How to get hired on a major project in Canada

Union hall

Ask your union hall when you can join its out-of-work list. At Boilermakers Lodge 146 in Alberta, members must be on the list before putting their name forward for a job. Members can put their names forward at the hall until 9:30am. Non-members can come at 1:00pm for jobs open to all.

• Lodge 146's rules require fair and impartial dispatch for members.

• A member's name comes off the list when dispatched.

• Members cannot work for two employers at once.

• In an emergency, members may be dispatched the same day.

• Travel cards: if you hold a Canadian Boilermaker travel card, register your interest in a job through the member portal. If you are a Lodge 146 member and take a travel card, your name comes off its out-of-work list. You cannot be dispatched until you return the card to the Lodge 146 union office.

• Travel card apprentices: bring a letter from your home local's training coordinator stating your apprentice classification. The hall needs it before dispatch.

• Safety tickets: you need Lodge 146's required safety training before dispatch. Tickets must be valid for 60 days after your start date.

• If your card is with another local, ask that hall how it dispatches work.

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Contractors and agencies

You can search for jobs and apply through Ledcor's careers page. Job Bank, Canada's national employment service, lists jobs on its website and mobile app. In Ontario, a temporary help agency is your employer when it assigns you to its clients. It cannot charge you a fee to join, to be assigned, or for resume or interview help. It cannot stop you from taking a job directly with its client. A contract term that charges those fees or blocks that move has no legal effect.

The agency rules above are Ontario's. Check the employment standards in your own province.

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The project's own employer

On selected major public infrastructure projects in B.C., BC Infrastructure Benefits is your employer under the Community Benefits Agreement. It recruits you, gets you started and pays you. It is a Crown corporation. It works with unions and contractors to dispatch workers, and unions check your qualifications first.

• Qualified people who live close to the project get priority hiring.

• Indigenous peoples, women and other under-represented groups get priority access to jobs and training.

• The collective agreement has a no-strike, no-lockout clause.

• On any project, ask who will employ you, how workers are assigned and whether hiring priorities apply. If your project has a labour agreement, read it.

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Before you start

Check which safety training you need and when you must complete it. The rules depend on the province.

• B.C.: WorkSafeBC says employers should include safety in your orientation before you start work. In B.C., the rules require training and orientation for new workers.

• Ontario: if the Occupational Health and Safety Act covers you, your employer must make sure you finish basic awareness training as soon as reasonably possible. Past training counts if you show proof and the employer confirms it met the rules.

• In Ontario, approved working-at-heights courses and their providers must meet the Chief Prevention Officer's standards.

Ontario also has trade rules. It has 144 trades, and 23 are compulsory. For compulsory trades, Ontario's skilled trades law, BOSTA, requires permission to do the work. You need this permission unless you are exempt. An employer cannot take you on for that work otherwise. A non-compulsory trade needs no BOSTA permission. The table shows how this plays out on a highway or bridge build.

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Ontario trade examples

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