6
business elite canada
H
FEBRUARY 2018
This is all the unintended consequence
of a loophole in Ontario’s Labour Re-
lations Act that treats Sault Ste. Marie,
as well as Toronto, Hamilton and the
Region of Waterloo as “construction
employers” binding them to collective
agreements suited for construction
contractors, not municipalities.
Although the Sault is the smallest On-
tario municipality impacted, it’s the
only one that’s stood up. In an over-
whelming show of support for fair and
open construction tendering, Council
recently passed a resolution to start
the process of changing its “construc-
tion employer” status. That requires
convincing the Ontario government to
amend Section 126 of the province’s
Labour Relations Act. Similar calls
from the Association of Municipalities
of Ontario (AMO), the Ontario Cham-
ber of Commerce, the Large Urban
Mayors Caucus of Ontario and many
others, have all been ignored.
What’s becoming harder to ignore
though, is the growing and compelling
body of research demonstrating the
public benefits of open construction
tendering. For starters, in municipali-
ties like the Sault, where tendering is
restricted, taxpayers could save any-
where from 20 to 30 percent if more
