QUEEN’S PARK – The Ontario PC Caucus today called for the Government to scrap the College of Trades, which charges mandatory membership fees to tradespeople and contractors, yet delivers no service.

The Opposition Day Motion, moved by PC Apprenticeship Reform Critic Garfield Dunlop, was defeated by a coalition of Liberal and NDP members. MPP Jim McDonell expressed his disappointment: “For months, Ontario’s tradespeople conveyed to all Members their opposition to the College of Trades. This is nothing but a tax grab by the McGuinty-Wynne Government. The College will provide nothing in return for the fees it collects and it promises to expand its reach into currently non-mandatory trades such as hairdressing. Unlike the Liberal-NDP coalition, the Ontario PC Caucus heard hard-working tradespeople loud and clear: the Trades Tax must be stopped.”

A previous attempt to give tradespeople much-needed relief from useless fees – MPP Dunlop’s Bill 22, Helping Ontarians Enter the Skilled Trades Act – was voted down by the same Liberal-NDP coalition on March 28, 2013.

MPP Jim McDonell stated: “Six hundred thousand Ontarians are out of work today and young people are increasingly looking outside Ontario for work. Our Province needs to kick-start job creation and the abolition of the College of Trades is one of the essential steps in that process. Ontario needs more tradespeople and we need to attract young Ontarians into good-paying skilled trades. The McGuinty-Wynne Government is on a job-killing path and we must change course. The Liberal-NDP coalition had a chance to do so today and they squandered it. I will continue to fight for hard-working Ontarians who want to make our Province prosper once again.”