Home / Advocacy

Advocacy

Advocacy and stakeholder outreach are the cornerstones of COCA’s mandate. COCA brings the concerns of our members to the attention of senior officials and decision-makers at Queen’s Park. We work with the government to ensure that Ontario’s legislative landscape enables our industry to thrive and the province to prosper. And we work with other industry stakeholders to ensure our voices are heard.

Overview

COCA’s advocacy team tracks legislative and regulatory developments across our priority areas, translating what’s happening at Queen’s Park into practical guidance for member associations and their members. Below are the issues we’re actively working on, what we’ve achieved, and what’s next.

View our legislative tracker.

Occupational Health & Safety | Skilled Trades & Apprenticeship | Construction Act & Prompt Payment | Procurement Reform | Partnerships

Occupational Health & Safety

Preventing workplace illness and injury remains the top priority on every Ontario construction site. COCA works with the Ministry of Labour and the Prevention Office on training standards and safety initiatives.

Recent activity:

  • Influenced Bill 30 (Working for Workers Seven Act, passed Nov 2025) — OHSA reforms, administrative monetary penalties, AED requirements on construction sites (mandatory as of Jan 1, 2026)
  • Bill 105 (Protecting Ontario’s Workers and Economic Resilience Act — “POWER Act”) proposes further OHSA and WSIA amendments
  • Active on the Provincial Labour-Management Health & Safety Committee (Section 21), pressing on rigging training standards and other long-delayed safety proposals
  • Engaged in consultations on the province’s 2026–2031 Occupational Health and Safety Strategy
  • Working for Workers Eight Act, spring 2026, with further OHSA and WSIB reforms

Related posts: See all Health & Safety news →

Resources:

WSIB (Workplace Safety & Insurance Board)

COCA works to ensure Ontario’s compensation system is efficient, fair, and returns value to safe employers — while getting injured workers back to health and work quickly.

Recent activity:

  • Successfully pushed for distribution of the WSIB’s surplus, returning $4 billion to qualifying safe employers in 2025
  • Advanced WSIA reform recommendations, including repeal of super-indexing and 72-month lock-in benefits — now under serious government consideration
  • Opposed Bill 229 amendments that threatened Schedule 1 surplus integrity
  • Raised concerns about claims backlog during the WSIB strike
  • Pressed for an independent study (e.g., via the Institute for Work & Health) on benefit adequacy
  • Made a formal submission supporting the Provincial Labour-Management Health & Safety Committee’s (PLMHSC) input to the WSIB’s Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) consultation

Related posts: See all WSIB news →

Resources:

Skilled Trades & Apprenticeship

COCA works to strengthen apprenticeship pathways, ensure fair funding, and address system-wide gaps as Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) takes on expanded responsibilities.

Recent activity:

  • Engaged with STO’s new leadership on apprenticeship registration and completion processes
  • Advocated for restoring per-student OYAP funding levels after per-student allocations declined despite a $955M Skills Development Fund boost
  • Pushing for completion-focused incentives (only 72% of available incentives were paid out in 2024–25)
  • Made a formal submission to Ontario’s skilled trades advisor on system priorities
  • Supported Level Up! Skilled Trades Career Fairs (~60,000 student attendees across 12 cities) and Skills Ontario’s Skilled Trades Competition

Related posts: See all Skilled Trades news →

Resources — exploring a career in the trades?

Construction Act & Prompt Payment

After roughly 20 years of advocacy, major Construction Act reforms are now in place. COCA’s focus has shifted to implementation and refinement.

Recent activity:

  • Bill 216 (Building Ontario for You Act, passed Nov 2024) delivered nearly all reforms COCA advocated for — extended adjudication period, mandatory annual holdback release
  • Bill 60 (Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, royal assent Nov 27, 2025) refined lien rights and holdback provisions
  • Co-hosted webinars with GVCA on the practical implications of Bill 216
  • Continuing to advocate for a specialized construction court

Related posts: See all Construction Act news → · See all Prompt Payment news →

Visit the Prompt Payment Toolkit for contractor resources.

Resources:

Procurement Reform

Launched in 2025, COCA’s Procurement Standing Committee addresses transparency, regional fairness, and best practices in Ontario’s construction procurement landscape. This has become one of COCA’s most active files.

Recent activity:

  • Raised concerns about inconsistent application of the Ontario Broader Public Sector Procurement Directive
  • Highlighted how Vendor of Record (VOR) frameworks can disadvantage regional (non-Toronto) contractors
  • Developing a municipal buyer education framework, modeled on the Prompt Payment initiative
  • Re-engaging with Infrastructure Ontario on procurement practices affecting local contractors
  • Coordinating advocacy with the Ontario Public Buyers Association (OPBA) on implementation concerns

Related posts:

Resources:

Partnerships

Partnership and collaboration are integral components of COCA’s government relations strategy. We recognize that only in very rare circumstances will we win the day working on our own. We understand that we must work with other stakeholders in construction and in other industries to influence the direction of public policy. COCA participates in a wide range of coalitions, industry associations, and committees — listed below — that meet regularly to address issues affecting the construction industry.

  • Canadian Construction Association
  • Provincial Labour-Management Health & Safety Committee (OHSA Section 21 committee for construction)
  • Construction Legislative Review Committee (CLRC)
  • Prevention Employers Partnership
  • College of Trades and Appointments Council and Classification Roster
  • Ontario Business Coalition
  • WSIB Chair’s Industry Advisory Committee
  • WSIB Chair’s Construction Industry Advisory Committee
  • Prompt Payment Ontario
  • Daily Commercial News by Construct Connect Editorial Advisory Board
  • Institute for Work & Health’s Knowledge Exchange
  • Ontario Construction Users Council
  • BuildForce Canada’s Ontario Labour Market Information Committee
  • Council on Experiential Learning (an advisory committee to the Minister of Education)
  • Skills Ontario