The EIFS Council of Canada’s EIFS Quality Assurance Program Inc. (EQI) is at last being rolled out this summer in Ontario with other provinces to follow in fall – a move that adds another feather in the Council’s cap.

The program, which lays out a controlled process for design and installation, requires that both the EIFS manufacturer and contractor on a job be licensed under the EQI standards. Also licensed are auditors, assigned to inspect the work at specified intervals to ensure it complies with pre-determined requirements, says John Garbin, president of the Council.

It’s difficult to say how many contractors will be certified over the summer, but Garbin says the emphasis isn’t on numbers but rather on quality of workmanship. To meet EQI certification standards is no cakewalk. Fifty percent of a certified contractor’s EIFS mechanics must be EQI certified – meaning they have achieved at least 80 percent on a series of EQI exams. Financial requirements are also stringent.

Look for more coverage on the EQI as contracts progress over the summer.

LIEN ACT

Meanwhile, Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has introduced legislation (Open For Business Act) that includes some positive changes to Construction Lien Act of Ontario. But the new Act simply doesn’t go far enough, says Ron Johnson, deputy director of the Interior Systems Contractors Association of Ontario.

The ministry ignored the association’s call for revisions to the holdback clause, he says, calling it a big disappointment.     Currently, the lien period for a subcontractor is 45 days, but the billing time often extends 60 to 90 days. Subs should never be without their money or their lien rights at the same time, says Johnson.

On the bright side, the ministry has promised to include ISCA in a consultative process about the proposed amendments. One change calls for condo developers to post an intention to register a Declaration in a construction trade newspaper. The hope is that it could negate the need for subcontractors to file liens against each individual unit holder, rather than file one lien to cover all owners.

STRIKE

On a positive note, a strike in Ontario’s building industry this summer was averted when the drywallers in the residential sector finally ratified their collective agreement recently, with a 7.9 percent hike over three years. In the ICI sector a settlement was reached earlier in May for a 7.3 percent wage hike.

The wage increase in the residential sector is about one percent more than contractors wanted to shell out. “Other settlements out there were approaching eight percent and we thought rather than risk labour disruption that would have resulted in late closing for the homeowner, we decided to bite the bullet,” says Hugh Laird, executive director of the Interior Systems Contractors Association of Ontario,

Other than the wage hike, the new agreement looks pretty much like the old one because both sides agreed to back down on other big-ticket demands.

Laird says the ICI agreement for 7.3 percent was also a percentage point more than employers were hoping to settle on. But contractors landed a pivotal concession from the union that could level the playing field in the big box retail and strip mall sector, dominated by non-union contractors. The union agreed to 44 hours a week with time-and-a-half overtime pay after that and no travel allowance. Under the previous agreement a regular work week was 40 hours with double rates for overtime and a travel time allowance.

Laird says it could translate to more work for the unionized sector.  “It is an area of work that we used to do but we lost over the years with the increasing non-union presence.”

Bill Nicholls, business manager of the Painters and Allied Trades Loc. 1891, isn’t as convinced that the non-union presence is as dominant. The Painters union represents tapers and the Carpenters & Allied Workers Loc. 675, represents drywall installers.