Ontario’s recent Progressive Conservative government seeks to break what it says is a union monopoly on public works projects in the province’s largest cities. Premier Doug Ford backs a bill to close what critics call a provincial legal “loophole” that classifies local governments and other public entities as construction contractors.
Critics say the carpenters and other building trades take advantage of the loophole by recruiting a few municipal employees in each jurisdiction. Under Ontario law, this makes Toronto, Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie and the Region of Waterloo union employers—blocking nonunion and some union firms from bidding on major infrastructure projects. The result has been as much as $1.8 billion in new public works projects each year with bids limited to contractors backed by a few trade unions, says Cardus, a Hamilton think tank. Restrictions have halved the number of bidders and driven up project costs in Toronto and other cities, its report contends.