Item - 2019.EX6.3

City Council recessed its public session and met as Committee of the Whole in closed session on June 19, 2019 to consider confidential information on this Item as it pertains to labour relations or employee negotiations and potential litigation that affects the City of Toronto.

City Council considered Items EX6.3 and MM8.51 together.

That Executive Committee forwards the item to City Council without recommendations.

The Executive Committee:

1. Directed the City Manager to report directly to the June 18, 2019 meeting of City Council on the following:

a. the number of union construction companies that can currently bid on construction jobs in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector in the City of Toronto;

b. the number of additional union construction companies that would likely be able to bid on construction jobs in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector in the City of Toronto, if the City decided to become a non-construction employer;

c. the number of non-union construction companies that would likely be able to bid on construction jobs in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector in the City of Toronto, if the City decided to become a non-construction employer;

d. ways in which the City could increase and/or maximize the benefits, such as skills training and community benefits, associated with union workforces being employed in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector, should the City decide to continue being a construction employer;

e. the general percentage of the bids received in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector that account for wages of employees; and given the existence of the City’s Fair Wage Policy, other areas of a successful bid that might become more competitive, if the City became a non-construction employer; and

f. the scale of training programs undertaken by certified and non-city certified unions in Toronto; and similar programs undertaken by non-union construction firms; and

g. the central findings of the 2008 City of Toronto report concerning the savings the City would incur if it became a non-construction employer based on the Fair Wage Policy. 

On April 2, 2019, Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act, 2019 (the Act) passed third reading and received Royal Assent on April 3, 2019.

This report provides an overview of the changes made to the Labour Relations Act, 1995 by Schedule 9 of the Act and analyses the anticipated impact on the City of Toronto. The impacts of other sections of the Act are addressed in a separate report for information titled "Bill 66, Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act, 2019 - City Impacts".

Schedule 9 amends Section 127(1) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 by deeming public bodies, including municipalities, school boards, hospitals, colleges, universities and local boards, within the meaning of the Municipal Act, 2001 and the City of Toronto Act, 2006, as non-construction employers.

It also provides a mechanism through which municipalities who wish to remain as construction employers may opt out of the application of the section within three (3) months from April 3, 2019.

The City is bound to nine province-wide collective agreements in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector of the construction industry.

As a result, the City has until July 3, 2019 to decide if it will choose to opt-out and remain a construction employer. This authority to opt-out requires a Council decision. If the City does nothing, it will, by default, become a non-construction employer and the province-wide collective agreements that the City is bound to in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector will no longer apply to the City.

If Council decides to opt out and the notice of election is filed with the Ministry, the election is irrevocable.  Should the City wish, at a later date, to be deemed a non-construction employer, it must make application to the Ontario Labour Relations Board under the existing definition of non-construction employer in the Labour Relations Act and, the Ontario Labour Relations Board must determine that the City meets the high threshold within the Labour Relations Act.