ACA Provides Input on Safety Measures and on OHS Regulation

 Government Advocacy  Comments Off
Feb 242012
 

ACA’s Safety / WCB Committee responded February 21st to two important issues affecting Alberta’s construction industry.

ACA has long expressed concern about the use of data collected for the WCB (lost time claims and disabling injuries) being used as measures of employer safety performance.   The Committee was pleased to provide an industry response for research being performed for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) to identify performance indicators.  Specifically, input was provided on leading and lagging performance indicators to help identify best practices in measuring the effectiveness of occupational health and safety prevention activities.  Key leading indicators identified by the Committee included:

  • Quality and sharing of lessons learned from post incident investigation
  • Training
  • Pre-job site inspections / Thoroughness of field level hazard assessment
  • Regular tail gate meetings
  • Employee turnover. Perception surveys
  • Commitment of entire management team – head office, site managers
  • Alignment with sub trades
  • Job site visits
  • Timely completion of hazard assessment reports
  • In-depth near miss reporting system
  • Peer to peer observation system
  • Supervisory presence at the workforce
  • Jobsite safety training of apprentices

The Committee also provided industry feedback on the Review of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation set to renew February 2013.  The Committee agreed to the proposed changes with one exception. ACA felt that the existing wording for Section 15.1 was adequate and that the proposed change was too broad.

 Posted by at 1:03 pm

ACA Promotes Industry Standard Practices to Alberta Health Services

 Standard Practices  Comments Off
Feb 242012
 

ACA promotes industry standard practices in tendering and contracting to procurers of construction services.  For some time, ACA has been corresponding with Alberta Health Services to adopt industry standard practices.  ACA appreciates the opportunity to meet with AHS Vice President Bill Trafford and Associate General Counsel Laura Sugimoto February 23rd. In that meeting, ACA emphasized four points:

  • ACA appreciates that start of direct dialogue with AHS.  Industry doesn’t understand why AHS uses non-standard documents when Alberta Infrastructure uses CCDC2 and CCDC5b with Supplementary General Conditions on much larger projects than AHS projects
  • Industry supports public tender openings and opposes private tender openings
  • ACA supports the use of prequalification where specialized skills required
  • ACA urges all owners to adopt industry standard practices.  As the market heats up, contractors will choose to bid work where risks best understood (ie standard documents and practices).  ACA does not want to see any owner faced with few to no bidders.

AHS emphasized their unique needs of procuring construction services for operating health facilities and that they had undertaken consultation over the past two years.

ACA and AHS agreed the meeting was a positive first step in establishing a long term mutually beneficial relationship.  This article serves as part of the next steps, by informing ACA’s membership that consultation has taken place and that we anticipate ongoing dialogue.  AHS agreed to provide their contract to ACA and that ACA will seek input from the membership about any outstanding issues.

 Posted by at 1:02 pm

New Surety Bond

 Standard Practices  Comments Off
Feb 242012
 

The Surety Association of Canada in conjunction with all of the major surety companies in Canada have created a new bond wording with enhancements that industry stakeholders have been asking for.  We are in the process of introducing the bond wording (and supporting fact sheet) to the construction industry across Canada.

See more here

 Posted by at 1:01 pm

WCB Agrees to Revisit Return to Work Incentive

 WCB  Comments Off
Feb 212012
 

ACA is pleased that the WCB heeded industry calls for more work prior to introducing the proposed Return to Work PIR incentive.  ACA had withheld support for the proposal, pending further analysis to address a number of concerns (see here).  ACA is pleased to note that the WCB has heard the concerns, and the WCB issued the following response, posted on the WCB website February 14:

“WCB has completed the Stage 2 consultation for Policy 07-02, Part II, Application 3, Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR), which proposed a new return-to-work measure. Over forty submissions were received from a broad range of stakeholders, including employers, employer associations, workers, advocates, and health care practitioners. The feedback was mixed in terms of support for the proposal. WCB has considered the feedback carefully and has concluded that additional work is required on this proposal.”

 Posted by at 3:38 pm

Chairman’s Tour – Red Deer

 Uncategorized  Comments Off
Feb 212012
 

ACA thanks the Red Deer Construction Association for graciously hosting ACA Chairman Brian Freemark and Executive Director Ken Gibson at the RDCA AGM February 15th.

Chairman Freemark had an opportunity to share highlights of ACA’s 2011 activities with RDCA members, and to learn of RDCA priorities and accomplishments.  He extended congratulations to RDCA on achieving the 300 member milestone which means that a second RDCA representative joins the ACA Board.

