October 15, 2024
GORDON MCINTOSH CRASHED INTO WELDING — almost literally.
McIntosh was in his early 20s and working a “dead-end” job at an auto parts warehouse with only ten-cent annual raises on his horizon, when he rear-ended another vehicle, punching a hole in his front bumper.
He bought a replacement weld-together bumper kit that came in 30 pieces.
“Originally, I was going to pay someone else to do it,” McIntosh said, but something came over him when he saw a wire-feed welder on a store shelf. “I was like, ‘You know what? Screw it.’”
Not long after that, McIntosh came home to his dad with a new welder and some scrap metal he’d been given by a metal supplier. He spent the next two weeks doing his own YouTube crash course for welding using the scrap metal as practice before putting his new skills to the test on his bumper.
At the time, McIntosh had been hearing radio ads at work for the UA Piping Industry College of BC (UAPIC BC). Before the crash, it sounded interesting to him — but once he got through his bumper project, it felt more real.
And if it weren’t for a free foundations training at the UAPIC BC, he might not have discovered his passion for his trade.
“I’d be moving boxes for maybe $20 an hour,” McIntosh said. “Where I am today is absolutely the best possible path that I ever could have taken in life, and it is all thanks to that funding.”
McIntosh dropped out of school halfway through Grade 12 when his mom died, and while other programs required a high school diploma, McIntosh didn’t need to go back for a GED to get into the UA program.
He was also, crucially, able to attend that seven-month welding foundations course for free.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God. This is amazing.’ What a beautiful opportunity,” he said.
The result was life-changing for him — but tuition-free trades training isn’t as widely available as it once was.
The once highly-subsidized trades training regime unraveled in 2001 with an omnibus bill from the BC Liberal government that, within its hundreds of pages, changed one word and dissolved the compulsory trades. The bill exchanged “must” for “may,” removing certification requirements for training in 57 different trades.
Before, a given worksite would have a set ratio of journeypersons to apprentices to ensure the quality of the work and training being done. Since 2001, you won’t see a minimum number of Red Seal certificates for every apprentice, according to Jud Martell, training co-ordinator for the Sheet Metal Industry Training Board and president of Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation International Local 280.
Instead, what you’ll often see is a slate of general labourers who were given instructions and materials to work with.
“So one person could go from the roof to the metal to the windows to the electrical,” Martell said, noting this leads to lower quality work.
Martell points in particular to the leaky condo crisis, which began well before the province defunded trades training, but was emblematic of the consequences of relying on untrained labour.
An inquiry into the issue found a lack of skills training, contractors using apprentices for cheap labour without any intention to complete their training and little enforcement of certification requirements.
Still, there was at the time significant funding for trades training.
At that time, the province funded about 80 per cent of the cost of trades training. But with decertification, that was cut down to around 60 per cent. That was followed by years without any increases. With inflation, funding is now closer to 40 per cent of the cost.
With funding now well below Ontario and prairie provinces, union training centres can no longer put workers through an apprenticeship without tuition.
“You can take the shadow from those days and project that shadow five years forward, because that’s what an apprenticeship is, and five years later, we have a skilled trades shortage, which we’ve never been able to recover from,” Martell said.
As the province has recently made historic investments in infrastructure, Martell said there hasn’t been a commensurate increase in training funding. In fact, SkilledTradesBC funding, at just under $90 million in 2023-24, decreased by about $7 million from 2021-22.
The BC NDP has begun to reverse decertification — but only for seven trades, and only since December. And there’s a long road ahead to revive what Martell notes took only a few years to dismantle.
But Will Schwarz, executive director of apprenticeship and training at the UA Piping Industry College, said he’s concerned about the Government leaning on microcredentials to fill the training gap. He said a shift to micro-credentials on one hand is “undercutting an existing system” of trades training that the province is trying to bolster on the other hand.
“What we need to do is double down on the amount of skilled trades training that encompasses all of those small things that they’re trying to do,” Schwarz said.
With more training for an entire trade, rather than micro credentials for one particular aspect of a given trade, Schwarz said, “we get better paid jobs, we get longer-term careers, we get more versatility for the workers… so that the scope of the work they’re able to perform isn’t one aspect, it’s an entire trade’s work.”
To that point, the BC Building Trades is calling on all parties running in the 2024 provincial election to commit to doubling trades training transfers from SkilledTradesBC to $180 million per year.
That funding would fill a dire need for skilled trades workers, especially if it comes with an increase in funded seats — and it can elevate workers to a higher standard of living, as well as allowing them to pursue the lines of work that utilize their skills. Which brings us back to Gordon McIntosh.
After finding his passion for welding, McIntosh was quick to demonstrate his skills, winning the UA Western Regional Apprentice Competition for welding — and he made it onto the national stage at the UA National Apprentice Competition.
McIntosh is now a provisional journeyperson, and he’s attained his pressure welding certificate. And Gordon has seen a significant bump to his wages since passing his Red Seal exam, landing a three-month gig at a shipyard for $47 an hour.
“Not only did [that job] skyrocket me as a welder, but it skyrocketed me just as a man in general,” he said. “I toughened up real quick. I faced a lot of adversity and had to learn a lot of lessons, and it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Shipbuilding is not easy.”
“I actually have the skills to go out and support a family and actually make a living,” the UA 170 member said. “And I have a trade. I have a calling. I absolutely love welding.”
By: Dustin Godfrey