It has become common practice for governments in Canada and the United States to regulate the number of journeypersons that must be employed by private-sector contractors in certain trades for every apprentice employed. Historically, in most jurisdictions the ratio for the electrician trade has been set at three journeypersons for every apprentice employed, largely at the insistence of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Today, however, Ontario is the only province in Canada that still retains the 3:1 ratio for electricians. All other provinces have either relaxed the ratio to 1:1 or even 1:2 (allowing 2 apprentices for every journeyperson) or even, in some cases, 1:3 (3 apprentices for every journeyperson, as long as one of the apprentices is in their final year). This paper discusses the imact of these high ratios on the industry in Ontario from both an economic and safety perspective.
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