Supporting Their Essential Service: Construction Workers, Volunteer Firefighters, and Healthcare Workers

CLAC is pleased to participate in the prebud­get process and offer recommendations for the 2025 Ontario budget. The full submission is available to download below. Here is a summary of our recommendations.

Construction

1. Allocate dedicated, multiyear (e.g., three-to five-year) funding for group sponsorship programs either through the ministry itself or Skilled Trades Ontario. This will allow CLAC and other similar organizations to continue supporting both apprentices and employers effectively, ensuring the continued growth and development of skilled trades in Ontario.

2. Section 163.1 of the Ontario Labour Relations Act should be revised to clarify that project labour agreements (PLAs) are a tool for use between private-sector owners and labour unions on industrial and commercial projects only. PLAs should be prohibited for use on projects owned or procured by public entities including, but not limited to, Infrastructure Ontario, municipalities, hospitals, and universities or schools.

3. Revise the Ontario Labour Relations Act to permit a public entity, as listed in section 127(1), to opt out of being a construction employer, at any time, provided they issue three months written notice.

4. Applications for certification should be deemed to be filed at times and on days that the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) is open for business. Adding this feature to the Ontario Labour Relations Act would substantially diminish the undemocratic practice of excluding the majority of workers from the process of unionization.

5. Unions relying on membership evidence in certification applications should be required to submit evidence that the worker supports a unionization effort at their current employer.

Volunteer Firefighters

6. Introduce and implement a volunteer firefighter tax credit that matches the federal tax credit of $6,000 and commit to matching any future federal volunteer firefighter tax credits.

Healthcare

7. Extend mandatory WSIB coverage to workers in retirement homes and residential care facilities.

8. Require that the daily hours of direct care by RNs, RPNs, PSWs, and allied healthcare professionals be publicly reported on for each long term care facility. This enables both transparency and an assessment of what models best achieve the desired outcomes.

9. Implement a permanent wage enhancement for all non-PSW employees in long term care facilities.

10. Workers in long term care settings should receive hands-on training that enables tactics and tools for addressing violent resident behaviour, with regular recertification.

11. Extend the definition of hospital in the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act to include the homecare sector.

12. Set a fair and equitable wage for PSWs and RPNs in the homecare sector that is at par with long term care workers of the same classifications.

13. Use existing, standardized service provider contracts for homecare delivery, and set a minimum standard required mileage rate of $0.72/km and a minimum wage for travel time between homecare clients.

You might be interested in

Pinecrest Manor RNs Unanimously Ratify New Agreement

21 Mar 2025 

Aecon Employees Secure Yearly Wage Increases with New Contract

21 Mar 2025 

Elbows Down

17 Mar 2025 

Gordon Ruth Employees Unanimously Ratify New Contract

14 Mar 2025