CCA
Federal infrastructure program
The Canadian Construction Association (CCA) was pleased to see the
federal government make good on its election promise by committing
in its inaugural budget to a new 10-year, $60 billion program. It imme-diately
made known to government of its desire to work with federal
officials to ensure a successful and timely rollout of the new program.
CCA continues to be consulted, including with respect to the fur-ther
infrastructure measures announced in the November Economic
Statement.
Prompt payment
CCA established a Task Force charged with educating the major feder-al
construction contracting authorities on the importance of prompt
payment on federal construction projects, and to work with them to
resolve industry concerns. A Joint Federal Government-CCA Working
Group was established in April. That group continues to meet.
The CCA Task Force also developed a statement of principles con-cerning
payment that was endorsed by the CCA Board in October.
Quality of design documents
Another high priority issue for CCA continues to be the quality of de-sign
documents.
In April 2016, CCA approached the federal government as a ma-jor
construction purchaser, to explore how it and the industry might
jointly pursue some of the proposed solutions identified in the CCA
summary report that documented the results of its cross-country se-ries
of sessions. A joint industry-federal government working group
has been established for this purpose.
National industry ethics course
CCA and BuildForce Canada partnered to produce the first-ever na-tional
construction industry ethics course. It was launched on April 4,
2016 and consists of both an online and a classroom portion.
Lean Construction Institute of Canada
(LCI-Canada)
LCI-Canada held its inaugural national conference last April in
Calgary and is now rolling out across the country an educational pro-gram
and is also establishing local Communities of Practice.
New Indigenous Engagement Best
Practices Guide
CCA together with Indigenous Works developed an Indigenous
Engagement Best Practices Guide for member firms on how to en-gage
the Indigenous business community.
Corporate social responsibility
CCA has a Task Force currently developing a corporate social respon-sibility
(CSR) “how-to-guide” for member firms.
Community benefits and social
procurement
Over the course of 2016, CCA became concerned about the growing
tendency of public sector buyers of construction services to embrace
social procurement and to seek “community benefits” in their con-struction
purchasing.
At its September meeting in Fort McMurray, the CCA-National
Board passed the following motion:
“THAT, CCA (National) is opposed to using the procure-ment
of construction services to advance unrelated com-munity
benefits and other public policy objectives where
they jeopardize the integrity of the competitive bid system.”
The Gold Seal Certification program
The Gold Seal program recently announced that it is introducing a
new occupation in 2017 ( foreman). It also has announced that start-ing
in 2017, all Gold Seal applicants will need to take the new ethics
course, both the online and classroom portions, in order to qualify to
write the national examination.
Exclusionary or reprisal bid clauses
CCA has been monitoring the increasing use of exclusionary or repri-sal
bid clauses whereby owners exclude from bidding or otherwise
penalize contractors with past or current claims or disputes with that
public owner or other owners.
Recently, CCA, through its Civil Infrastructure Council, has agreed
to co-fund a legal challenge to such clauses in B.C.
Progress on
Several Fronts
Your national association’s 2016
accomplishments and 2017 priorities
Submitted by the Canadian Construction Association
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