BACKGROUNDER
OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUES

Until today, Newfoundland and Labrador was confronted with a set of Quebec policies and practices that discriminated against Newfoundland and Labrador construction workers and companies. These policies and practices had been in operation for years, making it almost impossible for Newfoundland and Labrador firms and workers to gain employment in Quebec.

Today's agreement means Newfoundland and Labrador construction workers and companies seeking to work and do business in Quebec now get to operate on a level playing field from which discrimination on the basis of province of residence has been eliminated.

Construction Labour Mobility

Quebec has a highly-regulated and highly- centralized labour market for construction. A government agency called the Commission de la Construction du Quebec (CCQ) regulates all conditions of employment for all construction work done in the province by about 100,000 registered workers. One key aspect of their construction labour market that is tightly regulated is mobility among regions.

The Quebec system works as follows:

-Construction workers can work legally only if they have a CCQ issued "competency card" for their trade for 40 unskilled "occupations".

-Cards are rationed in various ways-quotas, regulated access to qualifying programs and apprenticeships, or even lotteries in the case of the "occupations".

-Each worker is certified for one trade, or for any and all of the "occupations" in one region only of the 11 official construction regions into which the province is divided.

-Employers have to use up all the available workers in any given trade in the region where their project was being performed before being legally allowed to look elsewhere, except for a limited number of key workers or specialists.

-Newfoundland and Labrador workers cannot normally get CCQ certification cards, since proof of a residence in one of the 11 regions is a prerequisite. (Exceptions are very occasionally made for skilled workers in trades with scarce skills when Quebec needed the workers.)

-The "lotteries" giving access to jobs in the unskilled "occupations" are also totally closed to non-residents in Quebec.

Newfoundland and Labrador's construction industry, by contrast, is wide open to out-of-province workers, both in the unionized sector and non-unionized sector. As a result, there have been large numbers of Quebec workers on Newfoundland and Labrador construction sites. This is particularly the case in the bordering region of Labrador West.

With today's Newfoundland and Labrador-Quebec agreement, Newfoundland and Labrador workers will no longer face discrimination on the basis of province of residence when they seek work in the Quebec construction industry.

Contractor's Access to Private Construction

Quebec contractors have unlimited access to jobs in the Newfoundland and Labrador private sector. And, when they get such jobs, they often bring their own workers with them.

By, contrast, Newfoundland and Labrador based contractors could get jobs in Quebec only if they secured a contractor's licence, for which they had to have a "place of business" in Quebec. If they did, and secured contracts in Quebec, they were obligated by the restrictive labour regulations to hire local workers, leaving their Newfoundland and Labrador workers behind.

This unequal situation has now been rectified. Newfoundland and Labrador contractors with five years experience can now get licences to work in Quebec without further testing processes and without any requirement that they be resident in Quebec.