Apprenticeship Agency Industry Briefing – February 26th

Industry representatives are invited to attend an update on the changes underway to Nova Scotia’s Apprenticeship system, and participate in identifying the priorities for the new agency. This event will take place on Wednesday, February 26, 2014, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Westin Halifax Hotel. (Download invitation.)

Visit  http://nsapprenticeship.ca/agency/ to find the discussion paper and to register.

First Contract Arbitration

The Construction Association of Nova Scotia (CANS) believes Minister Regan’s announcement today amending Bill 102 is delivering on a pre-election promise and is a step in bringing the certification and first contract negotiation process back in to balance. Minister Regan introduced amendments to the Trade Union Act that will ensure the Labour Board can only impose a first agreement if it determines there was bad faith bargaining.

“CANS has always supported the long-established principles and practices of businesses and their employees engaging in free collective bargaining,” says Duncan Williams, CANS President. “While ultimately we would have liked to see the Bill repealed, today’s announcement helps bring that process back in to balance.”

“CANS’ position on First Contract Arbitration, one shared by many industry groups in Nova Scotia, is that its introduction was unnecessary and disrespectful to long standing labour relations best practices,” adds Williams. “Further, its aggressive nature was a potential deterrent to potential business investment in our province.”

“It also introduced unrealistic levels of uncertainty that businesses could view as significant exposure to uncontrollable risk,” adds Williams. “Today’s amendments will remove much of that uncertainty.”

“Currently parties do not have to prove that anyone is bargaining in bad faith and can simply run out the clock,” says Williams. “This is not in the spirit of true collective bargaining and does not encourage true negotiation and communication between parties.” In a pre-election survey CANS questioned each Party on the issue of First Contract Arbitration, the Liberal Party response was: A Liberal government will amend First Contract Arbitration legislation to ensure that parties have to prove that one party is bargaining in bad faith in order to go to arbitration.

“We are happy to see that this administration keep their election promise to amend First Contract Arbitration,” says Williams. “With these amendments Nova Scotia’s legislation is brought more in line with the federal government and other provinces.”

The amendments also remove the 120 day timeline and the Labour Board can choose to allow parties to continue to bargain, allow a strike or lockout, order more conciliation, or impose a contract.

“These amendments place far more obligation on each party to reach first contract before a third party arbitrator – potentially unfamiliar with the industry and a given firm’s structure – imposes a contract.”

CANS represents more than 760 large and small companies that build, renovate and restore non-residential buildings, roads, bridges and other engineering projects. We are an industry trade association representing the interests of contractors, suppliers and service providers throughout Atlantic Canada and across the country. Construction is a $2.8 billion a year industry in Nova Scotia and employs nearly 30,000 men and women from across the province.

 

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For more information contact:

Janet Tobin
Communications and Marketing Lead
Construction Association of Nova Scotia
Ph: (902) 468.2267 x. 713
Cell: (902) 818-0835
jtobin@cans.ns.ca

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Canstruction® Nova Scotia

Canstruction® Nova Scotia is a dynamic food and fundraising event in support of FEED NOVA SCOTIA, where teams come together to build incredible structures entirely out of canned food. At the end of it all, FEED NOVA SCOTIA distributes the food to member food banks and meal programs across the province. Awards are given out for Structural Ingenuity, Best Meal, Best Use of Labels, Juror’s Favourite, Honourable Mention, and the public has their say as well with the People’s Choice Award!  Interested in participating or in sponsorship of Canstruction® Nova Scotia, learn more.

BuildForce Canada Provincial Preliminary Investment Trend Report

BuildForce Canada has produced provincial Preliminary Investment Trends (2013 – 2018) reports . These reports provide initial insight into new major projects, maintenance, sustaining capital, and ongoing investment trends that are impacting constructionlabour markets. They serve as a precursor to the more detailed Construction and Maintenance Looking Forward 2014–2023 reports to be released in early 2014.
The information has been validated through consultations with government and industry, including owners, contractors, and labour groups.However, changes in anticipated project schedules can alter these expected trends. BuildForce Canada is monitoring economic conditions and the scheduling of major construction projects and will incorporate relevant changes into the new forecast scenario for release early in 2014. We hope you will find this information useful in the interim. We have also updated the Construction Map App to reflect the major projects that we are tracking. The Map App can be accessed at www.constructionmapapp.ca.

 

 

CANS Connect

To help meet the needs of our members across the province and region, CANS has developed CANS Connect, a fully integrated, high definition video-based system to be used for delivering education, presentations and connecting members to each other and their contacts. This state of the art video system includes two fully-equipped physical classrooms and the ability to provide dedicated connection for virtual meeting spaces simultaneously.

 

Learn more about CANS Connect.