Supporting Ontario’s Essential Workers and Services

CLAC’s 2026 prebudget submission to the Ontario government highlights practical, worker-focused measures to build a stronger and fairer province. Here are summaries of the key recommendations that CLAC made to the government for construction workers, volunteer firefighters, and healthcare professionals.

Construction

Recommendation 1: Keep the Skills Development Fund as a provincial budget priority. 

Recommendation 2: Provide stable, multiyear funding for group sponsorship programs that support apprentices and small employers. 

Recommendation 3: Restrict project labour agreements to private-sector projects only; prohibit them on publicly funded work. 

Recommendation 4: Allow public entities to opt out of being classified as construction employers at any time to ensure open tendering.

Volunteer Firefighters  

Recommendation 5: Introduce a provincial volunteer firefighter tax credit matching the federal program and future increases.

Healthcare  

Recommendation 6: Extend WSIB coverage to retirement home and residential care workers to eliminate current coverage gaps. 

Recommendation 7: Require public reporting of daily hours of direct care in every long term care facility. 

Recommendation 8: Mandate hands-on, nonviolent intervention training with regular recertification for long term care workers. 

Recommendation 9: Reform homecare procurement by setting standardized minimums for wages, travel time, and mileage rates. 

Recommendation 10: Extend the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act (HLDAA) to include the homecare sector.    

Read CLAC’s full submission below.

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