Construction is on Ontario’s list of essential services that can keep operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are growing calls within the sector for a broad industry shutdown, such as the one\u00a0Quebec instituted\u00a0this week.<\/p>\n
Ontario workers on large job sites, unions and contractors who do smaller-scale residential and commercial projects are among the voices saying the province’s definition of essential construction activities is too broad\u00a0\u2014\u00a0putting workers and the public at risk.<\/p>\n The construction work allowed under the\u00a0list of essential services\u00a0the province released this week includes transit projects, health-care facilities and basically everything else. The list\u00a0allows “construction and work services, including demolition services, in the industrial, commercial, institutional and residential sectors.”<\/p>\n “If it’s a hospital, you know, and medical facilities that we desperately needed,\u00a0fine. I’m all for it,” said Antonio Cruz, a Toronto-based general contractor and project manager. “But residential, especially residential, it makes no sense.”<\/p>\n While saws keep buzzing and hammers keep swinging in Ontario, that’s not the case in\u00a0Quebec,<\/u>\u00a0which has the country’s strictest lockdowns.<\/p>\n It shut down almost all businesses, including those employing its 250,000 construction labourers, and in doing so, prompted a\u00a0debate about which construction jobs really are essential.<\/p>\n “When it comes to the necessities of life, shelter is at the top of the list,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said of his government’s decision to keep residential construction going.<\/p>\n Shelter is, indeed, high in the hierarchy of needs, but some in Ontario’s construction industry are nevertheless\u00a0shutting down their residential building operations as the coronavirus\u00a0pandemic\u00a0spreads across the province and the country.<\/p>\n Mattamy Homes\u00a0temporarily suspended<\/u> work at all its construction sites and sales offices as builders around the province assess the situation.<\/p>\n In Toronto, Cruz’s Greenfield Enterprises has shut down construction on a commercial project converting a former restaurant space into a bank.<\/p>\n His company also shut down three custom-built home projects in the city, the first at the request of the client, who wanted the work stopped to protect workers on the job.<\/p>\n Cruz,\u00a0who also has a health safety consulting business<\/u>, said hygiene on construction sites was a serious problem even before the pandemic.<\/p>\n For him, there’s too much at stake to justify keeping infrastructure\u00a0projects going,\u00a0particularly\u00a0in an industry where delays are already common.<\/p>\n “Do we have to kill people just because we gotta open the subway?”\u00a0said\u00a0Cruz.\u00a0“I mean, we’ve lived for the last 50 years with the subway lines we have.”<\/p>\n The\u00a0Carpenters’ Union and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades,<\/u>\u00a0which represent about 35,000 workers combined,\u00a0are calling on Ontario to shut down the construction industry because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n Both unions are giving their members safety tips, and the website of the former includes instructions for members\u00a0who want to stop working on\u00a0how to collect vacation pay<\/u>.<\/p>\n The Ontario chapter of the Labourers’ International Union of North America, which represents 90,000 members,\u00a0is not calling for a shutdown<\/u>, but union leader\u00a0Jack\u00a0<\/u>Oliveira wrote a pointed letter<\/u>\u00a0to the province’s Ministry of Labour.<\/p>\n In it, he demanded more frequent visits by health and safety inspectors.<\/p>\n He also passed on a number of concerns from union members, including one employer telling workers to bring their own protective equipment to the job and gathering up masks and locking them away.<\/p>\n Bradley Metlin, press secretary for the ministry, told CBC News that Ontario’s government is in close contact with labour leaders and industry executives. Some companies have said\u00a0that they’re committed to keeping their projects going and protecting their workers.<\/p>\n In a statement, Metlin\u00a0said companies must “take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect the health and safety of workers.”