Incoming OGCA Chairman’s Report
As the incoming chair of the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA), company President Jason Ball addressed the OGCA’s recent Annual General Meeting, held in New Orleans from September 23-27. Jason touched on key features of the association’s mandate including the importance of promoting construction as a rewarding career for youth, along with safety advocacy, the COR program, government regulations and OGCA member services like its Strategic Partnerships and its Affinity Program.
I am honoured to be the incoming chairman of the OGCA and look forward to working with Clive and the OGCA Staff and Board to serve our membership. General contracting is exciting, challenging and dynamic. I look forward to promoting the Construction Industry through the OGCA. I believe that once young people are exposed to construction they quickly grow to love it as we do. Bringing new people into the industry is very important for our long term growth. I look forward to Industry promotion at Colleges, Universities and High Schools across Ontario.
We need to promote construction as a rewarding and challenging career. We will continue this year to promote safety with Rob Ellis of My Safe Work and enlighten the youth to work in safer work environments.
The COR program is gaining traction with the Buyers of construction and we will continue to help our membership meet the standards and certification requirements. Safety is not proprietary and must be shared. We will continue to help our members with mentoring workshops on COR.
Government Relations is a large part of the OGCA mandate. We have an opportunity to reshape laws to better the Industry and make it easier to work as a Contractor. The Lien Act review is well underway and the OGCA will play a role in its metamorphosis. We look forward to working with the Industry Stakeholders and Government to develop a fair and meaningful document. Adjudication and the Prompt Payment will be addressed in this review and the conclusion will create a process for reduced delays in resolving payment issues. Also, on the radar is WSIB reform. The OGCA will take a leadership role in representing our members for fair and better rates.
The OGCA has great staff to serve our membership. We will continue to promote education programs and member services. The OGCA has Strategic Partnerships and an Affinity Program for the benefit of all members. We will promote these benefits to the membership throughout the year.
Building is a passion and I will bring that passion with me as the Chair of the OGCA. I believe there is no better career than construction. As part of my mandate I will promote the Industry to youth.
I look forward to serving our Membership and working with the OGCA staff, Executive and Board this coming year.
