February 23, 2012

2011 a year of expansion and lobbying for Ontario Road Builders’ Association

KELLY LAPOINTE

staff writer

Infrastructure funding and procurement, the Colleges of Trades and the CFAAST audit were just some of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association's priorities in 2011.

With the introduction of the province’s first minority government in over 25 years, 2011 saw an increased focus on coalitions for ORBA, explained Karen Renkema, director government relations.

“It’s with numerous voices that we go to government delivering the same problem, issue, or same solution and we usually have much more success than just going as ORBA,” explained Renkema, pointing to the CFAAST audit and the Ontario College of Trades.

In addition to coalitions, ORBA has recognized the importance of investing in research and reports to go to government with solution instead of problems.

ORBA is now interested in transit infrastructure, as it’s now larger than the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) budget and many ORBA members are already involved in transit or are looking to become involved, said Renkema.

Meanwhile, Infrastructure Ontario (IO) has a mandate to expand their procurement ability and to look at what they termed as traditional procurement.

She said IO and MTO have indicated they’re not interested in doing any radical changes immediately, though they are looking for a way to match their procurement systems.

“Because the traditional procurement that we’re used to with the Ministry of Transportation is something we’re really interested in protecting, we have to make that decision and yell and scream pretty loudly about that,” she said.

She pointed out that the province’s 10 year plan included $35 billion in funding over three years, but there’s no legislation that binds them to that promise.

The plan also doesn’t give a dollar amount over the 10 years, though it is a strategic framework document that will help guide investment.

The College of Trades, which was legislated by the Liberals in 2009 and was formed as a response to one of the recommendations suggested in the 2008 Compulsory Certification Project Review by Tim Armstrong, was an important issue for ORBA during the 2011 fall provincial election. The College will be in charge of apprenticeship to journeyperson ratios and compulsory certifications , among other responsibilities.

ORBA members are involved with the Colleges despite their contrary views. Allan West, vice-president and director of the K.J. Beamish Group of Companies, sat on the College’s appointments council and Dagmar Construction president Denis Bigioni sits on the construction divisional board. A number of ORBA members applied to be part of the College’s roster of adjudicators, which was recently released.

“[It’s] not necessarily because we believe the institution is going to solve our problems but because we recognize that we have to be part of the conversation in order to make any kind of impact,” said Renkema.

The CFAAST Audit was commissioned by the Deputy Minister of Transportation late last year and released to ORBA at the end of August.

CFAAST (Corporate Financial Assurance Audit Service Team, Ontario Internal Audit Division, Ministry of Finance) was asked to review MTO’s claims and infractions process from the perspectives of ‘fairness, equity and transparency’.

Its final report and recommendations calls to question the fairness, equity and/or transparency of numerous aspects of current claims and infractions processes.

“The Minister of Transportation is more than acutely aware of the issue and we will be moving forward and it will be very high on the agenda for the coming year and it was in 2011 as well,” said Renkema.

In his keynote address at the convention, Minister of Transportation Bob Chiarelli said he is committed to the CFAAST review.

Other priorities heading into 2012 with the MTO include: OPS 127 Rates; two-way radio exemption deadline 2013; and ORBA’s relationship with Metrolinx as well as the ORBA Environmental Best Practices.

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