After Alberta, Ontario is eyeing our construction workers

An Ontario union is advertising near a vocational training center in Gatineau to encourage workers who learn their trade there on the Quebec arm to take jobs on the other side of the Ottawa River.

• Read also: Little seduction at $5,000: Alberta courts our construction workers

For several weeks, students at the Portages-de-l’Outaouais vocational training center have been able to see an ad promoting a “variety of trades all under the same union in Ontario”, on the bus shelter just in front of the establishment.

“The ad is part of a labor recruitment campaign for Ontario,” a spokesperson for local 527 of the LiUNA union explained matter-of-factly. Very simple, it displays a range of positions and details the generous salaries associated with them.

However, several of the trades targeted by LiUNA’s advertising are part of the accelerated and paid training program launched last fall by the Legault government in order to recruit 4,000 to 5,000 workers in the construction field.

This is the case, for example, for welders (“$54.62/h”) and heavy equipment operators (“$61.02/h”).

“Advantageous” to go to Ontario

Students enrolled in one of the programs affected by the “construction training offensive” receive a scholarship of $750 per week to learn their trade, but they have no obligation to work in the construction industry at the moment. Quebec once they have completed their course.

Nothing prevents them from taking advantage of paid training, paid for by Quebec taxpayers, and then going to work in another province.

“There are advantages for a Quebecer to cross the river,” says a Source who knows the construction industry well in the two provinces. “The salaries are similar, but in Ontario, the guys don’t pay their insurance, there is no deduction at Source, so the paychecks are bigger.”

But in the eyes of the Quebec Construction Association (ACQ), this argument is not convincing. “The pension funds and insurance schemes are really better here. And in the event of a work accident, it’s much more difficult on their side of the fence,” argues the ACQ’s public affairs manager, Guillaume Houle.

Song of the sirens

In addition to the recruitment campaign currently underway in Ontario, the Alberta government has just implemented a refundable tax credit of $5,000 to attract workers from other provinces to its side.

Nevertheless, the Legault government does not fear that Quebec workers will be seduced by the siren song.

Last week, the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, said he was “very confident that the vast majority of AEP students will join construction sites in Quebec,” while agreeing that “zero risk does not exist.”

The minister also assured that “networking and recruitment will be done” by entrepreneurs in vocational training centers.

And in Quebec?

So much for the defense. However, Quebec does not have a precise plan of attack to attract workers from other provinces to come and work on construction sites here.

“As for business taxation, there are no tax measures which, officially, aim to make Quebec attractive in terms of employment,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance in an email. At Newspaper. “Regarding measures for individuals, there are also no measures aimed directly at attracting workers from other Canadian provinces.”

The government nevertheless maintains that measures are in place to attract experienced workers, foreign workers and new graduates to the job market, such as the career extension tax credit and tax credits for new graduates. in the region.