Imagination toward a thriving society

In Toronto, an estimated $1.65 billion in construction is reserved for companies whose workers belong to a group of favoured unions.  A 21 percent discount in Toronto would mean the city would have $347 million dollars more available to invest in police, mental health, and housing.

"New research from Cardus shows the City of Toronto could save $347 million by opening up bidding on its public projects," reports the Daily Commercial News. "Toronto currently has collective agreements with 10 building trades that limits bids on projects to contractors affiliated with those unions, shutting out alternative unions and their contractors, such as the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA)."

Cardus NextGEN Fellow Program kicks off 3rd year with new group of up and coming Canadians.

"The complexity of a national childcare plan comes with millions of dollars for expenditures outside of actual childcare provision," writes Cardus senior fellow Andrea Mrozek in The Hub. "In Ontario, that happens at all three levels of government. The details of that spending deserve much greater scrutiny than they’ve received so far."

Toronto's cushy deals with some construction unions mean the city is paying too much for its construction projects. If it opened up those contracts to fair and open competitive bidding, it could save an estimated $347 million dollars. That's enough to fund 400 new police officers, two new police stations, 400 mental health managers, and a doubling of the city's homelessness and shelter construction budget, write Cardus's Brian Dijkema and Renze Nauta in the Toronto Sun. 

If Toronto adopted fair and open contract bidding for its construction contracts, it would likely save hundreds of millions of dollars every year. City Hall could then use the freed up cash to address pressing problems, like safety on the TTC, mental health, and housing.

Support for fair and open contract bidding is building in Toronto—the last Ontario city that still reserves construction contracts for companies associated with a select group of favoured unions. Our research brief makes the case for why Toronto simply can’t afford to keep paying more and getting less.

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