December 10, 2020
Construction groups urge government to ‘Build for Recovery’

A group of construction industry organizations and stakeholders have launched the Build for Recovery campaign, an effort to encourage all levels of government to prioritize infrastructure investments to fuel Canada’s post COVID-19 economic recovery.

The partners who are organizing the campaign include the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada (ACEC), the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP), Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) and the National Trade Contractors Coalition of Canada (NTCCC).

The campaign is encouraging Canadians to visit the Build for Recovery website (www.buildforrecovery.ca) which has a streamlined web form process to contact federal and provincial government officials about prioritizing infrastructure investment.

Click here to read the full news release.

Delay claims: What documents do you really need?

Delay claims are becoming increasingly commonplace on construction projects in Canada, with COVID-19 and related complications further drawing out projects beyond their baseline schedules.

Given the seriousness of a delay claim and the need to mitigate such costs, it is critical to understand specific steps in the industry to reduce the financial burden in navigating complex processes.

This article focuses on the necessary documents and helpful information to successfully advance a claim for delay.

Click here to read the full news release.

Sherrard Kuzz LLP: Ontario Government Launches COVID-19 Workplace Inspection Blitz - Nov. 20, 2020

The Government of Ontario has commenced a workplace education and enforcement campaign across the province to ensure businesses takes precautions necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Approximately 200 provincial offence and by-law officers are visiting businesses in targeted regions of the province, without notice, to ensure compliance with public health and safety requirements set out in Ontario Regulation 364/20 and Ontario Regulation 263/20 under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020.

Click here to read the full news release.

Federal Fall Economic Statement 2020

On November 30, 2020, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Minister and Minister of Finance, released a Fall 2020 Economic Statement titled Supporting Canadians and Fighting COVID-19: Fall Economic Statement 2020. 

Funding will be used for the construction of modular housing and the acquisition of land, and the conversion of existing buildings into affordable housing units. The government will provide new resources to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to enable the Rental Construction Financing Initiative to provide an additional $12 billion in new lending over seven years, starting in 2021-2022.

Click here for a complete copy of the Federal Fall Economic Statement.

Buildings Week: COVID-19 drives concrete response and pandemic preparedness
Alberta and Ontario’s concrete industries worked through different conditions at the outset of COVID-19 but have both adopted practices for both present and future pandemics.

Concrete Alberta executive director Dan Hanson and Concrete Ontario president Bart Kanters took part in the COVID-19: How is the concrete industry dealing with the challenge? session during the Buildings Week virtual conference, with each of them highlighting their respective provinces initial responses and continued action dealing with a global pandemic.

Click here to read the full news release.

Urgent action needed now to save 41,000 construction-related jobs in Ontario: RCCAO

The Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) says it is grateful for the work that the federal and provincial governments have done to get funds to municipalities but maintains urgent action is still needed to ensure they can balance their budgets.

A new report done for RCCAO by Prism Economics and Analysis shows a massive number of construction industry jobs are in jeopardy in 2021. The report, Averting a Crisis: The Need to Protect Ontario’s Infrastructure Investments, shows that 41,000 construction-related jobs will be lost if deferrals and cancellations continue based on the unprecedented 35% decline in government and institutional building permits. Ontario’s infrastructure assets would also deteriorate because of the deferrals, the report states.

Click here to read the full news release.

Canada’s construction sector took a COVID-19 hit then rebounded: survey

The Canadian construction sector buckled in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Ontario hit hardest as activity dropped 57 per cent, according to a survey from Procore titled How We Build Now Canada.

British Columbia and Ontario dropped initially to 41 per cent below baseline in the first month of the pandemic, with Ontario slipping further in May to 57 per cent while B.C. shrugged it off with a mere seven per cent decline.

The bad news, however, was short lived. By July, and in some cases sooner, activity had ramped up. The good news was “nearly half of respondents (44 per cent) were able to remain as productive as they had been before COVID-19 hit, while only 26 per cent saw their productivity drop during the months of the pandemic.

Click here to read the full news release.

P3 2020: Recruiters need to tell sector’s powerful stories

Spending billions on P3 projects won’t bring the economic recovery and social development that infrastructure stakeholders yearn for unless there is the skilled workforce in place to get the work done. A panel of workforce experts discussed how labour, governments and industry are working together to overcome Canada’s skilled trades gap on Day 2 of the CCPPP Virtual Conference.

Click here to read the full news release.

Exclusive Discount for TCA Members on publishing Certificates of Substantial Performance (CSPs) in the Daily Commercial News (DCN)!
All certificates and notices published in the Daily Commercial News (DCN) are a flat fee of $300 (plus tax). Special Affinity Pricing of $200 per certificate is available to all ConstructConnect subscribers and TCA members.
Click here for more details.

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TCA Resources on COVID-19

To access TCA dedicated Covid-19 Updates, click here.