May 12, 2020

We have written, both as the OGCA and with our partners in the CDAO, to urge the government to recognize the facts and reopen our industry fully now. This oversight cannot be allowed to continue when the facts do not support it.

We have reached out to each of you, the members of our organization, to help us get this message across to every single MPP in Ontario. You have received an email from us explaining how you can do that, along with the letter and the facts as to why we should be open and not continue to suffer unnecessarily.

These facts point out very clearly that 94,000 construction employees are losing their livelihoods because of the shutdown. Companies are being put at a financial risk that could lead to bankruptcies.

Last year, we were responsible for 8% of the province’s GDP and that figure was growing each year. We have well over 460,000 skilled employees. We are the province’s economic recovery engine and we must begin mobilizing and to do that, we must recognize the facts and reopen the ICI sector fully. We have remained operational and implemented containment and health practices that far exceed the Ministry guidelines; we work closely with the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association and the Chief Prevention Officer to develop best practices and implement them in the industry. There remains no logical barrier to opening up the entire construction industry. We are committed to stopping COVID-19 and working to kick-start our economy and bring our employees back to work.

Every fact has shown that our sector is one of the safest in the country - pre-COVID-19 and post - and we continue to excel at promoting health and safety and making sure it works. The numbers don’t lie. There has not been a single WSIB claim from the construction industry for this virus. Our sites are safe and we are working constantly to improve that safety, maintain it and take advantage of every piece of information that comes available, and yet, in the meantime, similar style projects to those undertaken in other sectors are being denied the ability to restart. This must stop.

I urge each and every one of you to contact your MPP using the OGCA outreach system, speak to them and advocate to them, as strongly as possible, the need to reopen our industry, because there is no factual evidence to support why we have not been allowed to reopen.

Thank you for your continued support of your organization, of health and safety and of this industry. Together we will get through this and we will play a major role in restoring the economy of not just Ontario, but Canada as well.