<\/p>\n Provincial\u00a0inspectors will investigate all health and safety concerns, “including those related to COVID-19 in a timely manner,” he said.<\/p>\n As work goes on, so does the controversy around it.<\/p>\n A\u00a0video of a Toronto construction worker\u00a0complaining about\u00a0working conditions circulated on social media Wednesday.<\/p>\n In it, the man tells a crowd of co-workers\u00a0“I’ve got an 86-year-old at home \u2026 My wife is crying every time I go home because she doesn’t know [if] I’m going to kill her father if I have something.”<\/p>\n An online petition to halt construction in Ontario<\/u> has racked up more than 41,000\u00a0signatures, some accompanied by\u00a0strongly worded comments.<\/p>\n “The government is trying to say that construction workers are the peasants of the industry,” wrote\u00a0Victor Z<\/u>.<\/p>\n “That’s why they won’t shut us down. We are the slaves. They will never let us stop.”<\/p>\n Construction workers\u00a0sacrificing their\u00a0health and safety for the benefit of developers was a concern\u00a0raised in a\u00a0recent New York Times article\u00a0about the ongoing building in the city, amid its own coronavirus lockdown.<\/p>\n Many comments\u00a0in the Ontario online petition\u00a0highlighted work site conditions.<\/p>\n Diana Marques of\u00a0Toronto<\/u>\u00a0said the same rationale for shutting down schools should\u00a0apply to construction sites because of the\u00a0large number of people sharing the same space.<\/p>\n “My husband is exposed every day to well over 50 people,” she said.<\/p>\n “He has to share a hoist with at least 20 different trades.\u00a0The exposure to sharing a hoist alone is dangerous to health and well-being and not to mention they have no proper handwashing stations.”<\/p>\n Some workers in the Toronto area have better conditions than others but are still concerned.<\/p>\n Anthony Paglia is one of about 15 electricians at Musical Electric \u2014 all still working. The firm does commercial, industrial and residential jobs.<\/p>\n Paglia picks up his supplies daily at the company shop, so he doesn’t need to visit stores. He said\u00a0there have only been a small number of people on his job sites, well spread out, with hand\u00a0sanitizer and masks provided.<\/p>\n He knows that’s not the norm, and his boss has told him not to work if he’s worried about where he’s working or how many people are there. Paglia weighs his wage\u00a0against the possibility of bringing the virus back to his family.<\/p>\n “If I don’t think the job site is safe, I probably won’t go,” he said. “I’ve refused unsafe work in the past.”<\/p>\n The contractors who have put safety first and shut down their businesses for now because of\u00a0COVID-19 have to explain their decision to clients who may have jobs that are incomplete or projects they are desperate to get done.<\/p>\n Chris Ashton\u00a0and his brother run Ashton Renovations and work across the Greater Toronto Area. They decided to stop working\u00a0on March 17, a week before Ontario’s lockdown.\u00a0The pair emailed their clients and\u00a0put up a blog post explaining their position.<\/u><\/p>\n Still, some customers required phone calls.<\/p>\n “We had some clients who weren’t processing it, like they’re saying, ‘Oh, we trust you. You know, we’ll let you in the door still.'”<\/p>\n Ashton told them\u00a0the coronavirus doesn’t discriminate\u00a0and can\u00a0infect anyone.<\/p>\n “We had to put a foot down,” he said.<\/p>\n Contractor Derek Meulendyks didn’t have to let any clients down because he’s been working on his own house in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood\u00a0for several months.<\/p>\n He recently tore half of his roof off to create a new bedroom and is relieved not to be confronting the challenges of trades people on big sites.<\/p>\n He hopes the reality of COVID-19 will resonate with an industry that demands a certain grit from everybody it employs.<\/p>\n “You’re just so used to putting your boots on and going to work no matter what\u00a0\u2014 pain, difficult and dangerous things to do,”\u00a0Meulendyks\u00a0said.<\/p>\n “It can be a difficult perspective for some of us to really see this for what it is, which is a safety issue, not just see it as something you got to tough out.”<\/p>\n CBC<\/p>\n‘Shelter is at the top of the list’: Premier Ford<\/h2>\n
Unions raising red flag as workers keep going<\/h2>\n
Building controversy<\/h2>\n
Some have it better<\/h2>\n
Breaking the news to customers<\/h2>\n
‘A safety issue’<\/h2>\n