Greetings!
Welcome to COCA's monthly Newsletter. Unless noted otherwise, all articles are written by COCA President, Ian Cunningham.
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Stats Canada Report Shows Increased Costs of Construction Inputs in Q4
Here are some of the highlights of the Statistics Canada report about the rising costs of construction inputs that were published on February 2, 2022:
Residential building construction costs increased 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2021, following a similar rise in the third quarter.
Non-residential building construction costs were up 2.7% in the fourth quarter, decelerating slightly from the previous quarter.
Increases in the costs to construct non-residential buildings were mostly driven by a rise in prices for metal fabrication products and concrete elements (including steel reinforcement).
Contractors mainly attributed the higher costs to rising labour costs resulting from skilled labour shortages and rises in the price of steel products, which was impacted by supply constraints.
Non-residential construction building costs rose 11.2% year over year in the fourth quarter which was the largest increase since the third quarter of 2008.
The full report is available by clicking on the following link:
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WSIB Makes Parkinson’s Disease from Work-Related McIntyre Powder Exposure Presumptive
Here’s an email received from the Director of the Office of the Employer Advisor, Susan Adams, regarding WSIB claims for work-related exposures to McIntyre Powder:
“We’re writing to mention that there’s been an amendment to the WSIA’s General Regulation O. Reg. 175/98, adding Parkinson’s disease from work-related exposure to McIntyre Powder to the list of presumptive occupational diseases in Schedule 3.
The amending regulation was approved and filed on January 27, 2022. At the time of sending this note, the update doesn’t yet appear on e-laws, O. Reg. 175/98: General.
You’ll recall that the relationship between Parkinson’s disease and exposure to McIntyre Powder was studied by Dr. Paul Demers from the Occupational Cancer Research Centre at the request of the WSIB. Dr. Demers’ final report and a WSIB update are posted on the WSIB website, noting that the study showed “a statistically significant increased risk of Parkinson’s disease in McIntyre Powder-exposed miners compared to miners with no McIntyre Powder exposure”.
Diseases in WSIA’s Schedule 3 are subject to a rebuttable presumption. In other words, if the worker was employed in a process set out in Schedule 3, in this case, “any process involving exposure to McIntyre Powder in the mining industry”, and the worker contracts the disease outlined in Schedule 3, “Neurological Diseases — Parkinson’s disease”, the disease is presumed to have occurred due to the person’s work, unless evidence of another cause can be demonstrated.
Excerpts from the WSIA for ease of reference:
Occupational diseases
15 (1) This section applies if a worker suffers from and is impaired by an occupational disease that occurs due to the nature of one or more employments in which the worker was engaged.
Entitlement to benefits
(2) The worker is entitled to benefits under the insurance plan as if the disease were a personal injury by accident and as if the impairment were the happening of the accident.
Presumption re causation
(3) If, before the date of the impairment, the worker was employed in a process set out in Schedule 3 and if he or she contracts the disease specified in the Schedule, the disease is presumed to have occurred due to the nature of the worker’s employment unless the contrary is shown.
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Highlights of Stats Canada’s January 2022 Labour Market Survey
Here are the highlights copied from Statistics Canada’s January 2022 Labour Market Survey
- Employment fell by 200,000 (-1.0%) in January, spread across both part-time (-117,000; -3.3%) and full-time (-83,000; -0.5%) work.
- Total hours worked fell 2.2% after being at pre-COVID levels in November and December 2021.
- The number of employed people who worked less than half their usual hours rose by 620,000 (+66.1%) in January 2022, the largest increase since March 2020.
- Youth saw declines in both part-time (-93,000; -7.1%) and full-time (-46,000; -3.5%) work.
- Employment fell among women in the core working ages of 25 to 54, entirely in part-time work (-43,000; -4.3%).
- All of the employment decline in January 2022 was among private-sector employees (-206,000; -1.6%).
- In January, 1 in 10 (10.0%) employees were absent from their job due to illness or disability.
- Almost one-quarter of workers (24.3%) reported that they usually work exclusively at home.
- Average hourly wages grew 2.4% (+$0.72) on a year-over-year basis in January, down from 2.7% in November and December 2021.
- Employment in services-producing industries fell by 223,000. Accommodation and food services (-113,000), information, culture and recreation (-48,000) and retail trade (-26,000) saw the largest declines.
- Employment increased by 23,000 in the goods-producing sector.
- Employment declined in Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
- The unemployment rate increased 0.5 percentage points to 6.5% in January, the first increase since Apri l 2021.
- The total number of unemployed people increased by 106,000 (+8.6%) to 1.34 million.
- The number of people on temporary lay-off or scheduled to start a job in the near future rose by 120,000 (+130.5%).
- The unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 rose 2.5 percentage points to 13.6%.
- Women aged 25 to 54 also saw an increase in their unemployment rate (+0.6 percentage points to 5.3%).
- The labour force participation rate among the population aged 15 years and older fell 0.4 percentage points to 65.0% in January.
With regard to Ontario’s labour market, the report noted the following:
- Seasonally adjusted estimates of employment in Ontario’s construction industry are as follows: September 2021 - 535,700; October 2021 - 533,100; November 2021 - 541,000; December 2021 - 544,500; January 2022 - 563,600
- Ontario lost 145,700 jobs in January across all sectors including 41,700 full-time and 104,000 part-time positions
- Ontario’s unemployment rate was 7.3% in January. The participation rate was 65.0% and employment rate was 60.3%
The full report can be accessed by clicking on the following link:
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Gov’t Enhances the Achievement Incentive Program for Apprenticeship Sponsors
Recently, the government of Ontario announced an additional investment of $90.3 million over three years to enhance the Skilled Trades Strategy to break the stigma and attract more young people to the trades, simplify the system and encourage employer participation in apprenticeships.
