“OurMandate is torepresent, andgive collectivevoice toconstructionworkers
in the province of Ontario, on issues of major concern to the workers,” says
Dillon. “There is a myriad of organizations that impact workers’ lives and
we try to give voice from the workers to those organizations. That has never
changed, but the industry definitely has.”
cure meaningful income that supports
families and communities.”
EVOLUTION OF THE
INDUSTRY
In the twenty years that Patrick Dillon has
been Business Manager of the Provincial
Building and Construction Trades Council
of Ontario, its mandate has never wavered,
but it has evolved and changed alongside
an ever-changing industry. “Our Mandate
is to represent, and give collective voice
to construction workers in the province of
Ontario, on issues of major concern to the
workers,” says Dillon. “There is a myriad
of organizations that impact workers’ lives
and we try to give voice from the work-
ers to those organizations. That has never
changed, but the industry definitely has.”
Dillion uses the Burlington Skyway Bridge
to illustrate his point. “When that bridge
was built in the late 1950s, it took three
hundred workers three years to build. In
1990 when the bridge was twinned, it took
90 workers ten months—and that was
with a bridge sitting beside it which made
it more complicated.”
New technology means more jobs and op-
portunity, and it can also present different
health and safety challenges. The Council
believes the route to safer working condi-
tions is through combined efforts involving
proactive government regulations and en-
forcement, and the proactive involvement
6
business elite canada
H
AUGUST 2017
