By Mark Buckshon
Publisher, Ontario Construction News
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented public health warnings: Gatherings and meetings, unnecessary travel, and virtually any sort of social activity where person-to-person contact is likely have been put on hold in most cases.
Construction associations and groups have, not surprisingly, cancelled meetings and events. Some have gone further and shuttered their offices, including the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA), which advised on Monday that its staffers will work from home from now on – with essential meetings and communications conducted by teleconference.
We’re still uncertain how the virus will affect the job site environment. Many workers already have personal protective equipment designed for workplace hazards, which also could serve to protect against the virus (though of course disposable PPE and face masks may be difficult to replenish). Others can manage their jobs with sufficient social distancing.
There are questions about what happens if one infected worker arrives on a site – and whether this could constitute a risk great enough that others can rightfully refuse to continue work. The story is still unfolding, and we will attempt to provide answers to readers in future issues.
As for Ontario Construction News, we’ve always worked with a remote home-office structure; meaning the COVID-19 pandemic will have almost no immediate effect on our operations. We will also continue to reliably (and rapidly) publish certificates and notices, helping contractors with their cash flow in collecting holdbacks after projects are completed.
We’ll continue covering the industry news and report on how the public health crisis is affecting our industry.
In the meantime, we welcome your comments, experiences, suggestions and thoughts. You can email these to us at insights@ontarioconstructionnews.com.
Hopefully appropriate “social distancing” will avert a public health crisis. In the meantime, we wish everyone well and look forward to communicating with you in the weeks, months and years ahead.