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Why Is Construction So Expensive in Ontario?

November 25, 2008

Ray Pennings

Work & Economics

Research Report

The deliberately provocative title is intended to highlight why the relevant data for properly answering the question is not being collected and available. Debates regarding construction labour have been trapped in an ideological pro- and anti-union paradigm.

This paper argues that the debate needs to be reframed in a “competitive labour pool” paradigm that opens up new questions and frameworks which, when followed with a subsequent data analysis, may provide suggestions for improving Ontario’s competitiveness.

Download this research in PDF form by clicking here.