Transport committee  I'm Michael Atkinson. I'm the president of the Canadian Construction Association.

Transport committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and honourable committee members, for inviting the Canadian Construction Association to appear before you today on Bill C-227. As those of you who were here last week know, CCA represents Canada's non-residential construction industry. I was before you on

Finance committee  There have been a number of studies done on the disincentives for mobility, particularly for the unemployed who are looking for work. These studies were done by groups like BuildForce Canada, for example. I know the building trades, as well, have done some research in this area.

Finance committee  In certain geographical areas, and in certain sectors, there is a slowdown. There's no question about that, particularly on resource-based industries, the industrial sector, but there is also an uptick. We're very optimistic in the future, particularly with the amount of renewal

Finance committee  Absolutely. Quality of infrastructure is directly related to how well the country does economically.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members. On behalf of the some 20,000 member firms that the Canadian Construction Association represents, I'd like to say that it is, indeed, a pleasure to be here with you today. Since I do only have five minutes and I don't want to go over t

Transport committee  I'm not aware of one. I would be deathly scared of one, in that we wouldn't get any building done if people saw all the different hoops, etc., that we had to go through. No, I'm not aware of anybody doing that. I can tell you, though, that contractors generally have a very good

Transport committee  That's a tough question to answer with one straightforward answer. In general application, it changes. I guess the more uniform regulation and legislation is, the easier it should be, you would think, but 99% of our members are SMEs and often don't work much beyond their local ju

Transport committee  That's something for the proponents. We wouldn't ourselves be involved in that, since we're just the builders. That's something the proponents would have to consider: whether it's in their best interests or not. I can't really speak for the proponents. I only represent the builde

Transport committee  Again, from my perspective, that's a question that's more appropriately put to the proponents of the projects. I have seen some reports that suggest to me that in cases in which some projects have some sensitivity, some provinces or some proponents are looking at perhaps opting i

Transport committee  The design in most cases is very much directed or regulated by the owner—whoever we're building for. If it's a private owner, then they have to get a building permit or some other kind of permit in order to proceed with that construction. They would have to have submitted their d

Transport committee  Right.

Transport committee  My experience and the information I get back from our members is that it's just as diligent, just as vigilant at the provincial level. This is one of the reasons why triggering so many federal reviews under CEAA was really a questionable practice, because since the introduction o

Transport committee  If we're working for a municipal owner, absolutely. There is a lot of leverage in the construction contract itself that can be brought to bear to ensure that proper construction methodology and standards are complied with. I don't think we need a federal piece of legislation to e

Transport committee  Both. They may have governing jurisdiction, or they may have ownership of the project.