Government Operations Committee on June 11th, 2026

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's good, Mr. Coutrouzas, that you're here to represent the Millwright Regional Council, and Mr. Delov the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario.

Both of you touched briefly on this matter of opportunity and future opportunity. I would welcome the thoughts of you both on what opportunities you view emerging from a buy Canada policy, both for the industries and for the workers you represent in your organizations. I'll ask Mr. Coutrouzas first and then have Mr. Delov expand on that.

Thank you.

[Nole Coutrouzas]

I'd simply say that the most pressing thing right now for the Millwright Regional Council project-wise would be the St. Thomas Volkswagen PowerCo plant, because a majority of that work is.... The machinery install would be considered millwright work. Now, we're being bypassed. I don't know what the final agreements are or anything like that—it's been very quiet on that front—of any closed-door talks. If it ends up where it is.... With NextStar alone, we had roughly 150 displaced millwrights who should have been doing that work, and those numbers are probably going to be exponentially larger at a build like Volkswagen. That's my direct view on the impact.

As we go from east to west, companies are paying attention. They're paying attention to these loopholes. Whether we talk about the trans-Canada corridors, the LNGs, the refineries or building homes, these are the things for which we have the skills here. The people who work here, the people we're training here, have those skills. It needs to be addressed and, again, it's through policy. It really is.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Thank you for that.

Mr. Delov.

[Igor Delov]

To echo the comments of my colleague, Mr. Coutrouzas, I would just add that, across the whole supply chain, including in pre-fabrication in the broader manufacturing sector, a buy Canadian policy would stimulate Canadian jobs domestically and would put more people through our apprenticeship system as well, which we have in the building trades.

I know that small and medium-sized enterprises were mentioned earlier in the discussion. With regard to our affiliated signatory contractors, 80% of them have fewer than 20 employees. If we want to achieve business growth, a buy Canadian policy can really positively affect those numbers' going up in terms of businesses hiring more people to meet the work requirements, the project requirements. Employment levels will go up in construction as a result.

As I mentioned earlier, we have an issue with youth unemployment in particular, and having young people look at the building trades as a viable career option, as a first-choice option, would go a long way to improving overall employment throughout Ontario and throughout the country.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

I really appreciate that comment. I think it's a very important comment—that we look at differences. You point out the differences with smaller contractors that have fewer employees, so that's an excellent comment. Actually, with regard to your point, they did talk, in the panel before, about the importance of ensuring that we look at differences in industry and in workers.

I'm wondering—just because you've opened up that line of comment—if you could both expand on that. Are there further differences that we should take into account as a buy Canada policy is developed, both from a broad perspective and also from an SME perspective? The policy has not yet been completely finalized. I would welcome your points of view on any differences that should be taken into account.

We may be running short on time, so maybe, Mr. Delov, you wouldn't mind expanding further. Then Mr. Coutrouzas can conclude.

[Igor Delov]

Thank you.

We work very collaboratively with our contractor partners, our counterparts. I think the procurement rules, as they are, achieve a lot of benchmarks that are appropriate to secure fair pre-qualification. We want to expand on those to get more registered apprentices onto these publicly funded projects. That's a win-win, because there are spinoff effects in hiring apprentices. We want to see a greater expansion of registered apprentices being hired through our smaller contractor employers. That would go a long way in improving the whole system in construction.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm afraid that's our time, Mr. Coutrouzas, so you won't have a chance to chime in.

We'll go to Madame Gaudreau, please.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

I'd like to let you know that our witness, Mr. Cloutier, has arrived.

Mr. Cloutier, I'd like to ask you a question or two, because I think this is actually pretty important. We don't want to know what happened. I'm sure you have a good reason. If you're available next Tuesday, we'd be happy to invite you back. We'll be discussing the same topic.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

That's a good point. We'll try to get Mr. Cloutier back on Tuesday. We might have an opening. We're following up with Mr. Cloutier right now.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Wonderful.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Please go ahead.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Mr. Cloutier, Paccar operates the last remaining truck assembly plant in Canada. Is that a symptom or a problem?

