April 24, 2024
JASON AMESBURY IS QUICK TO ADMIT he’s short on labour. He says the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) work available in coming months is “astronomical.” Even on a rainy Tuesday in January there are between 50 and 60 open calls.
“That’s how fast this industry seems to be growing,” said Amesbury, business manager at the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry Local 516 (UA 516). “Our local numbers have doubled from 800 to almost 1,500 since 2013.”
He said UA 516 is doing its best to recruit, having recently hired a second organizer who will focus on new companies and ensuring members are up to date with their training.
At least some of that growth has been spurred by the increased demand for heat pumps. According to BC Hydro, fuel-switching heat pump installations, where electric or oil-fueled heating systems like furnaces are replaced with a heat pump, increased by 366 per cent in 2022-23. In that time, the public utility invested $26 million in fuel-switching incentives, with half of that dedicated for residential buildings.
In response, the provincial government is considering implementing a residential HVAC workforce certification program which would require a shorter and less thorough training program than a Red Seal for a refrigeration and air conditioning mechanic.
But refrigeration mechanics, instructors and other union leaders who spoke with Tradetalk are wary of the idea.
Amesbury first heard about the program about a year ago. He said that any effort to take apart the trades and provide workers with only partial credentials does “a disservice to the trade and to the integrity of the work.” “I think when you part-out the training and the credentials, you run the risk of poor workmanship — big costs, big mistakes and big safety issues,” said Amesbury.
United Association Local 170 business manager and financial secretary Al Phillips agrees.
“When we’re talking about the installation and maintenance of an entirely new generation of HVAC equipment we must uphold the highest standards in workmanship and safety,” said Phillips, president of the BC Building Trades Council.
What are heat pumps?
Despite their name, heat pumps can both heat and cool indoor spaces. Rather than generating heat, pumps
transfer it between the outdoors and indoors. Using refrigerants, they extract heat from the cool outdoor air and move it indoors to circulate throughout a building during the winter, and in the summer, move heat from indoors to the warm outdoors in order to cool a space.
While the carbon footprint of a heat pump ultimately depends on how electricity is being generated in that area, in mild climates they can reduce electricity use by 65 per cent compared to baseboard heaters and furnaces.
These reductions can help people save money on their heating bills. Switching from an oil-powered furnace to a heat pump can also protect households from spikes in the price of fossil fuels.
There are three main types of heat pumps: air source, water source and geothermal. All come with significant
up-front installation costs, which has prompted governments in more than 30 countries to introduce financial incentives for their adoption. B.C. residents can access both federal and provincial grants worth up to $11,000 to help with the cost of installation.
However, heat pumps are hardly a new technology. The pumps have been used in B.C. since the 1970s, with the province’s first heat pump installed by BC Hydro in 1940. Ian McComish, training director for UA 516 and the Refrigeration Training Institute, became familiar with heat pump technology while working as a refrigeration mechanic on Vancouver Island.
“I contracted on the island for many years, and heat pumps are a mainstay there because there was no natural gas line over there,” explained McComish. “People had a heat pump, and they had an oil backup, and that’s just how they heat their homes.”
While the basics of how heat pumps work hasn’t changed much over the years, recent advances in technology have greatly improved both their efficiency and their ability to work in areas that see months of sub-zero temperatures.
“They’re definitely more efficient than they used to be, without a doubt,” said McComish. Along with subsidies and increases in efficiency, a growing awareness of the impacts of climate change could be pushing people to consider heat pumps over conventional heating and air conditioning systems.
Amber-Lynn Hooge, a journeyperson refrigeration mechanic and recording secretary for UA 516, suspects B.C.’s hotter summers and colder winters, combined with extreme weather events like the 2021 heat dome, have been an eye-opener for British Columbians.
“The idea of a heat pump is much more attractive to people,” said Hooge.
Red Seal training for complex work
Hooge started her career in the trades as a mechanic for CP Rail. She had always wanted to go into the trades and earn her Red Seal, but wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to focus on. She was considering a few different trades when a friend of the family suggested she look into refrigeration.
Once she learned about the broad scope of refrigeration and how varied the work would be day to day, “it was an easy sell.”
“Every job presents a new kind of issue that you have to solve. So you’re constantly on your toes and you never really know what you’re getting into in the morning.” said Hooge. “It’s always a new adventure, a new chance to
learn something.”
Amesbury said the multi-faceted nature of HVAC work — involving a thorough understanding of electrical mechanics, gas fitting and the handling of dangerous refrigerants — requires highly trained workers. In many cases, refrigeration mechanics are working in industrial or commercial settings on equipment that heats and cools big buildings with hundreds of people in them. HVAC workers are responsible not just for themselves and their coworkers, but for the safety and comfort of everyone in those buildings.
