Page 15 - Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario

a template for established best-practices that exposed to the virus in the construction workplace.

employers, regulators, and workers utilized to Some Public Health officials told workers to go

ensure, as much as possible, safe workplaces back to work, while other workers in different parts
in the context of challenges posed by COVID- of Ontario were instructed to self-isolate while

19. Furthermore, on June 1, a document entitled awaiting their test results. The Council believes that
“Recommended COVID-19 Safety Protocol and Ontario needs a singular, unambiguous policy on

Prevention Measures – Worker Camps” was testing, and that workers who have been exposed

specifically geared to projects being performed in to COVID-19 should self-isolate while awaiting their
remote areas of the province, especially in Northern test results. This position has repeatedly been made

Ontario, specifying the steps that were needed to clear to the provincial government and to Public
ensure safe and Coronavirus-free worker camps. Health authorities.

On July 15, the Building Trades Council released

its “Recommended COVID-19 Risk Reduction The various documents and protocols prepared by
Strategies for the Reopening of Training Centres” the Council in consultation with Building Trades

“The dedicated resources in terms of physical infrastructure, training expertise

and delivery, including hands-on training and classroom instruction and
mentorship, contribute to a model of continuous learning that makes Building

Trades construction worksites the safest in our industry.”

document which accelerated the revival of the unions and the broader construction industry

province’s construction Training Providers who throughout 2020 have served as important

resumed delivering the best skills training to the reference points to help navigate the complexities
next generation of Ontario’s construction workforce of the virus spread, including its medical risks and

parallel to the province’s phased reopening plan. manifestations, the dynamics of its transmission
in the context of various construction workplace

On September 30, the Council released its settings, and what needs to be done at jobsites and

“Guidelines for Dealing with COVID-19 Infections in training centres to ensure sanitization, to hasten
the Construction Workplace” document which was testing, and to lower the risk of transmission.

prompted by the reported lack of clarity and lack

of consistency regarding the way in which some Whichever direction the Coronavirus pandemic
workers were instructed (in comparison to others) to takes over the next several months, the Provincial

await their COVID-19 test results after having been Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario

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