The Ontario government is promoting low-carbon building skills.
The Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development Deb Matthews has announced that the Government of Ontario plan to provide new supports for apprentices, skilled trades people and other professionals from the building sector so they can develop green building skills. The initiative is funded by proceeds from the province’s carbon market and will be run as part of Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan.
Officials with the government say they are helping unions and post-secondary educations acquire equipment while increasing their ability to train current and future workers in low-carbon building skills. Some of their planned actions are; sector focused partnerships between unions, employers and others that support training in green-building skills, new and upgraded facilities that have the infrastructure to allow for green-building skills training, green training curriculum for apprentices and research into the utilities a green labour force would need.
The Ontario government is investing 24 million dollars from the province’s carbon market into this initiative. Funds from the carbon market go toward things like public transit and electric vehicle incentives to help fight climate change. According to the Ontario Government buildings, and the energy they consume, account for almost a quarter of the province’s greenhouse gas pollution.