b'LABOUR BRIEFLABOUR BRIEF: Open bidding, more apprenticeship spots are key to labour shortage, says Cardus BY IAN HARVEYThis article was originally posted in May 2024 on One is to promote skilled trades as a viable and lucrative career www.dailycommercialnews.com.path, and we dont do that enough, he says, though recent moves M oving toward open bidding and creating moreby the Ontario government to promote trades for credits in high apprenticeship spots for skilled trades regardlessschool are a good step forward.of union affiliation is critical to resolving the issuesHowever, I think in post-secondary education colleges need to of labour supply to meet the housing shortage, says think- have a more equitable share of the funding for trades, he says, tankCardus. adding there also needs to be an off-ramp from the academic Renze Nauta, the program director for work and economics atuniversity path to transfer into skilled trades without necessitating Cardus, a longtime advocate of open bidding, says to meet thestarting from scratch. We need to ensure that skilled trades get a demand for skilled labour and the building boom driven byfair share of the money in education.government investment, a rethink of how we recruit, train andNone of these will solve the issue overnight, he adds, but other deploy those workers is needed. factors like open tendering will open up government projects I think there are two pillars here, he says. One is the future, andto non-union contractors and that in turn will create more the other is right now. opportunities for apprentices.Governments dont have all the tools to resolve skilled labourWe need to find a happy medium here, he says. One that is shortages in the immediate time frame, he says, but they can put inflexible. Right now the money in post-secondary isnt really place policies and strategies to resolve it for the near future. meeting the needs of the current labour market.10THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE ACCESS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA'