Daily Commercial News
In this episode of the Construction Record podcast, Daily Commercial New and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace speaks to Carpenters District Council of Ontario president Mike Yorke and Millwright Regional Council of Ontario political director Chris Sutton about the construction industry’s underground economy and their efforts to fight tax fraud.
Yorke cited research by the Ontario Construction Secretariat that found $1.8 billion to $3 billion in revenue has been lost to tax fraud due primarily to misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The problem spans North America and Yorke said the current push marks the third year of the campaign.
Sutton said the Millwrights and Carpenters unions aim to engage the public and despite the dampening effects of COVID-19 he said their organizations remain resolute and will amplify their concerns as Ontario and Canada recover from the pandemic.
Yorke and Sutton also stressed the importance of education not only the public and their own members but also the federal and provincial government and offer potential solutions to the fraud problem.
You can listen to The Construction Record and TCR Express on the Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce websites as well as on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music’s podcast section and you can hear last week’s interview DCN’s own Don Wall about the recent Ontario budget here. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.