8 BUILD MANITOBA winnipegconstruction.ca Greetings, and welcome to winter 2018/19. Hopefully our members have their seasonal work buttoned up and the heaters and tarps ready for action. This is always a busy time for WCA as everything begins to ramp up – from the education courses offered in our Construction Education Centre, to major networking events and to getting our committees and working groups back together to resume our efforts in solving standard practices issues and dealing with government policy and regulations. Speaking of government, on behalf of our Board of Directors and staff, we would like to extend a very sincere congratulations to Mayor Bowman on his re-election, to the new and returning city councillors and to the reeves and councillors who have stepped up to serve in similar capacities across the province. We look forward to working with you and wish you much success. The advocacy role at WCA is often overlooked, and by way of example, we will be engaging those new and returning city councillors on a number of issues in the months ahead – important issues for the City, and for this industry. Our Association has worked very closely with the City of Winnipeg Permits Department to improve the building permits process. Our Industry Advisory Group – chaired by the director of Planning, Property and Development, and attended by industry experts – has made significant improvements to the permit process over the past 10 years. A key component in this success has been the increase in staffing in the permits office, supported through successive increases in permit fees, and endorsed by this industry. As well, we supported the creation of a Permit Stabilization Reserve Fund, which was designed to ensure that staff could be kept working even in the event permit revenue decreased suddenly. It sounds like a solid plan, right? Well, in the last City of Winnipeg budget, City Council transferred about $9.5 million out of the departmental surplus into general revenues and drained another $1 million from the permit reserve – for the third year in a row. The industry is deeply concerned that the hard work of the permit advisory group is being scuttled and we will be following up to ensure the next budget supports the efforts of the permit department. WCA also hopes to engage in meaningful discussions with the City of Winnipeg prior to the next phase of the impact fee implementation. Winnipeggers will recall the first phase of the impact fee was levied against homes in new and emerging neighbourhoods, initiated after January 1, 2018, and at a rate of $10/sq. ft. or around $24,000 for a 2,400-sq.-ft. home! The second phase is to be applied to non-residential uses in these same new communities sometime after November 1, 2018, and at a rate yet to be confirmed. The rates initially proposed were $14-21 sq. ft. based on gross floor area, and clearly these are very substantial fees. During initial discussions at City Hall, we were given assurances by Councillor John Orlikow (River Heights/Fort Garry) that we could be at the table during discussions on commercial impact fees, but a committee was struck without a WCA member. We will continue to work to ensure that councillors appreciate how this new fee will “impact” the cost of construction in Winnipeg. Finally, a dedicated group of members has been meeting with several lawyers from the City’s Materials Management Department and discussing changes to the City of Winnipeg Construction Contract. It has been quite some time since the City reviewed this contract, and the industry has identified several issues that need remedy. These have been frank and productive discussions and we hope we can conclude early in the New Year. I will endeavour to keep our members up to speed on all of the issues we are working on with the various levels of government, and look forward to any comments or suggestions you might have. Together We Build Manitoba. Ronald Hambley, President FROM OUR PRESIDENT Working with Government to Build Manitoba