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OGCA is pleased to welcome Alexia MacLeod from Somerville Construction to the OGCA Board of Directors. Alexia has been with Somerville since 2004, and attended her first Board meeting on February 22. Welcome Alexia! The WSIB is moving forward with its plans to implement its new premium rating system effective January 2020. They provided all employers with correspondence on the mplementation of Rate Framework in December and now have issued an explanation of the transition process (see link here). The WSIB now proposes to issue individualized rates for every employer based on their financial process over a six year period. Your existing rate and experience rating will no long be applied and most organizations with more than one rate will have them collapsed into one. The letters issued in December should have confirmed your classification. It is vital you review it for accuracy. In late September, you will be issued with your final assessment rate for 2020. This short implementation period will make it difficult to address flaws before implementation, so we encourage you to consider this information now. Les Liversidge will present a session on Rate Framework at our Symposium, April 11-13, 2019. The March 1st Leadership Conference on construction health and safety was again a great success with outstanding speakers and over 225 attendees. There was great discussion around the heightened role being played by buyers in increasing the requirement for COR as a prequalification,and in some cases, much more. George Bell, representing Metrolinx, spoke to their commitment to take a leadership role in a safer construction industry, and to their use of the procurement system to hire the safest contractors and requiring them to conform to Metrolinx policies. This includes adopting a Fit for Duty Policy that is the most demanding in the industry. Contractors will be required to determine that their workers in safety-sensitive positions are free of any possible impairment. They have issued thresholds for what will be considered a positive test. Most significant is the statement “Due to Metrolinx’s commitment to health and safety, all positions deemed safety-sensitive are prohibited from any recreational use of cannabis and cannabis products both on and off duty.” OGCA is in discussion with Metrolinx concerning this proposal. The attendees were presented with the newly realized study on Working at Heights by Dr. Lynda Robson. It found that the required training had great success at including as much as 93% of the targeted workers, but that implementation of the training was inconsistently applied through the industry. The Panel discussion included a focus on implementing training and the culture that supports it.
WSIB Chair Elizabeth Witmer was awarded the Doug Chalmers award for a career in supporting construction workplace health and safety. This article in the Daily Commercial News provides some of her gracious acceptance comments. Congratulations Elizabeth for your commitment to workplace safety.
The Report provides valuable insight into the effectiveness of this training standard. The construction industry invested 3 years and tens of millions of dollars in providing training to about 4500 of workers whom work at heights. Unfortunately many are not fully implementing their training and are suffering severe and often traumatic results. Last year the Ontario industry experienced 13 fall from height fatalities, a dramatic increase over recent years. OGCA has written the Chief Prevention Officer and we will soon meet to discuss next steps.
Industry News
The latest issue of the Ontario Electrical League's newsletter is now available. Click here to access it. The Ontario Electrical Construction Company Limited is celebrating its 90th Anniversary this year! Congratulations! To read more about this League of Champions Member, please click here.
The League of Champions (LOC) was honoured to participate in the OGCA COR Open House and Leadership Conference on Friday, March 1 at Verdi Convention Centre in Mississauga. Shown on the left are the League of Champions members who attended. Congratulations to all for your participation in the program. Congratulations to the new LOC Member who was recognized at the event - Mahoney International, shown above right, with Rob Ellis, Craig Lesurf and Steve Mahoney. Craig Lesurf, LOC Chairman and Rob Ellis, founder of MySafeWork, recognized new COR™ Certified Members for their commitment to continuous health & safety improvement. Each organization received a captain’s ‘C’ crest to be stitched onto their LOC jersey.
Thank you to Leadership Patron, Ontario General Contractors Association, all the special guests, and to the LOC members and patrons for another successful event! For more information about the League or to apply to become a Champion, contact Marjorie Javier by phone at 905 671 3969 or email at Marjorie@theLOC.ca.
The League of Champion celebrated International Women’s Day by featuring amazing “Women of the League.” Please visit our Facebook page and Twitter page to check out these amazing women. In partnership with MySafeWork, the League of Champions (LOC) will be heading to the University of Toronto on March 27, 2019. The LOC has an exciting opportunity to promote health & safety to 1,000 students from engineering. Get ready to field industry questions from the best and the brightest. To RSVP for this event, please contact Marjorie Javier by email at marjorie@theloc.ca.
Member News
OGCA's membership has jumped to 194 members now, with the addition of Clark Construction Management, which was approved electronically by the Board of Directors. Welcome to the OGCA family! In October 2019, Ed Newton and the employees at Newton Group will celebrate their 25th year in the industry. Congratulations to all and in particular, to Meri Shepheard, one of the OGCA Board of Directors. Lots of interesting articles on the latest Bird projects. Click here to see some of the highlights!
