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By 2030, 9.2 million of Canada’s baby boomers will reach Let’s Build Canada is focused not just on infrastructure, but on
retirement age. Over the next ten years, Canada will need 300,000 supporting future leaders who support Canadian workers. The
new construction workers to fill the coming gap. group’s vision is of a society that works for all Canadians – and of
Canadian leaders who address the failures in the modern economy,
That’s why it’s critical to ensure young Canadians can learn a trade
which increasingly feels rigged in favour of the wealthy.
that will lead to a good-paying career in these needed fields.
Even with unemployment at lows not seen since the 1970s, wages
Skilled construction trades make up the biggest single group of
are stagnant. Since the 1980s, the bottom 50 per cent have seen
apprentices in Canada. Apprentices in a unionized setting are 30
their real earnings shrink, while incomes for the top 1 per cent have
per cent more likely to complete their training than those outside a
more than doubled.
union, according to the Ontario Construction Secretariat.
The decline in prosperity has coincided with decreasing
While progress has been made since 2015, more can be done to
unionization. Between 1981 and 2014, Canada’s unionization rate
fund job training and apprenticeships. Canada has some distance
fell from 37.6 per cent to 28.8 per cent, despite the benefits of
to go: in 2016, the country ranked just 16th among OECD countries
union membership for Canadian workers.
in funding for training, education and labour markets.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees estimates unionized
Building Canada is about more than building bridges, roads and
workers in Canada are paid, on average, an extra $5.26 per hour
sewers. It’s about building trades, careers and workers. That means
more than non-unionized workers. That comes out to another $180
supporting leaders ready to invest in training and apprenticeships.
per week and another $9,000 per year – and the difference is even
But it also means supporting strong unions. higher for younger workers, women, and workers in lower-paying
occupations. Union members also benefit from better access to
In Canada, organized labour has been foundational in securing
pensions, benefits, paid leave and increased job security.
many of the rights workers enjoy today, from the 40-hour work week
to living wages to pensions and benefits. Canadian workers from Efforts to weaken the power of unions, on the other hand, have
all walks of life have experienced the benefits of the gains fought been shown to drag down workers’ prosperity.
for and won by the labour movement.
In the United States, so-called “right-to-work” legislation has not
But even as climate change looms, so does inequality. With wages only reduced unionization, but lowered real hourly wages. In states
stagnant and climate change expected to disproportionately impact which have implemented those laws, the professions hit hardest
the poor and working class, it is more vital than ever to build are those which traditionally provide a pathway into the middle
Canada by building the kinds of jobs that Canadians can afford to class. By rolling back the rights of unions, short-sighted politicians
raise a family on. weaken all workers.

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