Ontario Premier Doug Ford reiterated his views on red tape, the controversial Highway 413 project and continuing to push through the pandemic, with a special thank you to the construction industry during his keynote address at the Toronto Construction Association’s 154th AGM and Best of the Best Awards held Feb. 17.
“It was critical for us as a government to make sure we kept the construction sites open…because we all know that Ontario cannot wait for new infrastructure,” said Ford, referencing the early days of the pandemic. “We made it very clear that we had to continue moving forward and waiting just wasn’t an option for new hospitals to open their doors or new long-term care homes to open their doors.”
He talked about the importance the accelerated build program.
“These are priority items for the people of Ontario and we need to move forward as quickly as possible without any delay, without the red tape and bureaucracy of getting permits,” he said.
The Ontario government has $144 billion in the budget and plans to build schools, hospitals and long-term care homes.
“We’re making sure we’re measuring municipalities,” said Ford. “For the first time ever they are being measured on how quickly they can get a permit. We’re giving them the tools as a province to move things forward a lot quicker.”
Transit and transportation including the hotly debated Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass projects will also be moving ahead, he added, despite some opposition.
“The same people that were standing there protesting the 407 will be the same people protesting the 413 they’re still back in the horse and buggy days,” Ford said.
The government also supports Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZO), which overrides local planning authority to approve development without expert analysis, public input or any chance of appeal.
“I keep telling the minister to keep moving forward and keep issuing those MZOs because what that does it creates jobs it creates opportunities it creates homes and places for people to live or own or rent,” Ford said.
TCA president and CEO John Mollenhauer, echoed some of Ford’s sentiments, reflecting on how busy the industry is and how the volume of work continues to grow. But he stressed, bigger isn’t always better.
“We’ve got a tremendous volume of work to bid in our industry and that’s kind of good news, bad news,” he said. “From a constructor perspective we have fast become skeptics. The whole uncertainty around price volatility, around supply chain challenges, around our ability to secure the resources we need to build things, our inability…to finance an investment in much needed technology when last year’s retained earnings have been eroded and they would normally be this year’s operating capital.”
Mollenhauer suggested buyers of construction, owners or clients, when they do tender work, they need to award it much faster.
“They, like we as constructors, are skeptical and worried and they take too long to award prices and as contractors trades and suppliers we have great difficulty keeping our prices frozen for any length of time,” he said.
“Sometimes when we are lucky and we win a job that has been awarded through the design-bid-build methodology, we’re not sure that we should be excited about winning the project because we know the challenges in front of us.”
Mollenhauer discussed the “super-heated market” in the Greater Toronto Area and the profound impact that COVID-19 has in terms of changing the landscape of construction.
“We have ongoing dispute resolutions that began during the pandemic, so we’re talking about things like recovering costs related to COVID and productivity losses and project demobilization and remobilization and many of those are unresolved,” he noted.
He also spoke about supply chain disruptions, price volatility, inflation and interest rates impacting the industry.
“Supply chain issues have never been more severe than they are today,” he said. “Price volatility…it’s affected sheet metal, it’s affected rebar, it’s affected structural steel, it’s affected a plethora of products and commodities that influence our ability to build buildings, to do what we do.”
Both Mollenhauer and Ford did state despite numerous challenges the industry continues to flourish and show its resilience.
“I have the deepest respect for Ontario’s construction industry,” said Ford. “They play such a critical role in making sure that we move forward as a province. The impact the construction trade has in jobs and making sure we get things moving and continuing building homes and industrial and commercial sites is absolutely critical to the growth of our province.”
The TCA Best of the Best award winners will be featured in another Daily Commercial News article.
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