April 2017

Working with our CDAO partners, we are meeting with senior policy advisors in all three parties. We just met with the Hon. Minister A. Sochi, the federal minister for Infrastructure and Communities. The next meetings will be with senior members of IO and Minister Chiarelli’s staff.

More meetings to discuss the new Vendor of Record and Contractor Performance program are also scheduled.

Safety continues as one of our most important files, working with the MOL and WSIB on everything from Rate Framework to Fall Arrest and entry level training, and with IHSA to improve and build the COR program. Of course, our League of Champions initiative has exploded across Ontario and Canada. We hope to have some major announcements on the development of this initiative in the next month as it moves to being a self-sustaining separate organization dedicated to changing "safety culture" everywhere.

Safety Week and its promotion across Canada was started by OGCA’s Safety Chair Craig Lesurf and will be bigger and better than before as more and more organizations join the cause.

We continue to represent Contractor concerns over Tender documents and clauses, and were very successful in working with a number of owners to use the Two Stage Closing process, and remove other onerous conditions. But the issues continue, as we see more and more onerous and badly crafted contracts come to market. What is gratifying is seeing members either agree to "Qualify" their bids or simply walking away, refusing to be forced into risky and unacceptable contracts.

At CCA, I have joined a committee to address the Quality of Documents. We have already had a very successful committee and relationship here in Ontario with OAA and CEO addressing these issues, and have developed several key recommendations on how to address this issue. Now we will bring that expertise to the National Level.

We are coming off our most successful Symposium to date, including the Ontario Builder Awards. We had the largest attendance ever, with more sessions and great networking. The Associate Partner Program was officially launched by Chair Jeff Kienapple and this program is gaining great support.

This is a small snapshot of what we at the OGCA do daily on behalf of our members and the Industry.

If you have any questions, concerns, ideas or need our help, remember we are a simple email or phone call away and ready to answer any questions you have and help you with your issues.