ten Have Trades Advisory is a Thunder Bay–based policy and consulting practice focused on Canadian apprenticeship reform, the deployment of federal trades-training investment, and the development of Canada’s most complete repository of trades-related demand intelligence.
Total hiring requirement in Canadian construction over the next decade. Driven by 270,000 anticipated retirements and 111,600 net new positions from infrastructure renewal, housing demand, and the energy transition.
Of the 70,521 new apprenticeship registrations in 2023 and a record 101,541 preliminary in 2024, only one in five completed certification within the program’s expected duration. The shortfall is not a forecast — it is a deadline.
The most-cited barrier to apprenticeship completion: no employer sponsor for Level 1 or Level 2. The current system requires apprentices to find an employer before being formally registered — the dam at the front door.
Each pillar addresses a specific, evidenced barrier. Together they form a complete pathway — from a 16-year-old’s first interest in a Red Seal trade, through registration, training, placement, and the optional pivot into post-secondary at year five. Projected per-apprentice federal investment: $19,000 direct-placement, $23,000 with PSL1.
A single federal digital portal paired with a standardized entrance examination replaces sponsor-first registration. Successful candidates receive Registered Federal Apprentice (RFA) status, recognized in every province and territory.
An optional federally subsidized seat in Level 1 trade-specific technical training — delivered through publicly funded colleges, Indigenous-controlled post-secondary institutions, polytechnics, cégeps, and union/JATC training partners — completed before the employer search begins.
A 75% wage subsidy on hours 1–1,000 (optional 50% on hours 1,001–2,000) re-routes the placement incentive through the federal portal rather than asking SMEs to bear the full search cost. SMEs receive a pre-screened, partly subsidized apprentice.
After five years of RFA tenure, a federal entitlement covering year one of post-secondary tuition at a publicly funded Canadian institution. Eliminates the academic-anxiety objection to entering the trades by attaching a credible post-secondary off-ramp.
Tim ten Have spent twenty-five years in senior industrial-management roles before becoming a federal policy author. He is himself a Red Seal certified Industrial Instrument Mechanic; his Provincial Core Training students at Confederation College passed their Red Seal qualifying examinations on the first attempt with no re-writes — direct evidence relevant to the framework’s PSL1 design.
At the De Beers Victor Mine — a $1 billion IBA-anchored project with Attawapiskat First Nation — the project was completed within budget on an accelerated schedule with no lost-time accidents. That operational experience informs the framework’s Indigenous-stream IBA-leverage design.
At Confederation College, he led the complete redesign and reconstruction of the Instrumentation Program facilities, securing approximately $3 million in materials and labour for $600,000 in cash outlay through an industry-collaboration model. The lab is now one of the most advanced trades-training facilities of its kind in Canada.
Four practice areas. Each is grounded in primary trades experience and in publicly available Canadian data — reproducible, defensible in regulatory contexts, and consistent with the public-good logic of federal core funding.
End-to-end policy proposal development for federal trades modernization, apprenticeship reform, and the deployment of federal labour-market investment. Includes design rationale documentation, budgetary modeling, governance architecture, and ministerial briefing materials.
A quarterly index covering all 54 Red Seal trades, decomposed by region, weighted by project completion probability, and inclusive of long-term maintenance demand from completed infrastructure. The most complete consolidated repository of Canadian trades-demand intelligence — grounded entirely in publicly available data sources.
Convening services for regional pilot design and operationalization — bringing together Confederation College, Lakehead University, Oshki-Pimache-O-Win, principal regional employers in forestry, mining, construction, and infrastructure-maintenance, and the relevant ISET service holders. No financial stake in pilot intake numbers; no conflict of interest.
An original ten Have Trades Advisory design consolidating a traditional two-year diploma into one calendar year — 1,000 hours of instruction across three intensive 14-week semesters — for Indigenous, rural, and rapid-re-credentialing learners. Respects the “one year away from community” constraint. The subject of a separate companion proposal currently in preparation.
ESDC, provincial apprenticeship authorities, Indigenous Skills and Employment Training partners. Quarterly seat-cap allocation, provincial enrolment calibration, regional cohort design.
Tetra Tech · Hatch · WSP · Stantec · BBA · Ausenco · Knight Piésold · Worley · AtkinsRéalis · AECOM · Wood · Fluor · Aecon · Kiewit · PCL · Ledcor. Project-portfolio workforce planning.
Multi-site operators in construction, mining, oil & gas, manufacturing, energy generation, shipbuilding, and the defence industrial base. Mobility programs and apprentice-sponsorship decisions.
Polytechnics, cégeps, colleges, JATCs, Building Trades locals, and individual Canadians deciding which trade to enter or which region to relocate to. Labour-market information that does not currently exist in any consolidated public form.
The principal proposal is accompanied by an Indigenous-controlled-delivery companion addressed to Oshki-Pimache-O-Win and three illustrative companion documents that make the framework’s measurement and accountability infrastructure concrete in advance of implementation.
The principal policy proposal submitted to the Hon. Patty Hajdu, P.C., M.P. Four pillars, $5.9B envelope, 150,000 cumulative RFAs over five years, modeled $12B+ GDP contribution.
Companion proposal inviting Oshki to be the designated Indigenous-stream PSL1 delivery partner for Northern Ontario, serving Nishnawbe Aski Nation member communities and other First Nations learners.
Concrete demonstration of the public quarterly trades-by-region dashboard, drill-down views, Indigenous-stream subset, and tier-by-tier access mock-ups for the four user groups.
Pillar 1 entrance examination structure, topic outline, and pass standard. WHMIS safety fundamentals, grade-ten numerical literacy, document literacy, mechanical reasoning.
Internal working document capturing every substantive design decision and the reasoning behind each — a defensible record for eventual review by federal policy staff.