In a media release from the SCA on Thursday, president Mark Cooper reaffirmed his industry’s safety practices as worries from members grow.

“I’ve heard from many members that are deeply concerned that municipal infrastructure and private industry projects are being delayed or shut down due to escalating pandemic fear,” Cooper said in the media release.

“If this happens, it will be terrible for Saskatchewan’s economy, will be a major blow to the industry, and will hurt the 53,000 Saskatchewan construction workers and their families that depend on this income.”

The province designated residential and commercial construction as an essential service last week after announcing a series of mandatory closures across Saskatchewan.

Cooper believes construction is a “very safety-conscious industry” and that work can continue in a safe manner in compliance with directions from public health officials.

“In the non-residential construction world, nearly every site can be made reasonably safe, and contractors across the province are making all necessary adjustments to allow them to build on safely in the era of COVID-19,” Cooper said.

“The SCA agrees 100 percent with the province’s decisions to date and our industry graciously appreciates the support of the Premier and the provincial government on this matter.”

With those guidelines in mind, Cooper not only urged all projects to continue in the province for the benefit of the economy and its workers, but to expedite projects in both design and construction.

Cooper hopes messaging from government officials can help accomplish this.

“To support this, we call on the federal government to lift conditions for municipal infrastructure funding and flow the money now as a means of economic development and stimulus vitally needed for Saskatchewan,” he said.

“Finally, I am asking the provincial government to send a clear and public signal that wherever possible, construction projects – whether federal, provincial, municipal, or private – should continue at pace.”

“It’s government taxing governments. The money just keeps going around and around. But in the meantime we’re still out that six per cent,” SUMA president Gordon Barnhart said at the lobby group’s annual convention in Regina on Tuesday.

Since the 2017-18 budget, the province has charged PST on municipal construction projects, a move the province said at the time would help account for shortfalls in resource revenues.

SUMA delegates voted on passing the call for exemption to the province as the group’s newest resolution.

Barnhart said SUMA wants to see the issue addressed in the government’s 2020-21 provincial budget to be released in March. The association will also be putting it forward as an ask to all parties running in this fall’s provincial election.

The PST charge is problematic, Barnhart said, because it doesn’t stimulate the economy and it hinders the completion of necessary municipal projects.

“These are construction projects that are affecting the general public,” he said. “It might be a rink, it might be a civic centre, it might be a lagoon. And we’re talking multi-million-dollar (projects). So it’s huge.”

Barnhart used an example from Wynyard, which had been working to get grant funding in place for a new civic centre in early 2017.

“They had all the fundraising in place, they had the grants, then that (PST) went on, and it nearly cancelled the whole program, because they had to find another six per cent,” he said.

He also cited an example from Saltcoats, where he’s a town councillor: An expansion to the lagoon there cost about $1.25 million, putting the PST tab at approximately $75,000. The town paid that back to the province after it received a grant from the province to cover one-third of the total costs.

The association believes that removing PST charges will stimulate more demand for construction from local governing bodies and their constituents, Barnhart said.

Saskatchewan Construction Association (SCA) president Mark Cooper said it supports SUMA’s resolution.

The SCA wants to see the province deliver on it and expand the PST exemption to private-sector construction companies, based on a “sector-by-sector approach,” Cooper said.

He explained the PST charge lowers demand for services from construction companies, because those services are taxed. The business owners looking to build something new are faced with higher challenges “in terms of the cost for that company or individual to proceed with the investment (the build project).

“Now they have to recalculate their return on investment, their payback time and all of those factors. (It) makes them less likely to invest (in a build project) than they would have been otherwise,” he said.

Association changes its name

Later in the day Tuesday, the association announced it was changing its name to the Municipalities of Saskatchewan (MOS).

Rebranding efforts are expected to happen over the next year.

In a statement, the organization said the new name would better reflect its membership.

“The name Municipalities of Saskatchewan encompasses all of our communities — our cities, towns, villages, resort villages, and northern municipalities — and demonstrates the true breadth and strength of Saskatchewan’s hometowns,” Barnhart said in the release.

Currently, it’s difficult to test for drug-impairment – and that’s a problem on the roads in a province with staggering drinking and driving statistics and a problem to those who work in more dangerous industries.

“Employers across the province – and across the country frankly – are really wrestling with how we can manage both safety and liability in an environment where we simply don’t have the tools today to be able to effectively measure impairment with marijuana on the job site,” Mark Cooper, president of the Saskatchewan Construction Association (SCA), told Gormley.

He said this has been an issue of concern since the Liberals took office in 2015.

“You can tell whether someone has marijuana in their system but you can’t tell whether that level impairs them,” he said. “In fact, we don’t have what I’d call a universal measure of impairment for (marijuana) anyway, like we do with alcohol.”

Cooper said the SCA is calling on the federal government to invest in research into the tests needed for marijuana impairment. He also wants to see the Trudeau government set a standard of impairment, as seen with alcohol.

“We’re hoping that common sense will prevail here. No responsible advocate is saying anyway that employees should be allowed to be high while on the job site,” Cooper said. “The question is how do we monitor that, how do we prevent that, where it is happening, to protect the lives of all the other workers on the sites.”

According to Cooper, the federal government hasn’t done enough consultation with industries, at least in Saskatchewan. He worries the tests and standards needed won’t be in place in time for legalization.

“Unless this happens quickly, no it won’t happen in time and that’s something that should worry all of us,” he said.

“We want (the federal government) to engage with employers and with employees to come up with ways to ensure that we can move forward in this direction that they want to move forward in, but do it in a way that will protect the lives of our workers.”

The federal government has said the legalization bill could pass late this year or in early 2018.