LIUNA Local 607 in Thunder Bay, Ont. is setting its sights on more than doubling its membership from the current 950 to 2,000 members by 2030 in preparation for an “unprecedented” construction boom in northwestern Ontario.
Hydro-electric stations and transmission line upgrades for First Nations communities currently reliant on diesel, ambitious plans for Ring of Fire mining/infrastructure work and a proposed nuclear repository near Thunder Bay are among the developments underway or on the horizon, says Andy Nieweglowski, training director of Local 607’s Training Centre.
To tackle the demand for skilled labour, the training director says it is critical to expand its training efforts.
“If we can’t supply the employment through our local, the contractor can then bring in their own people from wherever their headquarters are. We want to try to keep everything here to employ local people.”
Nieweglowski says a partnership with the Mattawa First Nations, for example, takes the local’s instructors on the road into three northwestern region high schools to teach Working at Heights, a requirement on construction sites in Ontario.
Also taught are chainsaw and skid‑steer operation, practical skills that support forest‑sector work, including transmission‑line corridor clearing, says Nieweglowski, adding the centre is looking at offering additional training.
The remote teaching is done using a Freightliner as a mobile classroom.
At the Thunder Bay training centre, two trainers run regular programs for classes of eight to 12.
“In the past four years that I have been director of training here we have increased our training significantly,” he says, noting 70 per cent of all training is through First Nations. “It is the fastest growing population.”
The centre is a training agent through Ontario’s Ministry of Labour for the delivery of Red Seal construction craft worker (a broad-scale labourer program) and for Red Seal cement (concrete) finisher. Its training also covers areas such as sewer and water, heavy equipment and scaffolding.
Nieweglowski says because instructors can’t always fill a cohort in remote locations and coming to the city to look for housing isn’t a practical option for many Indigenous youth, LIUNA has applied for provincial government funding to build a 12-unit dormitory on its property for out-of-town students.
He says the union is also focusing on other underrepresented groups, including newcomers and women.
“We recently completed two cohorts (for women) and we have 11 women apprentices going to work. We have to be clear on where our employment numbers are going to come from to help meet the demand,” he says.
More than 40 years in the field, Nieweglowski says he’s never seen as much construction in the region. “Back in the mid-‘70s coming out of high school you could go from job to job but what we’re experiencing now and what’s to come we’ve never seen before.”
He says while the construction boom is by and large in the industrial sector in the northwestern region, an area spanning hundreds of kilometres, the need for housing construction will continue to grow.
