is qualified contributes “to the overall safety of both the safety of the consumer and the worker.”

PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY

Some critics warn there is no professional indemnity clause in the College of Trades and Apprenticeship Act governing the College of Trades, even though its processes are similar to those of provincial colleges governing doctors, engineers and architects. Building designers registered with Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing are required by the Building Code to carry either a liability or an errors and omissions policy. That policy must indemnify the firm against liability arising out of performance of – or failure to perform – services during the time they are registered.

“If the same rationale is applied (to regulated trades), it should capture the trades who apply the same if not more ‘knowledgeable’ field skill to a construction project in Ontario,” architect Derek Smith, director of project development for London-based MCI Design-Build Corp. and former executive director of the London and District Construction Association, writes in an e-mail. “I do not know if (general liability) insurance from a sub-contracting company or a union for which the tradesman is seconded and is a member works or will suffice if put to the test,” Smith notes.

The decision for trades people to obtain liability insurance or increase the limit of an existing policy “is a matter for them to decide on the basis of independent legal and financial advice,” a college spokesperson notes in an e-mail.

At least one carrier suggests liability is a concern for auto trades. Leonard Sharman, senior advisor for media relations at The Co-operators Group Ltd., says that in auto accidents causing serious personal injury, engineers look for evidence of prior repairs to the body. “If there is a connection between faulty work and the injuries sustained, it is likely that the tradesperson who did the work can be brought into the legal action as a defendant,” Sharman adds.