Canadian steel construction industry visits Ottawa to call for immediate legislation for construction prompt payment, local procurement for Canadian infrastructure projects, and free and fair trade to ensure a fair, thriving, globally competitive and green construction industry in Canada.

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Federal Prompt Payment Legislation: The lack and delay in payment is one of the biggest issues impacting Canada and the Canadian construction industry. Canadian subcontractors and construction trades that perform 80% of the work and employ 80% of the people are being severely impacted by slow payment. This withheld money is taking billions out of the economy, putting working families at risk of job losses and bankruptcies. If the government intends to kick start the economy and help the middle class then policies and legislation to stop the payment abuse needs to be acted on immediately.

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We request the government to enact Federal Prompt Payment legislation to provide immediate relief to construction industry trades – the life blood of the Canadian construction industry.

2.

Infrastructure investment and local procurement: This is a key government priority which includes a commitment to spend up to $125 billion over 10 years on federal and municipal infrastructure, including over $5.0 billion in 2016-2017. This spending is intended to rebuild Canada's infrastructure while strengthening the middle class by putting thousands to work. However, there is currently a lack of procurement policies, at all government levels, that fairly compare Canadian companies to foreign suppliers taking into consideration Canadian content, minimum wage, environmental costs (e.g. carbon policies), health and safety, public safety (standards), and the spinoff multiplier benefits to the local economy.

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We urge the development of policies that require minimum Canadian and regional/local content in all government funded infrastructure projects in order to truly benefit local communities and Canada in general while respecting any existing trade obligations.

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We urge the federal government to enact procurement practices that hold foreign bidders to the same standards as Canadian companies bidding for the same work (e.g. minimum wage, environmental and safety standards), and to disqualify bids coming from foreign jurisdictions that do not permit equal access to Canadian products and services.

3.

Free & Fair Trade: Canada's current trade policies and agreements allow our trading partners to have open access to our markets, while many of them deny Canadian manufacturers equal and reciprocal access to their markets. This creates an unfair trade environment for Canadian steel manufacturers. We consider it vital to ensure that Canadian manufacturers are able to access, compete, and thrive in an open, competitive, free and fair global marketplace.

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We urge the federal government to enact a Federal Reciprocal Procurement Act that provides the ability to prohibit government procurement of products and services from a foreign country (and/or state within) that restricts or limits access of Canadian suppliers and manufacturers.