Monday, April 19, 2021

CLAC Sues City of Toronto over Discriminatory and Costly Union Deal

A lawsuit filed against the City of Toronto by CLAC, supported by PCA, will be heard in Ontario Superior Court on Tuesday, April 20

Cambridge, ON—A lawsuit filed against the City of Toronto by CLAC, supported by the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), will be heard in Ontario Superior Court on Tuesday, April 20, 2021.

The suit stems from Toronto City Council’s June 2019 decision to add one union, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), to a closed list of special status unions given exclusive domain over certain types of municipally funded construction work. CLAC says the commitment to enter a contract with LIUNA violates the City of Toronto Act and the city’s procurement bylaw and policy.

“We’ve taken on this fight to expose an arrangement that bans good workers and companies from city projects, for no reason we can fathom other than politicking of the worst kind,” says Ian DeWaard, CLAC provincial director.

CLAC is a Canadian union that represents 60,000 workers. Its members, as well as nonunion workers and contractors, are not eligible to bid or work on major projects like libraries, waste and water treatment plants, and community centres because of the city’s decision to create a restricted procurement environment.

DeWaard says that these special agreements “create discriminatory and exclusive conditions that are unfair to workers, small companies, and diverse-owned companies, and that are incredibly costly for taxpayers.”

The city passed this resolution on June 19, 2019, the same day that it decided to opt out of provincial legislation designed to make construction competition fair (Bill 66). Toronto was the only Ontario municipality to opt out of the bill, which has already saved other municipalities like Hamilton, Waterloo, and Sault Ste. Marie millions of dollars.

DeWaard explains that the suit is prompted in part by CLAC’s concern with the process by which the decision was made, in what it believes was a backroom deal that only some councillors were alerted to before the motion was put to council.

Quick Facts

• By opting out of Bill 66, the City of Toronto became the only municipality in Ontario to restrict tendering based on union affiliation.

• City of Toronto staff wrote two reports prior to June 19, 2019, that recommended council choose open tendering. However, council voted against this advice.

• City of Hamilton staff released an in-depth report on the cost of closed tendering that showed open tendering would save their municipality approximately 20 percent in construction costs.

• Independent studies by Cardus, a Hamilton-based think tank, indicated savings from open tendering could save taxpayers 8 to 25 percent. Workers in Toronto benefit from a fair wage policy, which creates standardized wage rates for construction workers. Projected savings are therefore attributable to the impact of a competitive bid process from a diverse and open procurement environment.

CLAC Sues City of Toronto over Discriminatory and Costly Union Deal

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