A new committee aimed at creating opportunities for women to thrive in the construction and residential building industry launched last week.
The Peterborough Women in Trades (PWIT) committee is a collaborative initiative between Peterborough and the Kawarthas Home Builders Association (PKHBA) and Peterborough Distract Construction Association (PDCA) that hopes to foster connection, mentorship, and visibility for women in the residential construction workforce.
Co-Chairs Elsa Batten and Katie Rowland launched this committee on Wednesday March 11 in Lakefield at Kawartha Lakes Construction. The launch came right after International Women’s Day.
Batten addressed the crowd at the social event stating, “Committees supporting women in construction exist across Canada, and they’re doing important works, but until now, Peterborough and the Kawarthas did not have one that reflected how our local industry actually works. In larger cities, it’s common to see separate groups form around different parts of the industry: residential, commercial union, non-union, each supported by their own organizations. But here, our industry has always been more interconnected than that, builders, tradespeople, buyers, working side-by-side on projects. So instead of making something separate, we have chosen to create something collaborative.”
Rowland went on to say that only five per cent of construction workers across Canada are women. She explained that there are major shortages in the construction field with a need for hundreds of thousands of new tradespeople across Canada in the next decade.
“We’re hearing from the high schools that a lot of young women are joining the trades programs, and there’s a big representation of women in the trades programs in college. Basically, we have a lot of women who are interested, and we’re not seeing a lot of women on site. So, somethings happening between the classroom and the job site… When talented people are showing interest in our industry and we’re losing them before they build a long-term lasting career, that tells us something important. This isn’t just about representation. It’s about keeping talented people in our industry. Construction is more about people building every project. The strongest projects start with a good blueprint and the right team to build it. If our goal as employers, as industry leaders as contractors is to build the strongest teams possible, then expanding opportunity to women it’s not just the right thing to do, but it’s actually the smart thing to be doing.”
In attendance at the launch event were Peterborough County Warden Bonnie Clark, Deputy Warden and Mayor of Selwyn Sherry Senis, and Mayor of Douro Dummer Heather Watson who all spoke of the importance of supporting women in trades and fostering a welcome community in the industry with the help of men and industry leaders.
Also in attendance was the Chair of the Ontario Home Builders Association (OHBA) Christina Giannone who said, “As Chair of OHBA, one of the things we talk about is speaking with one voice and typically that means at OHBA that we’ve got 27 local associations. When we are advocating for our members at Queens Park, rather than every association speaking to their local MPP saying something slightly different and then trying to funnel a message to Queens Park, it sometimes gets broken up. So at OHBA, we take everyone’s voices, create a collective direction and then echo that across the province. There have been wins that way but why I am raising it today is because I love that now, behind that one voice is more women. And PWIT gives that ability to have those additional perspectives that we may not have had before.”
Batten told the crowd that the reason they created this committee wasn’t just to be one group or one committee but rather was focused on strengthening the future of the construction industry as a whole.
Updates and details about the Peterborough Women in Trades Committee can be found on Instagram @PtboWomenInTrades.
