Restrictive tendering policies in Ontario restrict the companies eligible to bid on public construction projects. Bill 66 (2019) contained amendments to the Labour Relations Act to remove this restriction. However, by allowing municipalities to opt-out of these provisions, the positive effects of this bill have not been fully realized.

• Restrictive tendering in Ontario means that companies that do not employ unionized workers are ineligible to bid on municipal construction projects. This limits competition and drives up the cost of projects.

• Why it matters: Data from the Region of Waterloo showed that Bill 66 had significant positive effects on competition, thereby lowering taxpayer costs for capital projects. However, the City of Toronto opted out of Bill 66. Ontario Power Generation construction contracts are also subject to restrictive tendering. Public entities spend millions of dollars each year on large infrastructure projects. Removing restrictive tendering policies would result in significant savings for taxpayers.
• Details: Update the Labour Relations Act so that all public employers (including municipalities and crown corporations) currently deemed “construction employers” are regarded as “non-construction employers.” Changes should also be made to ensure that public procurement legislation specifically prohibits the use of union affiliation as a barrier to bidding on public projects.

For more details read Cardus’s reports, Bouncing Back Through Diversity: The Effects of Bill 66 on Construction Competition in the Region of Waterloo and No Longer the Best: The Effects of Restrictive Tendering on the Region of Waterloo.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has a monopoly on gambling. Given that the OLG’s revenues are the lowest they have been in years due to the pandemic, the government should act now to reduce its dependence on gambling profits altogether.

• Lucrative profits collected from gambling are channelled into general revenue funds. Unlike progressive taxation where the rich are taxed more heavily than the poor, gambling acts as a regressive tax. Canadians with the lowest income spend the highest proportion of their money on gambling each year. Problem gamblers are also the main source of gambling revenue.

• Why it matters: The profit model of gambling means that gamblers always lose money in the long run. As problem gamblers often come from marginalized communities, the government should reduce its reliance on a system that preys on the poor and vulnerable.
• Details: (1) Return annual gambling profits to the poor through cash transfers. (2) Promote asset building through a matched savings program. (3) Work with financial institutions to offer prize-linked savings products, an innovative way to help families build emergency savings funds. (4) Use the OLG’s marketing budget to increase funding for problem-gambling research, prevention, and treatment.

For more details read Cardus’s report Turning Aces into Assets.