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business elite canada
H
AUGUST 2017
locals. Part of the reason for this is Local
95’s successful apprentice program. Insu-
lators are a Red Seal trade—Red Seal is the
national standard of excellence for skilled
trades in Canada—which means employ-
ers and consumers can be confident that
the Red Seal tradespeople they hire are
skilled and knowledgeable because the
tradesperson has met the standard to do
his or her job.
Gardner tells Business Elite Canada that
Local 95 has 265 apprentices province-
wide and has an average of 96 go through
the schooling system annually. “When I
meet a new applicant, I tell them about
some of the benefits of joining our trade,”
says Gardner. “We pay for all the appren-
tices’ schooling, and they are paid as they
learn on the jobsite. They will earn a de-
cent wage for their family and a pension
when they retire. The mechanical insula-
tion trade is a good career choice.”
Apprentices come out of the Local 95 pro-
gram with additional universal skills such
as blueprint and specification reading, ap-
plication of materials, St. John’s Ambu-
lance, supervisory skills, and personnel
management. “We are trying to bring up
a standard for all insulators, not just union
alone,” says Gardner. “We are trying to
raise the standards of all insulators to be
recognized.”