Is this an isolated case, or does it point to a broader problem of deindustrialization in Canada?

[Daniel Cloutier, Quebec Director, Unifor]

First, I apologize for running late. It wasn't my intention. I got the times mixed up because of the time zone difference. I'm currently in Edmonton.

Unfortunately, the Paccar plant—which is indeed the last remaining truck assembly plant—is not an isolated case. A similar decline has been observed in several sectors. One of the reasons is that we don't buy from domestic suppliers. For example, Paccar is struggling to secure contracts from the City of Laval, but because of the “lowest bidder” policy, these contracts may slip away, likely due to a difference of 1%.

When procuring goods and services, public service purchasers don't really seem willing to truly consider the impact of buying Canadian for this type of product. This is disastrous because the Paccar plant can produce about 100 trucks per day, yet it is currently making just 25.

So the question is this: For how long will fixed costs allow a facility that has a production capacity well in excess of 25 trucks per day to remain profitable?

If the Paccar plant goes, trucks will no longer be manufactured in Canada.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Cloutier.

Chair, thank you for inviting Mr. Cloutier to come back on Tuesday.

[Daniel Cloutier]

I can confirm that I'll be available.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you. We'll track you down, Mr. Cloutier.

Mrs. Jansen is next, please.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Mr. Delov, we're seeing warning signs across the housing sector. Metro Vancouver just recorded its weakest home sales market in decades. Pre-sale launches have collapsed, and we actually now have developers entering receivership on completed buildings. If projects stop moving forward, trades workers are going to lose their jobs regardless of what procurement policy Ottawa writes.

At the end of the day, trades workers need projects to actually move forward. Would you agree that an announcement from the government doesn't really help workers if the project is delayed or cancelled?

[Igor Delov]

Yes, insofar as projects are delayed, paused or cancelled, that's not helpful. However, we do welcome shovel-ready projects, obviously, that we want to see our workers be employed on.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Buy Canadian sounds good, but it has to work on real job sites. Are you concerned that these rules would actually slow projects down instead of helping workers, and actually increase project costs, which we can see are already high?

[Igor Delov]

I think, in fact, they would help spur greater economic activity domestically, so I think the buy Canadian provisions are a good thing overall.

With regard to delays and administrative roadblocks, I think we can all do better, including the government and the permitting authorities and so forth.

Just on your earlier comment regarding the housing, yes, we've seen a major residential construction housing slump in Ontario as well—I can't speak to B.C.—and this is concerning. To an extent, we're also trying to pivot on projects that are outside of the residential sector to keep our members employed.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Thank you.

The last time this happened was actually when my husband was trying to become an electrician—his dad was an electrical contractor, and it was in the Liberal downturn—and we ended up going into greenhouses instead, because there were no jobs. We're seeing that again with what's happening now, so I'm just wondering, how will this second Liberal-caused housing downturn impact the trades?

[Igor Delov]

Residential accounts for a great share of our members' activity, including the training infrastructure that I talked about earlier. It is a major concern, but I think the good news is that with the major projects being under way in Ontario and other places, there are plentiful employment opportunities as a result of those projects, which we do welcome.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Is there a risk that buy Canadian could become another layer of red tape on top of an already very complicated construction and procurement system?

[Igor Delov]

I would say that the short answer is no, because it would help spur domestic productivity and the domestic sourcing of the goods we need. I think we're very wealthy. We're blessed with softwood lumber and the industries with regard to steel and aluminum. If we can match the market need with the producers and what they have to offer, it will be good news for Canadians.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Federal procurement is already really complex. If buy Canadian adds more conditions without simplifying the process, couldn't that make infrastructure projects slower or harder to deliver? Therefore, you'd have fewer jobs for your construction workers.