Starting September 18, 2019, amendments to the Règlement sur la formation professionnelle de la main-d’œuvre de l’industrie de la construction will regularize the realities observed on construction sites, in addition to taking account of the health and safety of construction workers. 

The changes will confirm:

• That carpenter-joiners have the skills required to work on frameworks with cold-formed steel.
• That elevator mechanics hold the exclusive competency to operate uncompleted permanent systems and rack-and-pinion site elevators. In so doing, completed permanent systems and other temporary systems used for construction equipment may be operated by construction industry trade journeypersons and occupation workers. Training for operation of all elevators remains obligatory for all individuals who operate them, when required.
• That painters may prepare and condition surfaces in the interior of all structures and cover them with one or more layers of film-forming compounds to which an additive to create a textured finish has been added.
• That resilient flooring layers have the skills required to install synthetic grass.

Advantages for workers and employers

Generally, workers will benefit from greater multiskilling and better employability. Employers will have greater hiring flexibility, more leeway in work organization, and, in some cases, lower costs associated with tasks that were previously limited. 

There will be no impact in terms of administrative formalities, such as transmission of monthly reports and hiring notices, nor at the level of issuance and renewal of competency certificates.

An exercise in cooperation with the industry’s partners

The announced amendments are the concrete response to the needs expressed by the industry during the most recent consultation on definition of the trades, held in 2015. Every five years, the CCQ must produce a report to the Minister of Labour in the context of the process of revisions to the definition of the trades that may lead to amendments to the Règlement sur la formation professionnelle de la main-d’œuvre de l’industrie de la construction.