“It takes [most workers] five, six years to get their ticket, and another, I’d say five years … to get really, really good and sought after in the trade,” explained Amesbury.
Initiatives like the residential HVAC workforce certification program — short-term courses that focus on quickly learning specific skills — are often referred to as “micro-credentialing.” Hooge, Amesbury and McComish all expressed concerns about workers without their full Red Seal doing this kind of work.
Along with concerns about safety, Amesbury worries that micro-credentialing could compromise quality maintenance work. Workers who have only learned how to install heat pumps and have not been trained on a range of heating, air conditioning and ventilation units won’t be able to diagnose other related problems that could pose issues in the future.
In addition, creating a new micro-credential to fast-track the installation of heat pumps could result in qualified, ticketed mechanics spending their time fixing the mistakes made by under-qualified workers.
“It’s those unnecessary mistakes that they have to go back and fix, when it could have just been done right the first time,” said Hooge. “It seems like a quick fix that would cause a lot more problems in the long run.”
McComish said that in some ways, micro-credentials already exist in HVAC work. Many manufacturers require qualified workers to take installation courses for their brand of heat pumps to ensure that they are being installed in accordance with the manufacturer.
“We have no problem with a micro-credential after you take your ticket or while you’re getting your ticket,” explained McComish.
Rather than micro-credentialing, McComish would like to see more investments in Red Seal training, which he sees as an essential part of trades training that holds workers to a high standard, regardless of where they’re from.
“Anybody can come here from Ontario with a Red Seal and we know they’re qualified, they’re competent,” said McComish. “They’ve written the same exam that we’ve written, they’ve gone through the same curriculum that
we’ve gone through.”
For Hooge, the Red Seal apprenticeship process is the “best way to learn” because it allows apprentices to get hands-on experience in a variety of work environments.
She’s now a full journeyperson with a crew of apprentices under her wing. Though it comes with a lot of responsibility, she’s excited to give back to her trade.
“It’s definitely a heavier weight on your shoulders, but it feels really good when you get to teach people how to do something correctly and you’re ensuring that their education is being pushed in the right direction,” she said.
BC Liberals destroy trades training
In 2022, the BC NDP passed the Skilled Trades Act. Seven trades, including refrigeration and air conditioning mechanic, were officially designated as certified skilled trades in December 2023, with the certification of three automotive trades promised in 2024. This means tradespeople in these industries are required to either be registered as apprentices or Red Seal-certified as journeypersons.
The return to certified skilled trades comes 20 years after trades training was dismantled by the BC Liberals.
In 2003, the B.C. government under Gordon Campbell replaced the ‘full scope’ training system of 11 compulsory
trades with a modular training regime that provided microcredentials. Funding for trades training was slashed by 15 per cent, regional offices were closed, staff were laid off and apprenticeship counsellors were replaced with a call centre. The Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission was replaced by the almost-unrecognizable Industry Training Authority.
The impact on trades training, and on the trades in B.C. as a whole, was devastating. Apprenticeship completions dropped by 50 per cent.
As tradespeople with decades of experience in their industry, micro-credentialing is all too familiar to Amesbury,
McComish and Phillips.
Amesbury said he finds it ironic that the government would consider introducing micro-credentialing for heat pump installation right after naming refrigeration and air conditioning mechanic a certified skilled trade. He draws a direct line between the changes made by the BC Liberals and the current labour shortage in the trades.
“Look at where we are today: we have one of the biggest labour crunches we’ve ever had because of it,” said Amesbury.
Phillips said that the long-discredited idea that trades training can be broken down into dozens of different sub-skills is an idea that just won’t seem to go away.
“Micro-credentials are incredibly limiting in what they can accomplish,“ said Phillips. “We need well-rounded,
Red Seal tradespeople doing this work. Micro-credentials will only drive down wages and water down the quality of work on the ground.”
What could the government do to help?
McComish and Amesbury said there are a number of things the government could do to help meet the demand for refrigeration mechanics without undercutting the integrity of the work.
“They could increase the funding per seat to help us train more people,” said McComish.
UA 516’s training school is running at full capacity, having added two extra classes this year to accommodate the influx of students. Still, some courses have two-year waiting lists.
Amesbury said the school would be able to offer more courses if they had more space and instructors. Government grants could help enlarge the training centre and subsidies for teachers would allow them to hire more, he said.
“Right now we’re pulling people who are incredibly good at the trade off the tools and we’re losing the workforce to become teachers,” said Amesbury.
The problem, as Amesbury sees it, isn’t attracting people to the trade, it’s about having the infrastructure in place to get them through training and into the workforce.
“To sacrifice any of those people who are trying to get into our trade to go do something along the same lines for
less money, I think it’s a disservice to the middle class,” said Amesbury. “All you’re doing is creating a workforce of less qualified, less paid people. I don’t think that’s the answer.”
By Emma Arkell