By
Neil Armstrong
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| Photo contributed Rosemarie Powell, executive director of the Toronto Community Benefits Network |
The
Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN)
has launched two mentoring
initiativesto
increase the number of black youth working on billion-dollar
infrastructure
projects and transit expansions across the city.
Working in partnership with the LiUNA African
American Canadian
Caucus, labour, community and industry partners,
the NextGenBuilders pilot
program will match Black youth
mentees with mentors who are experienced
construction trades professionals.
The Black Youth Dreammakers (BYD) program will identify local businesses led by young Black
professionals working in law to human resources who can access procurement
opportunities from major construction projects.
Rosemarie Powell, executive director, Toronto
Community Benefits Network says in 2013 when the coalition was founded the big
government announcement was about the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit
(LRT), a $5.3 billion of taxpayer funds being invested in transit.
The community recognized that the transit that
was being planned was actually going through a number of the neighbourhood
improvement areas in Toronto.
These are
31 areas designated as such by the city and the United Way of Greater Toronto
as communities that are in need of investment and that are struggling with high
levels of unemployment and underemployment, and most of the residents are
immigrants, newcomers, and racialized people.
“The community just wanted to see how could we
actually encourage the government to basically look at how we can have
additional benefits coming out of it for the community – so not just the
ability to ride the train when it’s built in a safer, faster cleaner way but
also while the project is being built since we heard that 3, 500 jobs were
going to be created while the project was being built.”
They looked at how they could carve out some of
those job opportunities for the local community residents.
Coming together as a coalition of labour and
community groups, they met with Metrolinx and their local government
representatives, and in 2014, they incorporated as a non-profit organization.
Since then they have negotiated four community
benefits programs and there are 95 member groups and organizations, including,
labour that make up the network.
Powell said the project has been in operation on
the Eglinton Crosstown for two years and they have won a 10 per cent commitment
from Metrolinx and Crosslinx to have 10 per cent of all the workers being hired
in the construction of the project to come for certain disadvantaged
communities and equity seeking groups.
This meant that approximately 350 people were
going to be hired over the next five years of the build of the project.
“So now two years in we have 88 people hired so
far and a number of them do come from the Black community, which is good, but
what we want is to make sure that once they do get in …once they get into the
union that they’re supported and that they can actually continue.”
Powell said construction work is usually done on
a project by project basis so apprentices will never complete their journeyperson
licence with just working on one project.
“With the mentoring program we want to make sure that
there are people on the inside who have gone through that same kind of a
trajectory and who understand the system insideout who are there to be able to
support these black youth to be able to succeed in their career.”
She said the Black community does not have a strong presence in
the construction industry. The Ontario Construction Secretariat report shows
that 1.2% of racialized people are actually in the construction industry in
Ontario.
This is a very low participation rate, especially with the Black
community being 8.8% now in Toronto.
TCBN is outreaching to ideally the age range of 18 to 35 and are
going deep into the community “because our black youth don’t understand the
immense possibilities that could be in the trades.”
Right now out of high school, an apprentice starts out being paid
$22 an hour, benefits and pension; some are starting at $26 and every year they
are guaranteed a raise.
“It’s an apprenticeship journey. It means that it takes you three
to five years just like you would go to college or university to get your
certification. The thing about it is that you’re earning while you’re learning
and so you don’t have to pay these high loans and school loans.”
They are also working to get young people who are professionals,
administrative and technical skills people to also consider a career in the
construction industry.
“It’s nice that we have the black journeypeople supporting the
program and leading this but our focus is not just on the black journeypeople
because we also want other cultures who have the experience in the trades and
who want to see black youth succeed have an opportunity to be able to support
these young people as well.”
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| Photo contributed Chris Campbell, a mentor and business representative of Carpenters Union Local 27 |
Chris
Campbell, a mentor and business representative of Carpenters Union Local 27
says at some of the early recruitment drives youth were skeptical and would ask
him if this was just another show.
He
told them it was not and to come to his office the following day if they were
interested and he would sign them up.
A
couple guys took him up on his offer and told him that in the past they “were taken for a ride and made
promises” and then after a while it became the norm for them to hear things and
there being no follow-up.
Those
who met the requirements were signed up and sent out to work as first-year
apprentices teamed up with journeymen who would work with them and guide them.
“They
got in and they got integrated and some of them now are third, possibly fourth-year
apprentices going on to write their exams to be a journeyman, a licensed
carpenter.”
Campbell
went through this whole process 29 years ago but had family and friends to “teach
him the ropes.”
In
Jamaica, he had uncles who were electricians and welders and he always kept in
touch with them. When he came to Canada there was an electrician who took him
“under his wings” and guided him mentally regarding how to deal with different
work scenarios.
He
now calls up apprentices to find out what are their issues and where he can
help he offers advice. When he has the time he even goes for coffee with them.
Campbell
said the Carpenters Union was the first union to take someone in from the
recruitment of the TCBN.
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| Photo contributed Ahmed Abdi, a mentee and apprentice carpenter with Carpenters Union Local 27 |
He
said Ahmed Abdi, 32, a mentee and
apprentice carpenter with Carpenters Union Local 27, is one of several young
men and women who are doing well in the apprenticeship program.
Born in Somalia, Abdi, who recently married and
has a newborn daughter, was the first hire on the Eglinton Crosstown transit
build to come through the Community Benefits stream.
Campbell still keeps in touch with him and his
family, noting that “you can’t just sign people up and make your quota, make
your money or get your allowance from the government and walk away.”
“There has to be some kind of provision made for
what comes after if you want long- term resuts,” he says.
Campbell said when he came to Canada in 1987 he
did a lot of odd jobs and because he didn’t have anyone around him to advise
him about attending univdersity his family encouraged him to go into the trades
“to make good money and to keep you out of trouble and not get you deported.”
He said when he got in he didn’t know anyone,
didn't have any family member on any construction site but then strangers
reached out and helped him.
“If I can help someone along the way I’m proud
and happy to as a union brother to step forward and do it – and I’m doing it on
my own time for years,” says Campbell, noting that this is his way of giving
back.
Abdi, a fourth-year apprentice, describes his
experience as awesome as he was lucky to have mentors, people who knew about
the industry and union members to guide him.
“My experience so far has been good, in terms of
employment. I have grown, I’ve learned how to navigate through the construction
industry,”says Abdi about working on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
He said support is key and he has seen people
fail without having it, noting that he would have been down the same road if he
didn’t have people like Campbell and
Powell supporting him.
“My mentor, Chris, has been like there every step
of the road so anytime I needed him I would give him a call and he would come
through,” he said.
TCBN’s black youth program is only one of many programs that the
network offers to underrepresented groups such as women, urban indigenous
peoples, veterans, newcomers and racialized people.
[This story was published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Jan. 17-23, 2019.]
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