Also of note is RDCA’s restructuring of committees to mirror the ACA committee structure for Government Advocacy, Standard Practices, and Research and Technology.  This model will help elevate Red Deer concerns of a provincial nature to ACA, and will assist ACA in obtaining feedback from RDCA.  ACA encourages members of the Red Deer Construction Association to forward their ideas and concerns to the RDCA committees.

 Posted by at 3:36 pm

ACA enters new partnership with Occupational Health and Safety

 Government Advocacy  Comments Off
Feb 212012
 

On December 14, 2010, the Ministry of Employment issued a news release and report entitled: Occupational Health and Safety Focused Inspection Project: Commercial Construction.  The report indicated that over a six-week period from October 8 to November 22, 2010, Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) officers conducted 298 initial and follow-up inspections of 146 commercial construction employers across the province. A total of 214 orders, including 39 stop work orders, were issued.

Consequently in 2011, Alberta Construction Association and our training partner, the Alberta Construction Safety Association, met with Ministry staff to review in more detail the findings as a first step in determining appropriate responses.  Following that meeting, ACA and ACSA proposed Occupational Health and Safety generate reports on what types of non-compliance infractions Officers are observing daily on construction worksites and share these with ACSA and industry associations to promote enhanced safety on the work site and/or towards a specific industry.

ACA is delighted to announce that following a February 15th 2012 meeting with OHS, ARCHA (roadbuilders), CHBA-AB (home builders), ACA, and ACSA, Occupational Health and Safety have agreed to a pilot study to produce reports for alerting industry of compliance issues and to assist in developing education and training responses.

The industry associations have also agreed to identify opportunities for OHS staff to participate in industry training activities, including employer safety events and worksite orientations.  If you have an initiative that you would like to showcase to OHS, please contact ACA at ken.gibson@albertaconstruction.net .

Based on the reports, if the information can be shared, the group could work on producing Industry Best Practices, articles, industry bulletins, etc for distribution through publications, newsletters, posting on web sites, etc.

 Posted by at 3:36 pm

Infrastructure Minister Open to Continued Alternate Financing

 Government Advocacy  Comments Off
Feb 152012
 

Speaking at a fundraising breakfast February 9th, Infrastructure Minister Jeff Johnson shared some of his thoughts about capital investment in Alberta.  Here is my take on what the Minister shared:

  • in the past, capital has largely been paid by the Government with cash. However, there is bad debt – used to finance operations, and good debt – used to finance capital.
  • in order to maintain the level of investment to support economic growth, and the well-being of Albertans, Government will likely need to continue to use alternatives to cash financing.
  • P3s are one option.  They worked well when cost of funds is low, and provided cost certainty and schedule certainty, with assured maintenance funding.  However P3s are not the be all, end all.
  • Minister recognized that industry has diverse opinions about P3s.  Minister wants to ensure going forward a mix of project delivery and financing in order that small and large firms have an opportunity for work.
 Posted by at 7:59 am

Reaction to Provincial Budget

 Government Advocacy  Comments Off
Feb 152012
 

Concern about the implications of the Provincial Budget announced February 9, 2012 is the immediate reaction of ACA.  In December 2011, ACA submitted recommendations to the Minister of Finance with a sound rationale to maintain the level of infrastructure investment to accommodate population growth and avoid increasing costs of deferred maintenance (see our blog post of Dec. 6).  Despite these recommendations, the 2012-2015 Capital Budget of $16.483 billion is a $1.154 billion reduction compared to the previous 3-year Capital Budget of 2011-2014.

Read the analysis of the Budget here

 Posted by at 7:57 am

ACA Influences Alberta Infrastructure RFQ / RFP Debriefing Process

 Government Advocacy, Standard Practices  Comments Off
Feb 152012
 

ACA is pleased to announce its favorable reaction to the final draft of Alberta Infrastructure’s “Debriefing Guidelines”.  Infrastructure invited industry feedback through the Institutional Infrastructure Partners Committee.  ACA submitted its recommendations based on industry feedback.  The new guidelines approved February 2, 2012 will be added to the Infrastructure website within a month.  Infrastructure has indicated the Guidelines will be a living document in order to incorporate improvements based on experience and dialogue with industry.

 Posted by at 7:54 am

Help Promote Construction Careers with Trade-Up Alberta

 Industry Initiatives  Comments Off
Feb 062012
 

ACA, other construction employer groups, labour organizations, and governments today launched the new Trade-Up Alberta (www.TradeUpAlberta.com) to provide young Albertans, their parents, and educators with information on the benefits and opportunities they can expect from a career in construction.

We encourage your company to use the website at recruitment events, job fairs, etc. that you attend.  As a member of ACA, your company also has access to free promotional materials – use of the TradeUp logo, posters, business cards, USB memory sticks, and a PowerPoint presentation template. To order, send an email to contact@tradeupalberta.com

 Posted by at 11:40 am
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