The Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) has anounced that come Feb. 2, 2017 the sprinkler and fire protection installer trade will be reclassified as compulsory, which to some in the industry is welcome news after decades of trying to make it official.
“It’s been a long time coming. In our industry, labour and management worked on this for many of years, decades actually,” says Greg Mitchell, business manager for UA Local 853 Sprinkler Fitters of Ontario.
“I speak solely for our industry when I say we’ve been trying for decades to gain compulsory status with the different ministries. There never was criteria established to weigh whether a trade should be compulsory status or not. That was one of the roles of the college right from the beginning. There is a process now whether it’s got some hiccups in it or not.”