The Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) has greatly relaxed punitive measures on construction sites across the province since the reform carried out by Diane Lemieux almost a decade ago. Clearly, the number of tickets distributed by the CCQ has decreased by more than half on construction sites, going from 10,544 in 2015 to 4,009 in 2023.
In the eyes of a former chief inspector of the organization, the CCQ has “dropped the towel”. And there is no indication of a turnaround in the situation, he deplores, while the National Assembly is preparing to ease certain rules which govern the sector.
The drop in the number of fines issued to construction contractors is particularly marked. In fact, last year there were 71% fewer of them than in 2015.
CCQ inspectors ensure compliance with Law R-20, which governs labor in the construction industry. Most of the fines given concern the presence of employees who work without a certificate of competence or who carry out the tasks of another profession. Notices of violation are sent to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) and can result in fines of up to $1,090 per day for workers. And for employers who make them work without the necessary permits, the penalty can reach $6,825 per day.
The “inspection standards” of the CCQ “have been considerably weakened”, deplores René Duchesne, who was chief inspector for the CCQ for 14 years, before retiring in 2018. His team then monitored all the construction sites of the CCQ. South Shore of Montreal. Before leaving the organization, he was already worried about the “laxity” of inspection measures. The data obtained by The duty with the CCQ confirmed his worst fears. “Are clients, who are charged the full amount by contract, well served when an employer arrives with poorly or unskilled workers? » he asks himself.
It is also “very unfair” for contractors and construction workers who respect the requirements (adequate training, health and safety courses on construction sites and administrative procedures), argues the former chief inspector. .
“Good news” according to employers
The sector’s unions share his concerns. “There is a regulation issue, there is a compliance issue and it is very worrying,” says Michel Trépanier, president of the Quebec Provincial Council of Construction Trades (International), better known under the name of ‘Inter.
Éric Boisjoly, of the FTQ-Construction, judges that “it has been forgotten” because the CCQ has decided to favor “major investigations” – on undeclared work, for example – and has “let the small contract workers go” .
For their part, the entrepreneur associations joined by The duty say they did not notice that inspections and fines were decreasing. The Corporation of General Contractors of Quebec has not noticed a reduction in the presence of inspectors. “The context of the labor shortage requires greater compliance from everyone,” believes its president Eric Côté. The Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec, the APCHQ, has not noted any changes either. “For them, one finding is already one too many,” argues its spokesperson, who deplores that the DPCP can take up to two years before transmitting the fine to entrepreneurs.
The Quebec Construction Association observed nothing either. Its spokesperson Guillaume Houle even says that members recently reported that the CCQ showed a “certain severity in its interventions”. According to him, the drop in the number of infringement notices is “good news”. “That means that entrepreneurs comply with the regulations, that they are very comfortable with the current rules. »
“Courtesy notices” instead of fines
The CCQ also sees in these data a sign of improvement. She argues that following the Charbonneau commission, she “professionalized and supervised verification and investigation operations” and that this made it possible to “promote fair competition and a healthy climate on construction sites”.
Since 2018, the commission increasingly resorts to “courtesy notices”, a kind of warning without financial consequences. Last year, it handed out 4,350; this is more than the number of offense notices issued throughout the year (4009). “The path of communication and awareness makes it possible to obtain a higher level of compliance,” argued the CCQ spokesperson in an email to Duty.
The organization recognizes, however, that it cannot prove that the rules are more respected since it uses “courtesy notices”. “As this shift is still recent, we do not yet have precise data,” says the spokesperson.
Former chief inspector René Duchesne is surprised that we have seen reductions in recent years while the number of workers on construction sites is increasing. Between 2015 and 2022, more than 44,000 workers were added to the sector, an increase of 22%.
This growth in the number of construction workers is paradoxically coupled with a severe labor shortage, which recently pushed the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, to relax certain rules with his Bill 51. When René Duchesne learned about it, he was amazed, he said: “We are going to fall into the relaxation of the relaxation of the relaxation. »
Mobility and training
With the exception of fine amounts, which will be indexed for the first time in years, Bill 51 does not concern the CCQ inspection process. Rather, it aims to allow workers to further demonstrate their versatility and move more easily from one specialty to another on a construction site.
This legislative text was welcomed by employers, who see it as a way to increase the productivity of construction sites. The unions, for their part, are especially concerned about measures to increase the mobility of workers and argue that the latter are already insufficiently trained. Visiting the National Assembly on Tuesday, Inter also highlighted that more and more workers were getting injured on Quebec construction sites.
The detailed study of Bill 51 must be completed in the coming days.