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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