Section 127.46

Wind turbine workers who instal a company’s wind turbines on a project perform a variety of specialized duties, including some duties that could theoretically be otherwise performed by construction craft workers, millwrights and concrete finishers, but their duties in fact are not performed by such tradespeople, nor by any other federally, territorially or provincially-registered tradespeople. In order for the company to maximize clean energy credits, the formula for a particular installation taxation year embedded in s. 127.46(5)(a) requires (on a “reasonable efforts” basis) that the ratio of hours worked by apprentices registered in a Red Seal trade to total hours worked by Red Seal workers be at least 10%. For the definition of “Red Seal worker” in s. 127.46(1) to apply, it is required that their “duties are, or are equivalent to, those duties normally performed by workers in a Red Seal trade.” The Red Seal program is a national program that sets common standards to assess the skills of tradespeople across Canada.

In concluding that the wind turbine workers did not need to be included in the denominator of the above formula, CRA noted that such workers “were not trained or certified by the Red Seal Program or any equivalent provincially or territorially designated trade program, because no such program exists” so that “the duties performed by the wind turbine workers cannot be said to be ‘duties normally performed by workers in a Red Seal trade’.”