Daily Commercial News
In this special episode of the Construction Record podcast, Daily Commercial News and Journal of Commerce national managing editor Vince Versace speaks with Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) executive director Nadia Todorova and chair Peter Smith about the upcoming Ontario budget due March 24.
Topics covered in the pre-budget chat include a dip in infrastructure tenders, the growing revenue deficit for major metropolitan transit systems and stresses on construction employment as the economy was battered by COVID-19 over the previous year.
Smith said contractors with large backlogs by summer 2020 were in good shape but those looking for projects were 鈥渟tarting to get nervous鈥 with many bids on public projects that normally wouldn鈥檛 attract such interest. Those working on long-term projects have less to worry about but other contractors may feel 鈥渟tranded,鈥 he said.
Smith pointed out that during the 2008-09 financial crisis, the federal government stepped up with infrastructure funding but many municipalities didn鈥檛 have a priority list. The problem now, he said, is that municipalities know what the priority projects are but they don鈥檛 have the funding to execute on them.
Todorova said the funding doesn鈥檛 have to be immediate but assurances it will be available will be a strong sign to the industry that the construction season won鈥檛 be lost.
Make sure to check out our coverage of the Ontario budget on March 24 and tune into our weekly quick-hit podcast TCR Express every Wednesday. You can listen to the Construction Record on , and Amazon Music and you can follow us on .
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