(Montreal) The Commission de la construction du Québec wants to expand audits and site visits over the next few years as the industry is at full capacity.
Posted yesterday at 3:04pm.
Lia Levesque The Canadian Press
The CCQ expresses its will in this regard in its recently presented strategic plan for 2023-2025.
For example, in 2020 999 checks were carried out on the books of construction companies, in 2021 there were 1076 and in 2022 1255.
43,283 site visits were conducted in 2020, then 44,931 in 2021 and 42,694 in 2022.
“The context of overheating, coupled with labor shortages and supply difficulties, provides fertile ground for all sorts of unfair maneuvers,” she wrote in her strategic plan.
“These reasons legitimize the CCQ’s strategic attention to promoting fair competition,” she adds.
The organization recalls that in 2020-2022 it “targeted the most harmful projects” and was able to improve results.
“The current context requires maintaining the intensity of verification and investigative measures, particularly with a view to combating undeclared work. To promote fair competition, the CCQ will continue to increase the number of audits and site visits it carries out,” she warns.
The Commission also wants to become more agile and vigilant. “In an environment of strong economic activity, in which the hours worked are increasing, as we are currently experiencing, we have modified our methods of intervention on construction sites. In 2022, for example, 16% of inspections were carried out outside normal operating hours, i.e. in the evenings and at weekends. »
The CCQ states that it has dispatched a team solely responsible for intervening on major projects in the Montreal region, with a view to prevention, since these projects extend over several years.
“REM, Louis-Hippolyte-La-Fontaine-Bridge-Tunnel, SRB Pie-IX, 687 visits to major construction sites were carried out,” states the construction commission.
“This year we are concentrating more on institutional projects. With the passage of Bill 66, the Quebec government has invested heavily in its infrastructure, particularly in the areas of health, transportation and education. The CCQ therefore conducted targeted intervention attacks on these sites,” she added.
The construction industry is in full swing. In 2022, it peaked at 210.2 million hours worked. Last December, around 202 million was expected for this year, which corresponds to a slight decrease.
The number of employees also peaked in 2022 at 197,925.