A meeting will be held Tuesday in Toronto to examine questions and concerns raised by the Ontario government's decision to end the Ontario College of Trades.
The Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Marie Fullerton is developing legislation that includes the winding down of the college — the regulatory agency that ensures skilled trades have the necessary certification to do the job.
Unifor and other unions representing skilled trades believe the government is trying to roll the back the clock and reduce safety on job sites.
Mechanic Paul Sousa sits on the Board of Directors at the college. He says the current ratios exist to make sure everyone learns safely and production can move forward.
"It's very important to have more manpower per-shop," he says. "Having that either one-one, two-one, three-one ratio."
Getting rid of the college all together would be a mistake, he says.
"We oversee the shop issues on the floor, I push out a lot, even in our meetings that this needs to be done that way because it comes from the [shop] floor," says Sousa. "You come in and you understand what's going on, not so much of the small things, but the larger aspect of it."
The Ontario government intends to have revised legislation in place early in 2019.
With files from Peter Langille