Building trades protest continues gŏđŏ
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dent contractors will have to choose be- tween “going underground” with all the risks to government licensing and inspec- tion requirements that might result for cli- ents, or else moving away and setting up elsewhere in Canada and then competing for Ontario contracts but taking the profits they make out of the province. “It they (government) continue with this, our have-not status will get greater,” Hillier said, “and our social programs will be at risk. It’s happening right now. I’m hearing from contractors from around the province that they are making plans to leave.” Should the meeting with Naqvi prove un- satisfactory for the lobby group, there are plans in place already for a huge gathering of contractors from all across Ontario on Feb. 28 in Toronto outside the Queens Park legislature to protest Bill 119 and demand its cancellation. “He (Naqvi) is going to see thousands of contractors at Queens Park that day,” said Hillier. “If he doesn’t repeal it (Bill 119), I will introduce a bill that day myself.”
GREGGCHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
OTTAWA | Kill Bill 119 demand indepen- dent contractors. Representatives for a growing grassroots lobby movement among Ontario’s inde- pendent small contractors in the construc- tion trade hope to convince the province’s new labour minister to cancel Bill 119 which forces them to join and pay into the govern- ment’s workers compensation insurance program whether they want to or not. Juliette Forgues, who launched the pro- test with others last month, hopes that an afternoon meeting Feb. 15 with Yasir Naqvi, the newly-appointed labour minister in the cabinet of Ontario’s new premier Kathleen Wynne, will see some sign of support for the independent contractors. She and other representatives from the group along with MPP Randy Hillier, Progressive Conservative labour critic, gathered outside of Naqvi’s Ottawa constituency office that morning to give regional media an update on the sta- tus of the anti-Bill 119 lobby since its official launch in Casselman last month. “The government and the WSIB need to realize that we are serious,” said Forgues. “We are against the new Bill 119 and the mandatory insurance coverage. It is not the responsibility of contractors to pay the WSIB’s debt. We are hard workers and they need to listen to us.” “This (legislation) is just another exam- ple of a government entity that has gone amuck,” said Walter Pamic, an electrical contractor who belongs to several business groups that represent building sector inter- ests. The argument against Bill 119 is that in- dependent contractors already have work- ers compensation coverage at lower rates through their own private insurance dealers and this insurance covers them both on and off the job site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The mandatory coverage through the government program just applies to a job site while work is in progress and is a needless financial hardship that just helps pay down the WSIB operating debt.
Ontario’s new labour minister Yasir Naq- vi had his first official protest rally out- side his Ottawa constituency office as local independent contractors lobbied against Bill 119. “It is nothing less than a tax grab by the government,” said Pamic Hillier predicted that Bill 119 will be more harm than help to Ontario’s construction sector. He said that many small indepen-
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