A few weeks ago, OGCA staffer Steven Crombie joined Ed Sikkema, Johnathon Quinn and John Feldkamp of Maple Reinders for an exciting curling bonspiel, hosted by the Barrie Construction Association. In past years, OGCA won one time, but that didn't happen this time. While we did manage to beat COCA and the team from Grand Valley Construction Association, we ended up far from first place! But it was a fun event nevertheless! Even Chairman John Dawson went up to catch the finals. Thank you to the local construction associations who organize this annual event, and especially Alison Smith from the Barrie Construction Association for her help in setting this up. (Left to right: Johnathon Quinn, Steve Crombie, Bagpiper, Ed Sikkema, John Feldkamp) Some of our members in the 519 area might be interested to learn that Stewarts is having an inventory clearance sale. Contact Stewarts at Stewarts Equipment Some of the Construction equipment up for auction includes:
Associate Partner News and Events
In this webinar, leaders on all aspects of the COR™ journey will share their expertise and experiences to help you conquer COR™. You'll gain insights into the mind of a COR™ Consultant for the IHSA and learn from the experiences of a COR™-Certified construction company and their journey to achieving COR™ in Ontario. To register, please go to: Conquering COR Webinar
A great long success story for a Canadian company that is developing world beating products for LED Jobsite lighting.
What does this mean for my business and what practices do I need to change? Join us for an informative breakfast session where you will have an opportunity to network and learn how the Construction Act has changed payment practices and obligations, dispute resolution, the management of construction projects, and the industry as a whole. Our construction lawyers will consider the prompt payment and adjudication regimes, and the other significant changes from the perspective of all key players in the construction pyramid:
Click here for more event details. The clock is ticking for getting COR™ certified in Ontario. Today, COR™ certification has reached a stage where you just cannot remain registered anymore, especially since January 2019. The luxury of just remaining registered and bid for projects is soon vanishing. Therefore, it’s time to take quick action.
Legislative & Legal Updates
The Provincial Government is creating more opportunities for Indigenous people and addressing the skilled labour shortage across the North by making the Northern Ontario Internship Program more accessible. The Government is removing barriers to participation in the Northern Ontario Internship Program so that more organizations can provide on-the-job career development and address skilled labour shortages. The program removes the requirement that an applicant be a recent university or college graduate. Ontario is supporting a wider variety of internships, including skilled trades. Program candidates will now include new entrants into the workforce, those transitioning to a new career, the unemployed and underemployed. Click here for more information. Mississauga, March 1, 2019 — Metrolinx Vice President of Safety and Security, George Bell, announced at the Ontario General Contractors Association Leadership Conference and COR™ Open House that Metrolinx is looking to become a leader in construction safety and is making some big changes in standards to get there. Metrolinx has moved from reporting on employee injuries to reporting on every worker's injuries, everyone who is involved in the delivery of Metrolinx projects. Also worth noting, near miss or non-events will be investigated as if they were a fatality. Metrolinx will be looking at bringing in some improved standards to their worksites and going above and beyond the Green Book Standard. Bell says the Green Book is the basics: “it’s the bottom standard. If I build a house in Ontario and I am complying with every element in the Ontario Building Code, I just built the worst house I can legally build. We don’t want that, we want the best house we can build.” Metrolinx now requires contractors to be COR™ certified for all major construction contracts. “If you’re not safe, we’re not going to ask you to work for us.” Bell also said new fit for duty standards being implemented stipulate any worker found to be impaired on a Metrolinx site will not be allowed to work for Metrolinx again. Metrolinx works hand in hand with Infrastructure Ontario, which has agreed to use the same standards as Metrolinx on large projects going forward. The Ministry of the Attorney General (the “Ministry”) wishes to inform you of an upcoming Call for Applications to select an entity to act as Authorized Nominating Authority (the “Authority”) under Part II.1 of the Construction Act (the “Act”) and Ontario Regulation 306/18 (the “Regulations”).
The Authority will be an arm’s-length designee of the Minister, and will be responsible for training, qualifying, appointing, and overseeing a roster of qualified adjudicators to perform statutory interim dispute adjudication for construction disputes across Ontario.
The latest copy of the Ontario Legislative Reports (March 10) is now available on the OGCA website, or you can simply click here to read it. For issues prior to September 2018, please contact the OGCA office. Education & Events
Here are a few more sessions being held during the OGCA's 11th Construction Symposium, April 11 - 13, 2019 at the Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood.
Gold Seal
Contractor Challenges Fit for Duty / Cannabis Registration is now open for the Lean Construction Institute of Canada’s (LCI-C) training day and conference April 30 – May 2 in Montreal. Join over 200 delegates representing the design and consulting community, contractors as well as public- and private-sector owners. This event offers a unique opportunity to familiarize yourself with some of the key Lean techniques as well as to meet and learn from other practitioners and leading experts. For the training day, you can choose from three full-day training programs while the conference program consists of over 20 sessions, 5 of which will be run in French. And it pays off to bring your team since LCI-C is offering great incentives to get your entire team educated on Lean construction. Download brochure and visit the LCI-C website for more information and to register! Join fellow CEO members, along with CEO and ACEC Directors on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 for an expert led presentation and analysis of what consulting engineers can expect from the new Act. Click here to register and to view the agenda. Calendar of Events
Just a few dates to put into your calendar for this year: OGCA's 11th Construction Symposium - April 11 - 13, 2019 OGCA Golf Tournament at Glencairn Golf Course, Milton - Monday, July 8, 2019 Annual General Meeting and Conference, JW Marriott Lake Rosseau - October 3 - 6, 2019 |
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ONTARIO GENERAL CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION
180 Attwell Drive, Suite 280 | Toronto, Ontario M9W 6A9 Tel 905-671-3969 |
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What does it take to achieve COR™?
2019 actually IS an anniversary year for Lind Equipment. The company is officially 70 years old in 2019. 
Ontario’s new Construction Act is now in force –