Will 2026 be the year that anti-discrimination/anti-harassment (ADAH) training becomes mandatory in Ontario’s construction workplaces?
That’s the fervent goal of Ontario Building and Construction Trades Women (OBCT) and their leadership under program manager Kate Walsh.
She says the training program created by the OBCT is fully realized and it’s time to ensure ADAH training is embedded throughout the construction industry.
The OBCT program is supported by the Ontario Building Trades and includes comprehensive training modules and train-the-trainers programming. Making the training mandatory would bring it in line with working at heights mandates, with enforcement by the Ministry of Labour, Walsh notes, and it’s a necessary step because discrimination and harassment are safety issues.
“That is still our goal,” Walsh said in March after her colleague Gillian Olohan delivered a presentation on ADAH to delegates attending an Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS) conference. “We are optimistic, but regardless, we’re pushing forward with industry and the support of our local unions to get this training out there. It’s important.”
Feeling unsafe
Olohan is the program manager for Construction Training and Apprenticeship Ontario through the Building Trades. She told delegates an OBCT survey of female construction workers in 2025 found 52 per cent experienced harassment and feeling unsafe at work.
Of those who reported it, more than half were dissatisfied with how it was handled.
The survey also found more than half of the tradeswomen with children reported turning down work due to child care challenges, and 67 per cent identified more women in leadership positions as essential for long-term retention.
“These findings shouldn’t come as a surprise,” said Olohan. “They show that if we want to recruit more women and keep them, both culture and structure are key. This is why the OBCT developed our anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training program.”
Making the training mandatory, Olohan said, would include incorporating the training into apprenticeship programs and integrating it within the Occupational Health and Safety framework.
She said making ADAH training mandatory is “both ambitious and attainable.”
“As we know, safe and more respectful worksites benefit everyone involved, and this is where the leaders in this room come into play,” said Olohan, urging the delegates to boost advocacy efforts and begin adoption of ADAH training programs.
No off-the-shelf
Walsh said in the policy’s formative days, the OBCT realized that off-the-shelf training wouldn’t work in construction. The industry’s constantly changing crews, long and irregular hours and province-wide mobility create conditions that standard workplace programs don’t address well.
“You need something that’s construction-specific,” she said. “Otherwise it’s going to fall flat.”
The OBCT ADAH training, Walsh said, is “really tailored to the Ontario construction industry. It’s been vetted by our stakeholders.”
Walsh noted members of the OBCT met with Minister of Labour David Piccini last May during a Queen’s Park lobby day and discussed various issues, but their main goal was to impress the point that ADAH training should be mandatory.
The MOL has supported the initiative through skills development funding, Walsh noted.
In response to questions, the MOL issued a statement March 25 saying in part, “Our government has taken action to ensure every worker has a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace, free from harassment and discrimination. Our five-year occupational health and safety strategy, Prevention Works, strengthens protections and improves policies for workers in every sector across the province, with a particular focus on workplace violence and harassment.”
The statement recognized the OBCT advocacy and added, “We will continue to work with partners across industries to improve training and enforcement to ensure safe workplaces.”
The OBCT was founded in 2019 after a resolution at a Building Trades conference. Currently, women represent five per cent of onsite trades in Ontario’s construction sector, with 14,200 women working directly on the tools.
Despite the long odds, Olohan told delegates at the OCS event, progress is being made.
“Creating safer and more inclusive workplaces isn’t about giving something up, it’s about building something stronger,” she said. “OBCT is living proof that in just a few short years, we’ve gone from a resolution that passed at convention to real, concrete results.”
