Gordy Provencher, presiding officer on the Sheet Metal Worker-Provincial Apprenticeship Board, said that in December the Alberta government granted approval to move forward with training apprentices to be dual-ticketed— sheet metal worker / Gasfitter B. The four-year apprenticeship will allow future sheet metal workers to run gas lines and work on appliances of up to 400,000 BTU.

“ Presently, changing out certain appliances, the majority of the work is done by the sheet metal worker but

they are not allowed to pull a gas permit. So then you need a second party or a gasfitter to pull the permits on this,” Provencher explained.“ So by having a sheet metal worker having this Gasfitter B ticket they can pull permits and change these appliances. For the consumer, they can save some money because you can have a sheet metal worker do all the work when it comes to replacements. For the sheet metal worker, it will mean some more business.”

He said the ability to do additional work would be grandfathered in for current sheet metal workers, but some extra training will be needed in order to write a Gasfitter B ticket.

“ Right now, the way it works, there is about 80 per cent of the Gasfitter B ticket we are trained on. By changing some of the course outline, that will provide the additional training required to become a Gasfitter B,” he said.

Karin Campbell, assistant director of communications for Alberta Advanced Education, said in an email that historically the sheet metal worker and gasfitter trades in Alberta have always had a close relationship, as the majority of the province’ s homes and businesses use gas-fired appliances for their heating and cooling needs.

“ Sheet metal workers have always been able to perform a significant amount of work in the installation of

DMITRY NAUMOV / ADOBE STOCK

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