TORONTO — The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), the Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) and the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) support the Ontario government’s April 3 decision to restrict active construction in the province.
The new measure will reduce activity in the sector and enhance COVID-19 prevention measures, while enabling the completion of new homes that are moving towards occupancy, indicates a release.
The government’s decision will allow certain residential construction to keep going.
“Today’s announcement by the Province relating to construction activity in Ontario is balanced and appropriate,” states a release issued by RESCON. “This approach balances the health and safety of Ontarians as well as construction workers across the province, while at the same time ensuring that much needed housing is still being provided for thousands of people.”
Both BILD and OHBA support the government’s increased inspection activity on jobsites. They endorse shutting down sites that do not meet the Ministry of Labour requirements and put workers at risk. The organizations also strongly encourage any worker with concerns about on-site conditions to report those to a site supervisor, call the Ministry hotline at 1-877-202-0008 and leave the site.
“We all want safe jobsites,” said Joe Vaccaro, OHBA CEO, in a statement. “Across Ontario, industry members have been enhancing their COVID-19 protocols as required by government. With the new provincial restrictions on active job sites, members will continue to focus on worker safety and delivering keys to the thousands of families waiting for their homes to be completed. Let’s keep each other safe. We are all in this together.”
“As the Premier has rightly noted, there are many people who are waiting for their homes to be finished in the next few weeks,” said Richard Lyall, president of RESCON, in a statement. “We already have a significant housing crisis in Ontario and most of these homeowners who have sold their homes are at risk of being left on the street without these measures.”
RESCON has and will continue to emphasize that companies must meet the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development construction standards or simply not operate. Site safety is the builders’ responsibility and they must work with everyone on the construction site including sub-trades, labour unions and workers to ensure all workers and sites are safe, the release states.
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