Michael Lewis
Special to Ontario Construction News
Even after Mike Yorke’s retirement, he remains an active force for sustainability, next-generation training, and social justice.
After more than 40 years in the sector starting as an apprentice carpenter in 1980 and culminating in roles as president of the 10,000 member Carpenters Local 27 in the GTA and then also of the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario, Yorke officially stepped down in March 2023.
“Your unwavering commitment to motivating young carpenters like me to volunteer in our community and engage with the UBCJA in Toronto has been nothing short of inspiring. You’ve played a pivotal role in shaping not just our careers but also our outlook on service and leadership.
“Thank you, Mike, for your outstanding contribution to the growth and success of the Toronto Carpenters Union. Your legacy will continue to inspire us as we move forward. Wishing you and Pat a joyful and fulfilling retirement.”
Chris Campbell – President of the Carpenters’ Union Local 27
“I really believe that the organization and the city and beyond is in excellent hands,” Yorke said at his retirement party. “I look forward to all of the successes of the next generation in building a better city and a stronger union.”
He stayed on with the Carpenters for another year on a contract in communications, business development and government relations, a continuation of his former role as the council’s director of public affairs and innovation.
Along with sitting on the boards of organizations including the Ontario Construction Secretariat and the Toronto Arts Council, Yorke is a member of the United Way, Greater Toronto Campaign, the Capital Campaign Committee at Sunnybrook Hospital and serves as a Habitat for Humanity site carpenter volunteer.
He also contributed to the campaign of collective bargaining supporter and former deputy mayor Ana Bailão, who was endorsed by the Carpenters Union but who placed second in the June 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election, losing to former NDP MP Olivia Chow. He ran for Toronto city council in 1994 and as an NDP candidate provincially in 1999, losing to Conservative candidate Dan Neuman.
Along with multiple roles with the Carpenters as organizer, contract negotiator and business representative, he has a lengthy track record in multiple community fundraising initiatives.
Yorke has also maintained deep involvement in community outreach, especially in training programs for youth with mental health and or addictions challenges through the CHOICE and CRAFT pre-apprenticeship programs.
And last September he launched Mike Yorke Consulting focused on sustainability and training with operations in Toronto and Halifax, where his family originates.
He presented a series of seminars for the provincial government earlier this year featuring top level architects, designers, developers, and component manufacturers speaking to a cross-section of industry leaders and is developing ideas around training for the next generation of tradespeople.
A founding board member of the College of Carpenters and Allied Trades, Yorke told Ontario Construction News that he is “always interested in curriculum and in seeing what’s new in the industry to keep carpenters on leading edge of tech and training in construction.”
He is a proponent of engineered wood components or mass timber building to replace concrete and steel as a low carbon alternative and as a complement to offsite modular construction. Yorke said Canada has the capacity to be a world leader in the area while taking on the challenges of climate change.
“For too long in Canada we’ve focused on concrete and steel — the tried-and-true believing that what worked in the past will work in the future. As the industry starts to evolve, we are not necessarily on the cutting edge although some people are willing to take on the challenge and the risk and they should be recognized for that.”
Aside from environmental benefits he said mass timber can play a significant role in modular construction, helping to cut costs and speed assembly as Canada struggles to build enough dwellings to ease an affordability crisis in housing.
A retirement party for Yorke was held at Paramount Event Centre in Vaughan, at the Carpenters’ District Council headquarters, a project for which Yorke served on the building committee. He said the District Council, which represents more than 25,000 skilled trades workers at17 affiliated locals across the province, needed a bigger facility so land was purchased in 2002 with the centre opening in 2004 after a design phase.
“We get the pride of putting together the infrastructure in places where people live, the skyline of our cities, [but] it’s really about the individuals – the communication and the relationships that we’ve built that have the biggest impact to me in my life and the lives of many, many other people,” Yorke said at the event attended by political and labour luminaires including John Cartwright, former president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council.
“Mike always loved the sense of building the city and the politics of building the city,” Cartwright said in his remarks at the event, calling Yorke a trade unionist who worked to promote greater participation of women and minorities in the construction industry.
“I’ve tried to be a credible advocate for others in the community,” Yorke said in an interview. “We’ve reached out to many communities,” he added, citing efforts in high schools and in Jamaican neighborhoods in Toronto. “We’ve tried to make Local 27 truly reflective of society.