THE ONLY SOURCE FOR PROFESSIONAL ICI ROOFING CONTRACTORS IN ONTARIO ORN 6  ONTARIO ROOFING NEWS – FALL 2018 President‘s Message Are you Getting What you Paid For? By Mark Baxter, President, OIRCA T here is an epidemic brewing in the low-slope ICI roofing industry. The sub-contracting of roofing labour has reached epic proportions. I am not entirely sure whether this phenomenon is peculiar to the roofing industry – perhaps not. Yes, there is a perceived shortage of skilled labour in our sector. Certainly there is a deficiency of manpower in the numbers necessary to complete the volume of work tendered each year, both in re-roofing and new construction. Why the scarcity of bodies? Several reasons, really. Roofing is not one of the glamorous trades. It can be physically demand- ing work, hot in the summer, cold in the winter and you have to be comfortable working at heights. For decades our industry, like many other sectors of construction, relied on workers who originated from other counties. Many came from Italy, then Portugal. Today, bringing in foreign workers, temporary or otherwise, is a complicated process too burdensome for the average contractor. So we rely on friends and family of current employees and potential workers who show up at our door. In some parts of the province workers are sourced from the farming industry and others from Atlantic Canada. Last but not least are sub-contractors and sub-crews. When a building owner through their representatives pre-qualifies a roofing contractor, or an architect or engineer does the same through their contract documents, there is a perception that those bidding and the successful bidder are qualified to complete the work as per plans, specs and industry standards. If my company or another company decides to sub-contract to another company, or god forbid a sub-crew, are you really getting what you are paying for? So why do some roofing contractors sub-contract? Yes, some find themselves in a bind having taken on too much work, or a change in schedules challenges their crew availability. Often, though, it is for purely business reasons: reducing liability and absolving themselves of responsibility. Qualified roofing contractors go to great lengths to ensure that their workers and crews are trained not only to industry standards but to their own company standards. I’m not just talking about mandatory legislated safety training like working at heights, but also skills upgrading education for the multitude of different roofing systems available. On top of that, roofers and their crews need to be trained on how to be roofers and work as a team and successfully run a job site. After all, a crew and their foreman operate on the front lines representing their company. A firm’s reputation is in their hands. When OIRCA membership is specified as a pre-requisite to qualify to bid on a specific project, that architect, engineer or consultant is expecting that roofing contractor to operate at the highest level. They know that these companies have been pre- screened when they apply. They know that they are audited on an annual basis and they know that the association is prepared to police its membership for compliance to theirs and industry’s standards. When a sub-contractor or sub-crew shows up on your job site it defeats the entire mission and vision of being an OIRCA member. The OIRCA Board of Directors is taking a very serious look at the membership’s use of these alternative sources of labour. We are exploring the ways and means of restricting this sort of activity. After all, we are accountable to you and we have promised you excellence in roofing construction. OIRCA Board of Directors President Mark Baxter Semple Gooder Roofing Corporation First Vice President Mark Mollison Conestoga Roofing & Sheet Metal Ltd. Second Vice President Tony Pocobene Atlantic Roofers Ontario Ltd. Past President Wesley Lamb Simluc Contractors Ltd. Treasurer Peter Serino Soprema Inc. Director John Petrachek Atlas-Apex Roofing Inc. Director Doug Brown Convoy Supply Ltd. Director Joel Dandele Dantech Building Technologies Inc. Director Ron Foran Foran’s Roofing & Sheet Metal Ltd. Director Rob Kucher Cardinal Roofing & Sheet Metal Director Stephen Patti Flynn Canada Ltd. Director Nelson Rites Crawford Roofing Corporation Director Barry Warner Covertite Eastern Ltd. ONTARIO ROOFING NEWS is a “market- ing and information periodical” published for the Ontario Industrial Roofing Contractors Association by MediaEdge Publishing. Advertising in ONTARIO ROOFING NEWS is restricted to the member companies of OIRCA. Published for: Ontario Industrial Roofing Contractors Association 940 The East Mall, Suite 301 Etobicoke, ON l M9B 6J7 Tel:(416)695-4114lTollFree:1(888)33-OIRCA oirca@ontarioroofing.com www.ontarioroofing.com Published by: 33 South Station St. l North York, ON l M9N 2B2 Tel:(866)480-4717lEmail:robertt@mediaedge.ca 531 Marion St. l Winnipeg, MB l R2J 0J9 Tel: (866) 201-3096 l Fax: (204) 480-4420 www.mediaedgepublishing.com President Kevin Brown Senior Vice President l Publisher Robert Thompson Director, Business Development Michael Bell Branch Manager Nancie Privé Editor Carlyn Schellenberg Senior Design Specialist Krista Zimmermann Sales Executive Pat Johnston All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior consent of the publisher. 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