Right now your city government is being bullied by greedy construction monopolies into denying all construction workers the opportunity to work on publicly funded projects.
Construction monopolies make city infrastructure cost more to build. And when the city pays more, they make you pay more by jacking up property taxes.
Enter your postal code below to write your city councillor and tell them it’s time to Stop Construction Monopolies.
You are paying more to build city infrastructure through higher property taxes, user fees, and special levies. A lot more.
That’s because of a little known part of the Ontario Labour Relations Act that allows greedy special interests to bully your city government into denying all construction workers the opportunity to work on publicly funded projects.
It’s called “closed tendering” and it’s creating construction monopolies that are making you pay at least 30% more for city infrastructure.
How bad is it? Get a load of this: in Kitchener, taxpayers paid $564,744 to build a simple brick public washroom. And, in Toronto, taxpayers paid $143 just to install a pencil sharpener in a school.
Those are just a few examples. It’s happening in Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie, and Waterloo too.
When you get right down to it, there is a mountain of evidence showing that construction monopolies increase the cost of city infrastructure. And there is no evidence that it delivers better city infrastructure either.
So it’s about time cities allow for a fair and open tendering process for all workers that maintains health and safety measures as well as fair wages.
Giving all construction workers the opportunity to work on publicly funded projects would free up millions that could be spent on badly needed city infrastructure. Or, at the very least, keep the city from jacking up your property taxes.