On November 5, 2020, Minister Rod Phillips released the 2020 Ontario titled "Ontario's Action Plan: Protect, Support, Recover." Several areas impact the ICI construction sector and general contractors in Ontario. These include a significant investment in infrastructure, supports for small businesses and employers, and the new Ontario Skilled Trades Strategy.

To inform OGCA members, we published a bulletin covering these areas and more. You can read it here.

Giovanni Cautillo, OGCA President, joined other construction stakeholders in the Daily Commercial News to discuss the 2020 Ontario Budget. You can find a summary here.

If you have any questions about the 2020 Ontario Budget, please contact Erich Schmidt, Government and Stakeholder Relations Associate, at erich@ogca.ca. 

The OGCA, working through the Ontario Skilled Trades Alliance (OSTA), has presented the Skilled Trades Panel that was appointed by Minister McNaughton with a mandate to modernize and strengthen the trades.

They have six months to consult and make recommendations. Phase 1 is a service delivery model to replace the College of Trades. The mandate features four guiding principles for the emerging system: clarity; continuity of services; efficiency of services while reducing regulatory burden; and a transformation that lays the foundation for a modern service that works for all.

We will share the OSTA submission when it is submitted later this week.

In continuing to build a future-ready organization, Brampton has adopted the Certificate of Recognition (COR^TM) program as part of its construction contract management and construction tendering process. This is a reaffirmation of the City’s ongoing commitment to health and safety for contractors, employees and residents.

The requirement to be COR^TM certified has been implemented since January 2019 for construction projects over $25M. Starting January 2021, the requirement for COR^TM will be implemented for construction and maintenance projects between $5M and $10M.

Please click here for the full information.

OTTAWA, November 3, 2020 – Today marks the second annual national celebration day of the construction industry.

In collaboration with Canadian Construction Association’s (CCA) partner associations, National Construction Day recognizes and celebrates the dedicated, hard-working people instrumental in building, maintaining and connecting our communities through vital infrastructure. Click here for the full press release.

Toronto Community Benefits Network, in partnership with community, labour and construction industry partners, is pleased to announce the launch of the first annual province-wide Building Diversity Awards (BDA) and Recognition Program.

We are thrilled that EllisDon has joined us as our first lead sponsor and event partner.

To learn more about the nominations process and get insights about the benchmarks used to decide the winners, join the free online information session held every Wednesday in November at noon.

Please click here for the full press release. To register for the free online information sessions, please click here.

As promised last month, we are piloting a monthly brief to keep you informed of the work undertaken by CCA’s board of directors, committees and National Advisory Councils. We are also eager to meet with you, your boards, and/or members, in a virtual format for the time being. As 2020 comes to a close, we encourage you to share with your members CCA’s efforts and actions to support the construction industry through this difficult year and beyond.

Please click here for the full report.

The OGCA Innovation committee has been working hard to communicate and educate general contractors about change-makers in our industry. We know from experience that data is more than a record of what happened on your jobsite; it is also a tool to build better, faster and safer. And like any tool, you need to learn how to use it properly. 

This month, OGCA Associate Partner Procore has launched a free education series called Introducing Data in Construction. The classes are intended for industry professionals who want to turn a deeper understanding of their project data into a competitive advantage. As an added bonus, those that complete the course earn 1 Continuing Education Unit for each course completed. 

Courses include:

• Introduction to Data in Construction
• How to Analyze Data and Where to Start
• Defining Machine Learning and What It Can Do
• How Data Works on the Jobsite
• Where Data Goes from Here

Register here.

The League of Champions is pleased to announce that their new website has launched at www.theloc.ca. We welcome you to visit our new site.

Our vision is to inspire Leaders to be Health & Safety Champions, and we look forward to having the opportunity to promote and share your events, successes or special days that your company is hosting on our News & Events page and Photo Gallery.

The LOC welcomes feedback from our members, please email judith@theloc.ca or call us at 905.671.3969

Congratulations to PCL Constructors who won the Category 1 Award for the most hours over 200,001 without an LTI over a three year period, and the over 1,000,000 derived hours worked without an LTI Award.		Congratulations to Cooper Construction who won the over 500,000 derived  hours worked without an LTI.

Over the past two weeks, OGCA staff have been visiting members, from a safe distance, to deliver the annual OGCA Safety Awards. Sadly, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not have the traditional celebration and gather to present these awards in person to all of our recipients.

Several members were presented with the Over 500,000 Derived Hours Worked without a Lost-Time Injury (LTI), and the Over 1 million Derived Hours Worked without an LTI. Congratulations to the winners of the awards, including Category 1, 2 and 3, for the most derived hours over a three year period, for under 100,000 hours, between 100,101 and 200,000 hours, and over 200,001 hours. 

The OGCA is incredibly proud of the 1 Million Derived Hours Worked Award Recipients. They include:

• Bennet Mechanical Installations Ltd.
• Canadian Turner Construction Company Ltd.
• EllisDon Corporation
• PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
• Pomerleau Inc.

We will be posting all the award winners on our website and profiling them on our social media. Keep the trend going by making the ICI sector the safest amongst all of the construction industry!

Procore has surveyed over 300 Canadian construction businesses to gain industry insight into how they are adapting through COVID-19 and the adoption of technology. The resulting study, titled How We Build Now, is our best picture of the impact of technology on the construction industry.

Join Procore on November 17, 2020 at 1 p.m. for a first-in-the-industry virtual premiere to hear how some of Canada's top construction managers and executives have been using platform technology to get through this crisis, what the future of work looks like for the industry, plus a detailed discussion on the research results. The report will be made available after the event.

You can register for the webinar here.

The latest issue of the Ontario Legislative Reports is now available on the OGCA website. Please click here to access the latest issue.

The Ontario Legislative Report is updated every two weeks and explains the intention and status of legislation and regulations that could impact the construction industry. For issues prior to January 2020, please contact Mary Wademan at OGCA.

Diving into Claims: What Contractors Need to Know
WSW110 | Wed, Dec 2 | 1 P.M. - 2 P.M. EST

Join us for a deep dive into an area that contractors and their consultants know all too well: claims. It is a necessary evil in construction and should not be viewed as an adversarial exercise but instead as a simple straightforward process. The speakers will educate and inform you about what is necessary to produce and expedite claims in the most logical process possible and with the least number of encumbrances.

Featuring Sandra Burnell from Revay and Associates, and Giovanni Cautillo, President of OGCA. 

Click here to Register for this session.

For the full program, please click here.