CANADIAN CONSTRUCTION ASSOCIATION
Let’s Show That
#CDNConstructionGives
Last year, the Canadian government introduced two com-munity
benefits-related measures that may pose seri-ous
issues for our members. The Canadian Construction
Association (CCA) has reminded the government of the incredible
value our members already bring to their communities through their
charitable efforts and have repeatedly offered to work collaborative-ly
with the government to develop a fair and transparent approach
that does not compromise our members’ ability to do business. We
need your help to quantify and showcase how the Canadian con-struction
industry supports communities across the country.
C-344 and community employment
benefits framework is ill defined
As part of the Investing in Canada plan, recipients of federal fund-ing
for new major public infrastructure projects will now be asked
to pursue targeted efforts to contribute to the employment, eco-nomic
and social benefits of the community. Applicants for major
projects will now set and pursue targets for training and employ-ment
opportunities for seven groups (Indigenous Peoples, women,
persons with disabilities, veterans, youth, apprentices and recent
immigrants) that are under-represented in the workforce or that
face challenges entering the workforce. For each project over a
$10 million threshold ( for most jurisdictions), provinces and ter-ritories
will identify at least three of these target groups to benefit
through training, employment or procurement opportunities. The
new requirement will also see projects providing procurement op-portunities
for small-, medium-sized and social enterprises oper-ated
by a charity or non-profit organization or designed around
the delivery of social value.
BY MARY VAN BUREN, PRESIDENT, CCA
CCA’s primary concern with bill C-344 (An act to amend the
Department of Public Works and Government Services Act (Community
Benefits)) and the community employment benefits framework sum-marized
above is that they may lead to an unpredictable, unfair and
opaque procurement process. If the government wants communi-ty
benefits in its projects, the industry requests that these be clear-ly
laid out in the tender documents, with each contractor having
an equal opportunity to price the work required. Should these addi-tional
benefits fall outside the scope of the document, contractors
would be in blind competition with each other without knowing
how their proposed benefit(s) would impact the overall evaluation.
Furthermore, as the federal government is seen as a leader, the CCA
is concerned that this currently ill-defined concept might lead all
levels of government across Canada to extract “community ben-efits”
outside the scope of the project. Finally, we are concerned
about any legislation that may add further regulatory requirements
to access federal infrastructure funding, reduce productivity and in-crease
uncertainty.
What can you do?
CCA and its partner associations continue to put pressure on the
government. Just how committed our members across the country
are to their communities is a great source of pride for the CCA. From
foodbanks to Habitat for Humanity, hiring apprentices; the con-struction
industry makes a difference with our voluntary corporate
social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. This is in addition to the ma-ny
formal programs initiated by construction associations already
put in place to help under-represented segments get into the con-struction
industry.
CCA conducted a survey on community benefits recently. This
data will help us demonstrate to the government and other stake-holders
how much extra value our members already provide to
benefit their communities. If you are on Instagram or Twitter,
please use #CDNConstructionGives to highlight your community
support activities.
CANADIAN CONSTRUCTION ASSOCIATION
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