Transport committee  So you design them—

Transport committee  Right.

Transport committee  Yes, our members are currently struggling with that dynamic in all infrastructure. As I do my consultations across the country, there are examples that have been brought to me of general contractors, as you've just described, who can build one school or one hospital but can't bui

Transport committee  It's something that our companies are doing. At least that's happening in the private sector. It's happening in the public sector as well. One of the conditions, though, that we think should be there is that if the federal government puts in money, they have to ensure that all

Transport committee  It's also that the force of the competition tends to lower prices. If you have 10 or 12 bidders versus 1 or 2, prices go down. You see that in all industries. Thank you for that plug for the Merit benefit plan. We run the largest multi-employer benefit plan in all of constructi

Transport committee  I'm not here to comment on the belief of the government or the ideology of any one party. I'm here to make the case that there's a cost rationale and a fairness rationale to ensure that any public money that's spent on infrastructure is open to all qualified bidders and their wor

Transport committee  It's much, much lower. It depends on the province. I will get you the numbers on that—we're currently doing a lot of that research—but it's a lot lower in public construction. I'll give you a great example. It's currently not the case in British Columbia, but the party that loo

Transport committee  Of course. Collective bargaining agreements deal with a lot of things, but they usually don't deal with building codes and safety codes. Walter can speak to his own experience as an electrical contractor in Ontario.

Transport committee  We believe so, if it's the best quality, lowest bid. But it's important to emphasize the best quality.

Transport committee  I think on the old agreements it probably is too late for that, given that they've already been negotiated with the provinces, but I think in the new round of negotiations it should be a condition. I also think that for any federal agency, so whether you think of P3 Canada or Ca

Transport committee  Sure. StatsCan keeps that information, and the latest report was in 2008, I think. It shows roughly 70% of construction is done by the open shop.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  Sure.

Transport committee  Of course.

Transport committee  Not as much. Most of construction, apart from certain large-scale industrial projects, is done by the open shop. So, we compete among—