She Builds BC Podcast

The statistics don’t get much worse: 55% of worker overdoses are people employed in construction or transportation (BC Coroners Service data).

For over 35 years, people struggling with mental health or substance use issues who work in the unionized construction sector have turned to the Construction Industry Rehabilitation Plan for help. Today, we speak to CIRP executive director Vicky Waldron & concurrent disorders counsellor Rejoe Mohan about the many ways CIRP provides assistance.

Learn more about CIRP at constructionrehabplan.com

A career in the skilled trades is incredibly rewarding, with family-supporting wages and ample opportunities for apprenticeship, training and advancement. But the skilled trades – construction – can also be dangerous. In fact, construction is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous sectors in which to work: WorkSafeBC data shows that construction is responsible for 1 in 7 injury, illness and fatality claims.

But there are also those in the industry trying to make it safer. With a focus on women in the trades, we are joined by two such folks:

Tanya Steele, from the Safety Debris podcast, and Lindsay Kearns, outreach co-ordinator for the BC Centre for Women in the Trades. Both women are pioneers in the industry.

Tanya has 24 years as an occupational first aid and safety co-ordinator, and is a sought-after industry expert, instructor and award-winning leader.

Lindsay is a Red Seal electrician who journeys between academia and the trades with roles on the board of Camosun College and the diversity and inclusion committee of the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, among many other pursuits.

Host Sarina Hanschke is a director of Build TogetHER with the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 1611. A former traffic control person, Sarina is a longtime advocate for roadside worker safety and training.   Additional links: BC Centre for Women in the Trades: https://bccwitt.ca/ Safety Debris podcast: https://www.tanyasteele.ca/safety-debris-podcast/   Produced by: One Movement Podcasts

Women may only account for about five percent of skilled tradespeople, but they’re a force nonetheless!

Red Seal Insulator Ashley Duncan and fourth-year Steamfitter Apprentice Miranda Kurucz share their stories of triumph and tribulation from the construction trenches. Hear about their journey into the trades, the mentors who helped them along the way, and how they’re now helping others. And of course how the high wages in construction allowed them to switch from no-name to brand-name junk food!

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Produced by: One Movement Podcasts

In our inaugural She Builds B.C. podcast, we talk all things trades with Andrew Mercier, the parliamentary secretary for skills training and Langley MLA. Ashley and Julia have a casual conversation with PS Mercier on everything from the barriers faced by women in the trades to the advice he would give his daughter when she grows up and tells him that she (obviously) wants to work in the trades.