August 13, 2024 – Beatrice Sharkey is dedicated to helping volunteer-led organizations thrive. Prior to joining the Ontario Electrical League as president in 2023, she spent many years helping small and large boards to succeed, developing local and provincial-level programs, working at various levels of government, and helping non-profit organizations be sector leaders.

“What I loved about coming to OEL is that it feels like all of those pieces—positive government relations, strong staff, engaged volunteers, grassroots advocacy—are already at the core of the association,” Beatrice says.

OEL has an impressive 100-year history and Beatrice was excited about the opportunity to join such a well-established organization.

Looking over the past year

“When you come into a new role, you look at everything. We’ve been updating many of our practices and the way we work,” she says, “Most of what we do needs to focus on the fact that, for Ontario’s independent contractors, the biggest pressure is time.”

“Small contractors often struggle to find and manage qualified staff, keep up with changing codes and regulations, and advocate for themselves at the provincial level. There just isn’t enough time.”

“Helping them with these challenges is a major focus for us,” Beatrice explains. “One of our initiatives is a new, phone-friendly OEL website designed to give them convenient access to the tools and information they need while on the go.”

She says OEL has been working hard for the past few months to get that website just right. It’s due to launch in September.

“We also continue to be very grateful for the ongoing support of Minister David Piccini and the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development through the Skills Development Fund. This year we received $3 million, which gives us the capacity to provide wage subsidies, extensive tools/resources, and small business expertise directly to contractors and the electrical sector across Ontario.”

And while various supports have been accessed by electrical contractors with first-year apprentices (e.g. wage subsidies, equipment, training), Beatrice says a huge hurdle is finding supports for Years 2 to 5. “Our intel across the province showed significant strain on contractors to provide these longer-term supports, so we expanded our request and secured funding for Years 2 to 5.”

“There many other smaller but really important components to our work too. For example, we heard that safety harnesses for females tend to be about three times the price of a regular harness. We put that into our funding request, too, so that female apprentices can feel absolutely safe as they work.”

Mental health

Mental health is a high priority for both Beatrice and those involved in OEL’s Employer Engagement Program (EEP). Last year, research dove deep into understanding and assessing the mental health and wellness of individuals working in Ontario’s electrical sector.

The resulting report, “Examining burnout in the electrical sector in Ontario, Canada: A cross-sectional study”, was conducted by the Restore Lab, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and published November 14, 2023.

From the study authors’ abstract:

Workers in the trades sectors often experience mental health issues and decreased work ability due to occupational stress, workplace hazards and living in danger or constant fear of injury. Understanding the impacts of psychosocial risk factors on construction workers’ mental health can aid in decreasing workplace injuries, lessening disabilities and increasing worker productivity.

There is a need to focus on improvement and allocation of mental health resources in small-medium-sized employers to effectively address the shortages of apprentices and journey persons within the industry.

“With the support of the SDF funding for this study and our partnership with the University of Toronto, we are thrilled to be developing and piloting both individual and community-level support strategies and self-assessment tools this Fall to address these mental health concerns,” Beatrice says.

“This work,” Beatrice says, “has attracted international attention with organizations from other countries reaching out to OEL for insights.” She extends her deep gratitude to Minister Piccini for the crucial funding that made this important work possible.

The people who show up

“From the first time I read OEL’s background and spoke with the board volunteers, I knew this would be exciting… that there are so many OEL volunteers across Ontario contributing toward making the small business electrical contractor successful. From North Bay to Ottawa and right down to Windsor—that’s what gets me up the in morning and excited to get to work,” she says. “Amazing things can happen when so many people show up.”

Her mention of “showing up” segued perfectly into my next question; something brand new that the OEL is doing for 2024: the OEL Roadshow.

“We’re really looking forward to September,” she says enthusiastically. “Apparently, OEL used to have some kind of road show 40 years ago, and we thought it was the perfect time to bring it back… to connect people locally who might not be able to come out to a multi-day annual conference.”

OEL staff—along with board members, the Member Services team, and local chapter leaders —will visit 10 communities across Ontario in September to talk about all the new and exciting things in the sector and the association, “and to also just spend some time together and have fun”.

“We are so lucky at OEL to have both a rich legacy of long-standing members and a fresh wave of younger members just starting their small businesses who can benefit from the advice and support coming from these connections.”

Above all else, Beatrice says OEL’s greatest ability is staying relevant by focusing on and keeping connected to Ontario’s independent contractors.

“We’ve got hundreds of local people stepping up to volunteer with us, sit on provincial boards to advocate, pass on their knowledge to new business owners, and share issues and solutions.” Beatrice beams. “It’s exciting… we’re going great places!”