Canada's premiers were in a breezy, upbeat mood when they emerged from their most recent annual meeting, held in mid-July at Quebec City, and announced a significant breakthrough on measures to improve labour mobility within the country.
In a joint statement, they declared that they had agreed to amend a previously negotiated Agreement on Internal Trade by Jan. 1, 2009, to ensure that: "Any worker certified for an occupation by a regulatory authority of one province or territory shall be recognized as qualified to practise that occupation by all other provinces and territories."
They went on to say that: "Such recognition shall be granted expeditiously without further material training, examinations or assessment requirements."
Manitoba Premier Gary Doer captured the spirit of things when he said: "We believe a teacher is a teacher, a nurse is a nurse and a welder is a welder."
By extension, that should mean that a drywaller is a drywaller, a painter is a painter or a carpenter is a carpenter. If only it were that simple. The fact is that some of the provinces have created such an elaborate framework of labour laws and regulations that ease of movement is years, if not decades away.
The worst offender is probably Quebec. The province's construction industry, to cite one example, is a quagmire of red tape and excessive bureaucracy that applies with equal force to both insiders and outsiders.
"Ontario and Quebec have been dealing with inter-provincial mobility through industry-specific agreements," adds John DeVries, president of the Ottawa Construction Association. "It's a 20-year story and it will be around for another 20 years. We're slowly knocking down the barriers, but Quebec is still a highly, highly regulated environment."
The rules apply to both contractors and employees. Contractors who want to work in Quebec cannot simply set up an office, hang out their sign and start trolling for business. That only happens after they have completed a registration process that takes four to six weeks.
They begin by applying for a licence from the Regie du batiment du Quebec (RBQ), which translates roughly as the Quebec building agency. An officer of the company must write exams on construction project management, site safety and administrative management.
The firm must submit a certificate of incorporation or letters of patent as proof of its corporate status along with signed and dated balance sheets and must obtain a Numero d'enterprise du Quebec (NEQ) from another agency - the Registaire des enterprises du Quebec.
An NEQ is required in order to register with the Commission de la Construction du Quebec (CCQ). Once the company is working, it must submit monthly reports to the CCQ on the hours worked by all its employees and the relevant deductions from their paycheques.
Finally, the contractor who has made it through this gauntlet must become a member of the Association des entrepreneurs en construction du Quebec (AECQ). Mandatory membership is a popular concept in Quebec that also applies to employees. If they work for a registered contractor, they must belong to a union.
As well, there are certification and licensing requirements for almost every conceivable construction job in Quebec.
"Nine out of 10 provinces don't have mandatory licensing of painters, drywallers or carpenters and that's the problem," says DeVries. " Contractors were getting jobs in Quebec and then they couldn't bring their painters or drywallers or carpenters with them."
This led to a grotesque distortion of the marketplace. Quebec builders were free to bid on jobs in Ontario's wide-open construction industry. They needed no government approval to cross the Ottawa River and work in the nation's capital or its surroundings. But Ontario contractors, especially the small to mid-sized ones, were all but shut out of Quebec.
The certification problem has been rectified in part by negotiations between the two provinces over the past five years. Quebec has agreed to recognize trade activity cards issued to Ontario workers such as painters, drywallers and carpenters who can work in the province or any other for that matter without being certified.
According to a legal expert who was involved in those negotiations, Quebec erected its byzantine regulatory architecture over the past 35 years in order to rid the industry of organized crime and systemic corruption.
In the process, Quebec has put far too much power in the hands of bureaucrats and union leaders and, intentionally or otherwise, has erected formidable barriers to the free flow of workers and services.
But don't expect that to change any time soon. The union leaders and the bureaucrats will never surrender their power or privileged positions without a long, nasty fight, no matter what the premiers say about improving labour mobility in this country.
(D'Arcy Jenish can be reached at jenish@businessedge.ca)
