ACA 2016 Year in Review

2016 was a busy year for ACA. At the end of 2015 the Alberta government announced they would be forming the first review of the WCB for over a decade. We met with the Labour Minister and her staff on a number of occasions. In the late spring the panel released a survey for the review. We worked with our members and with the Industry Task Force to craft a guide for filling out the survey.

Since then we have asked to meet with the review panel and were present when the panel had consultations in November.  ACA is finalizing an additional submission which we will share with members through the next issue of the newsletter.

In the winter we met with the infrastructure minister. During those meetings we set the stage for changes to prompt payment and reinforced our relationship with the ministry which invited the ACA to speak at a press conference this fall.

In the spring as a result of the wild fires in Fort McMurray our local construction associations led a call to help out the citizens and our fellow construction members. We also met with the Premier’s office to once again recommend ACCERT and discuss areas of common ground.

For a number of years we have been working with OHS regarding Silica and guidelines surrounding best practices and proving concepts. With the hard work of our committee we brought forward best practices for silica management..  ACSA will be implementing silica training courses later this year.

This fall ACA sent a letters to Alberta infrastructure and the Canadian Border Agency over drywall tariff decision. As a result, Alberta Infrastructure agreed to compensate the cost of the duty on contracts that were in force prior to the imposition of the duty. We also lobbied the federal task force on Marijuana legislation and regulation recommending a careful approach to protect employers for their actions to ensure safety in the workplace. ACA also took part in the federal discussions on the Temporary Foreign Worker program.

With the year almost over we were also proud to announce that the Masonry Contractors had joined ACA as an associate member.  Also we were able to update our policies for the future. All in all it has been a very busy and productive year. While we continue to move forward on many files in the New Year we are always grateful to reflect on what we accomplished through you, our volunteers and members.

Thank you and may 2017 be a great year.