Beginning on April 1, 2022, the Achievement Incentive program will be enhanced to include the following:
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Milestone payments of $1,000 to an apprenticeship sponsor for each level of in-class training completed by the apprentice (up to four levels) and an additional $1,000 certification bonus.
- A new $1,000 registration payment, and additional $1,000 payments per level and certification prior to an apprentice turning 25 years of age.
- A new $1,000 registration payment, and additional $1,000 payments per level and certification if an apprentice is from an underrepresented group (e.g. women, Indigenous, people of colour, people with disabilities, Francophone, newcomers).
If you have any questions regarding the Achievement Incentive program, please reach out to the Employment Ontario Contact Centre at 1-800-387-5656, or contactEO@ontario.ca.
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Counsel Polling Reflects Reduced PC Majority
Counsel Public Affairs polled 2,273 people between January 21 and January 23, 2022 about their voter intentions and published the results on January 27, 2022. Here are the highlights:
- If an election were held at the time the survey was taken, 34.9% of decided and leaning respondents said they would vote PC, 30.5% NDP, 24.2 % Liberal, 4.4% Green and 6% for other parties.
- Counsel analysis concludes that these results would translate into a slim PC majority government with 67 seats (a reduction of 9 seats from the 2018 election victory)
- The NDP would win 39 seats (down one from 2018)
- The Liberals would win 17, an improvement of 10 seats from the 7 they won in 2018
- The Greens would hold onto their one seat
- All parties have time between now and June 2 to grow their vote by appealing to swing voters
The Counsel report is available at the following link:
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ARI Poll Shows 54% Want Mandates Lifted
Clearly, Canadians are fed up with the pandemic and want the public health restrictions to end. A survey of 1688 Canadian adults conducted by the Angus Reid Institute (ARI) between January 27 and 28, 2022 and published on January 31, 2022, showed that 54% of respondents either agree strongly (32%) or agree (22%) with the statement “It’s time to end restrictions and let people self-isolate if they’re at risk.” 24% of respondents disagreed and 16% strongly disagreed while 6% said not sure/can’t say.
This is a shift from the ARI survey taken January 7-12, 2022 when 21% of respondents strongly agreed, 19% agreed, 30% disagreed, 25% strongly disagreed while 5% said not sure/can’t say.
For the full ARI report, click on the following link:
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Horwath to Lead NDP Into Provincial Election
Delegates to the Ontario NDP convention held on Sunday, February 7, 2022, voted 85% in favour of Andrea Horwath to lead the party into the June 2022 Ontario general election.
- Horwath was first elected to serve in the Ontario legislature in a by-election in the riding of Hamilton-East in 2004.
- She was re-elected in 2007, 2011, 2014 and 2018 with wide margins of victory
- She was elected to lead the Ontario NDP in 2009
- The June 2022 Ontario general election will be Horwath’s fourth as NDP leader (most leaders of political parties hit their “Best Before” date long before their fourth general election)
- In her speech prior to winning confirmation Horwath laid out her convictions which will likely find their way into the party’s election platform: making housing more affordable; raising the minimum wage to $20; $10-per-day-per-child daycare; paid sick days
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Veteran NDP MPP Paul Miller Will Face Off Against Veteran CFLer
Although he hasn’t officially been nominated yet, it’s expected that 70-year-old, four-term MPP for the safe NDP riding of Stoney Creek, Paul Miller, will face off against 69-year-old CFL Hall of Famer and three-time Grey Cup champion Neil Lumsden who will be the PC standard-bearer.
Miller is a good friend of COCA and was a strong supporter of our successful drive to make prompt payment the law in Ontario. He has dominated his opponents in his last three election victories in Stoney Creek winning by significant margins.
In addition to his three Grey Cup rings as a player, all with the Edmonton Eskimos, Lumsden was general manager of the Hamilton Tiger Cats in 1999 when they won the CFL championship. In addition to his career in football, Lumsden served as Athletic Director at Brock University and headed up a sports marketing agency.
Might be an interesting one to keep an eye on.
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Ajax—Pickering Riding Wide Open
It looked like the Ajax-Pickering riding might be one to watch in the upcoming Ontario general election with former Minister of the Environment Conservation & Parks, Minister of Finance and then-current Minister of Long-Term Care facing off against long time Ajax mayor Steve Parish as the NDP standard-bearer.
But then to the surprise of almost everyone Phillips, who was touted as a possible successor to Doug Ford as PC leader, quit his cabinet position and announced that he would be resigning his position in the legislature this month. Then Parish was stripped of his NDP candidate role because as a local politician he had supported the naming of a street in Ajax after a Nazi sympathizer. That leaves Ajax-Pickering, a riding held by Liberal Joe Dickson from 2007 to 2018, wide open.
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TGS has created a seven module core training product.
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COCA is the voice of our membership at Queen's Park.
We want to hear from you. All questions, ideas and comments are more than welcome.
Council of Ontario Construction Associations
926 - 123 Edward Street
Toronto ON M5G 1E2
416-968-7200
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Operations Manager
Martin Benson
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926 - 123 Edward Street
Toronto ON M5G 1E2
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