COCA AT YOUR SERVICE

 Ian Cunningham

President & COO, Council of Ontario Construction Associations

You can be proud of the representation the BCA has at the COCA table, especially from your association’s Director Anita Stacey who is an active member of COCA’s Executive Committee and your Executive Director Alison Smith who is highly engaged in the work of our Chief Operating Officers Committee.  I am personally delighted to provide BCA members with this update on our recent activities representing the interests of our industry at Queen’s Park.  Thank you for your support.

COCA’s pre-budget submission, which was delivered to the provincial government in January, identified our advocacy priorities for the year.  Here are those priorities and some highlights of the progress being made:

1. Construction Act Reform – Implement the recommendations in the Ackerley Report to reform the Construction Act

• On February 27^th Attorney General Doug Downey announced that highly respected construction lawyer Duncan Glaholt had been engaged by the government to conduct a review of the Construction Act
• Since the announcement of his appointment, Glaholt has given serious consideration to the detailed report drafted by Glenn Ackerley and submitted to the Office of the Attorney General in July 2023. Ackerley’s report addresses unforeseen process bugs, glitches and disconnects in the statute and makes more than 80 recommendations for improvement
• At time of writing, Glaholt is in the consultation phase of his review in which COCA will be significantly engaged
• Glaholt is expected to complete his work and submit his final report to the government in early November 2024
• COCA is working to ensure Construction Act reform legislation is introduced and passed in the Spring 2024 session of the Ontario legislature if not sooner

2. Improve Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance System – Amend Schedule 4 of Bill 149 to remove the disastrous “additional indexation” provisions

• COCA believes that injured workers must be treated absolutely fairly and that the benefits provided to injured workers by the WSIB must make them financially whole
• COCA submitted a detailed and compelling document opposing the super indexation provisions and appeared in person at the hearings of legislative standing committee that was considering Bill 149
• Provisions contained in Schedule 4 of Bill 149 allow the government to apply additional indexation to WSIB benefits in any amount and at any time (in addition to the automatic annual indexation that increases benefits to account for the impact of inflation, that occurs on January 1^st every year). While loss of earnings benefits provided by the WSIB are designed as an income replacement program, if super indexation is implemented, injured workers will be better off financially than their non-injured counterparts and will have little incentive to return to work.  In the event that super indexation is implemented, look for injury durations to increase and possibly the number of lost time injuries to also increase
• COCA will continue to oppose the implementation of the super indexation of WSIB benefits by the government
• COCA submits that before the government introduces any alterations to WSIB benefits, a benefits adequacy study must be undertaken to ensure benefit levels are appropriate

3. Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship System – Accelerate the development of Ontario’s new Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship System to ensure the future demand for skilled labour can be met

• The agency created three years ago to oversee the province’s skilled trades and apprenticeship system, Skilled Trades Ontario (STO), is working quietly out of sight, updating trades curricula and harmonizing across Canadian jurisdictions
• For an agency of the provincial government, STO seems to have a very minimal proactive stakeholder relations program. The organization’s website is attractive and easy to navigate and has good resources for future apprentices and employer sponsors but provides little information about the progress being made on strategic objectives
• Skilled Trades Ontario announced that it will hold its annual Ontario Apprenticeship Summit 2024 on November 6^th at the Toronto Congress Centre during National Skilled Trades and Technology week, 18 months after its first stakeholders get-together
• The Ministry of Labour Immigration Training and Skills Development will be organizing as many as 15 Level Up! skilled trades career fairs across the province in the fall of 2024 and possibly spilling over into early 2025

4.      Infrastructure Investment   – Invest in public infrastructure maintenance and expansion; deliver fully on your planned Infrastructure Program to support our economy and our quality of life

• The government’s extensive investments in public infrastructure maintenance and expansion including highways, transit, hospitals and electricity generation are visible almost everywhere across the province
• According to the March 2024 budget, the government plans to invest more than $190 billion over the next 10 years to expand and build highways, transit, homes, high speed internet and other critical infrastructure to support economic growth and by all appearances, the government is currently living up to its commitment

5. Work with the Federal Government to admit more immigrants with skilled trades qualifications

• With a significant shortage of skilled trades workers in the province, Ontario’s Immigrant Nominee Program has been streamlined to receive and process applications from more immigrants with experience in the in-demand skilled trades than ever before
• The Ontario Ministry of Labour Immigration Training and Skills Development has initiated proactive outreach to employers to assist them in the recruitment of skilled trades workers

6. Cut Red Tape and Streamline Approval Process for Proposed Health and Safety Regulations

• The Ministry of Labour Immigration Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) continues to move forward at a snail’s pace with the implementation of fully vetted recommendations from the Provincial Labour-Management Health and Safety Committee (PLMHSC) that will save lives and reduce critical injuries. (The PLMHSC is duly formed under Section 21 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to advise the Minister on health and safety matters in the construction industry.)
• As an example of the Ministry’s grindingly slow pace, about five years ago after a rash of incidents involving dump trucks travelling with their raised boxes crashing into bridges and making contact with overhead electrical transmission lines causing significant damage to public infrastructure and snarling rush hour traffic for hours, the PLMHSC recommended that the government make raised box indicators mandatory for dump trucks. On June 11^th yet another similar accident occurred on the heavily travelled QEW in Mississauga during the morning rush hour causing the closure of this major highway for four hours
• We continue to press the MLITSD for the implementation of the fully vetted recommendations made by the Provincial Labour-Management Health and Safety Committee, some o which were made more than ten years ago
• The Ministry has made the construction industry more attractive to prospective new entrants by implementing regulations related to cleanliness of washroom and cleanup facilities and has initiated a review of fatalities in the construction industry led by Chief Prevention Officer, Dr Joel Moody

While we continue to actively pursue our priority issues, other matters always arise that impact our industry and COCA is always ready to address them.  Some of the issues that arose over the first half of 2024 include the following:

• COCA participated in consultations led by the Ontario Chief Coroner designed to develop a new streamlined process to address fatalities in the construction industry that produces more relevant and effective recommendations and produces them within two years of the date of the fatality. COCA members participated in the development of a submission made by the Provincial Labour -Management Health and Safety Committee and COCA endorsed that submission
• COCA provided a letter of support to an application made by Skills/Competences Canada to host the World Skills Competition at Exhibition Place in Toronto on October 16 – 20, 2028
• COCA participated in a small business roundtable hosted by the Minister of Small Business, Nina Tangri
• COCA encouraged Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney to increase funding for the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA) to ensure superior performance of Ontario’s occupational health and safety system with top tier outcomes
• COCA responded to a consultation by the Ministry of Infrastructure that proposed lower bonding requirements for large non-P3 construction projects. We recommended that changes in bonding requirements should be made as part of a comprehensive Construction Act review (which is now underway as described above)
• COCA participated in a Ministry of Labour Immigration Training and Skills Development engagement session to consider expanding the types of safety equipment to be provided on construction sites

These are merely the highlights of all the dedicated hard work of COCA’s Board of Directors and our army of devoted volunteers that serve as committee members.  I am grateful for their sound guidance and support.

It is my great privilege to serve as your provincial construction federation’s President and to act as your voice at Queen’s Park.  Please contact me directly if you have issues that are of concern to our industry or if you have constructive advice or ideas to offer.  COCA is here to serve!