Ontario Appoints New CEO for Skilled Trades Ontario
November 6, 2024
Province thanks outgoing CEO Melissa Young for her leadership in standing up the Agency
The Ontario government is appointing Candice White as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Skilled Trades Ontario (STO), effective November 25, 2024. Ms. White will continue to deliver on STO’s mandate to grow Ontario’s skilled trades workforce, promote the trades as a career of choice, and modernize services to Ontario’s over 1.3 million skilled tradespeople and apprentices.
Ms. White brings over a decade of executive level experience, including serving as the Chief Administrative Officer for multiple municipalities, most recently the Municipality of Port Hope, and on boards of provincial agencies. Within these roles, she has a long track record of success managing organizations at a similar size and breadth as STO, and will bring her strong executive leadership to the organization.
“I would like to congratulate Candice White on her appointment as the new CEO of Skilled Trades Ontario. I look forward to Candice leveraging her executive experience within public sector organizations to build upon STO’s successes as we continue to work together to grow our skilled trades workforce, and develop world-class training and standards,” said David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
“On behalf of Premier Doug Ford and the province, I would like to thank Melissa Young for her leadership and dedication to building a stronger future for Ontario and wish her the best as she moves on to new endeavours. As a results-oriented change leader, Melissa took the helm of STO as a new organization in its infancy after the lost years of the Ontario College of Trades, bringing our shared vision to life and stands as an inspiration to tradespeople everywhere, especially women.”
The Government recognizes and thanks the leadership and dedication of outgoing CEO Melissa Young, who was appointed as CEO in January 2022 with the launch of STO to improve trades training, simplify and modernize services, and develop the latest training and curriculum standards.
“It’s an honour to be appointed as the CEO for Skilled Trades Ontario,” said Ms. White. “I look forward to working with STO’s Board, its talented workforce and tradespeople across Ontario as we continue to modernize service delivery and advance world-class certification standards for the more than 1.3 million registered skilled tradespeople and apprentices – and the countless more Ontarians seeking to start their career in the skilled trades.”
Over the course of her tenure, Ms. Young’s leadership achieved significant accomplishments for the Agency, including: launching Standards Industry Advisory Committees, Certificates of Qualification and wallet cards for skilled trades professionals, releasing a guiding strategic plan, enabling groundbreaking research to ascertain public perceptions of the trades, establishing an Exam Support Unit to help clients as they advance through the apprentice to journeyperson pathway, and much more.
“The skilled trades are the backbone of our province – offering 144 well-paying and in-demand careers for people to choose from. Prior to Skilled Trades Ontario’s inception our tradespeople or this province were not set up for success. It was a confusing, patchwork system that prevented too many apprentices from pursuing their passion,” said Ms. Young. “When I took on the helm of STO, my objective was clear, but far from simple: make it easy and exciting to join the skilled trades. To achieve that, we needed to rewrite the system, which included creating a one-window experience for services, and identifying new opportunities where the government can take action.
In short, we needed to make the system work for workers, not against them, and I’m proud of how we have delivered on these objectives over the past three years.”
Quick Facts:
- Candice White has served on the Board of Directors of provincial agencies including the Ontario Clean Water Agency and the York Region Wastewater Advisory Panel.
- Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) is an agency of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, and is governed and managed by a Board of Directors and a Chief Executive Officer/Registrar, per the Building Opportunities in the Skilled Trades Act, 2021.
- The Board of Directors consists of up to 11 members appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. The Board is responsible for governance, which includes setting strategic priorities and overseeing the achievement of organizational objectives.
- The Chief Executive Officer is also appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
- Before STO, the previous system had prospective tradespeople mailing documents to offices for one service, calling in for a second and appearing in person for a third. This was confusing and prevented many apprentices from pursuing their interests.
- Ontario has over 1.3 million workers in skilled trades related occupations, including over 102,000 active apprentices in the skilled trades.
- Ontario is expected to need over 500,000 additional workers in the skilled trades over the next decade.
Quotes:
“Thank you to Melissa for all her hard work and dedication that has grown STO to be the productive and changemaking agency it is today. We will all miss her and wish her all the best as she embarks on an exciting new journey. I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone at STO for the accomplishments achieved to date, and welcome Candice to the team.”
– Michael Sherrard
Skilled Trades Ontario Board Chair
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Ontario Appoints Skilled Trades Special Advisor
The Ontario government is appointing Dave Cassidy, former President of Unifor Local 444, as a Skilled Trades Special Advisor (STSA) to the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. The new advisor will assess the workforce needs in Ontario’s skilled trades, focusing on the manufacturing and automotive industries, including electric vehicles (EV). Over the last few years, the manufacturing and automotive sectors in Ontario have been rapidly growing and the province is expected to require over 500,000 additional workers in skilled trades-related occupations over the next decade.
