Quebec's heavily regulated construction industry is, according to a new paper, a serious factor driving up the cost of building projects in the province.
The Montreal Economic Institute suggested there would be benefits for all Quebecers, including project bosses and workers themselves, if the province's strict rules were relaxed.
But the province's construction commission replied Tuesday that the demand for specialized workers with specific skill sets is exactly what the market wants.
Provincial rules set out 26 different construction trades -- compared with just six in Ontario, for example -- and employers can only hire workers who hold very specific certifications to do specific jobs.
A contractor installing hard floors and carpets in the same building would, for example, need to hire two different sets of workers -- some with a permit to do tile settings and others with the permit for resilient flooring layers.
The economic institute says it's clear that because of those rules it takes more time and more employees to finish a job in Quebec.
"We can do better because we have regulations that prevent us from being more effective," said Descoteaux, a researcher at the conservative think-tank.
"We have about 30 trades like that and if you compare it to the rest of Canada, the average is about 15 to 20, so there is room for more flexibility here."
He says the paper released Tuesday does not include new research, but is a compilation of publicly available data.
Looser regulation would benefit contractors, taxpayers, building owners, and employees themselves because, he says, they'd be able to get more work on the same site.
Quebec's construction industry has been under the microscope since a number of scandals emerged in 2009 linking alleged cost overruns to organized crime and corruption.
The paper references a 2008 figure from the construction commission that says workers, on average, worked 963 hours a year. That amounts to only 28 regular-time weeks of work per year.
But Quebec's construction commission, which oversees the $30 billion-a-year industry in the province, said that number is skewed.
Spokesman Andre Martin said the numbers quoted are wrong because they include thousands of employees who work bare minimum hours just to keep up their credentials.
In fact, the industry is forecasting job growth up to 2012 and will need at least 10,000 new workers per year in all sectors.
There is no appetite in the industry for talk about reducing the number of trades, Martin said, adding that construction is no different than any other industry with specialized workers.
"The employers are looking for ultra-specialized people and the demand is there for them," he said
The paper cites a 2002 report by economist Pierre Fortin that the impact of Quebec's regulations raises costs by about 10.5 per cent.
But Martin said there's no indication that number is correct and other estimates about roadwork are hard to corroborate because different provinces have different calculations.
