Ontario Construction News staff writer
In its pre-budget submission, the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA) is urging the Ontario government to make policy changes to ease the skilled trades shortage and open up competition on all taxpayer-funded projects.
For example, PCA is recommending reform of the training delivery agency (TDA) model, to improve access to in-class training for tradespeople in ALL regions and from ALL labour models.
“Tradespeople in every region of the province, especially in rural and northern Ontario should have access to in-class training,” said Stephen Hamilton, public affairs director, Ontario at PCA. “Unfortunately, the TDA is still stuck in the 1970s, putting too many workers and companies outside the GTA at a great disadvantage.
“That has to change, to help more tradespeople put their needed skills to work.”
Citing long-standing policies that undermined innovation and productivity in the construction industry, PCA is looking for ways to improve Ontario’s competitiveness, by ending restrictive Project Labour Agreements (PLAs) along with restrictive municipal procurement policies that still exist in the City of Toronto.
“As Ontario makes major investments in building more hospitals and other crucial infrastructure projects, it has a responsibility to ensure taxpayers get good value and that all qualified workers and companies have a chance to build these projects,” added Hamilton. “A fair, open and competitive procurement process is the way to do that. There should be no exceptions.”
The pre-budget submission states that currently, Toronto is the only city in the province to resist competition on municipal construction work. It also points to the Ottawa Hospital as a “glaring exception.”
“It’s building a $2.8 billion Civic Campus through a restrictive Project Labour Agreement (PLA) that shuts out contractors and workers that are not affiliated with select unions.”