Former Local 444 president stresses need for incentives to improve Ontario’s skilled trades

The former president of Local 444 is stressing the need for incentives to improve Ontario’s skilled trades.

The former president of Unifor Local 444 in Windsor is finalizing his recommendations to the province on what needs to be done to address Ontario’s skilled trades needs.

Dave Cassidy was appointed a Skilled Trades Special Advisor (STSA) to the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training, and Skills Development in May 2024, almost a month after announcing his retirement from the union.

Since then, Cassidy has met with over 200 stakeholders to assess the workforce needs in Ontario’s skilled trades sector, with a focus on the manufacturing and automotive industries, including electric vehicles.

Cassidy says one of the biggest issues is employers bringing apprentices on, otherwise they won’t get journeypersons within the trades.

“The key is that we need to give some incentives to these employers to attract the kids, the young kids. Right now, in the province, the average age of an apprentice is 28 years old. That’s pretty high. That’s one of the things, but another issue is our school system. Our ecosystem is getting better, but we need to continue to still improve in the school system where we’re teaching them young,” he says.

Part of the STSA role is to ensure Ontario is well positioned to respond to the rapid development and expansion of manufacturing and automotive sectors while identifying issues, challenges, and areas of improvement within Ontario’s skilled trades and apprenticeship system.

At the time of Cassidy’s appointment, the government estimated the province would require over 500,000 additional workers in skilled trades-related occupations over the next decade.

He says with all the investments going on, including in construction projects, there’s going to be jobs for years.

“We need to prepare for that, and that will be my focus. It will be in the school systems to ensure they are engaging with their youth. We need to make sure we’re giving incentives to our apprentices and giving incentives to employers to bring them forward,” he says.

Cassidy points out that another issue is older workers retiring and taking their skill sets and experience with them before they can mentor younger workers as the next generation of skilled trades workers.

“It’s going to continue unless we are really engaging our youth. Not at 28 years old. We’re engaging them coming out of school and giving them opportunities to get into the skilled trades,” he says.

Cassidy hopes the government will release his report and recommendations by the summer.