The Government of Ontario has released the names of the members of its Construction Advisory Panel.

Announced in September, the panel was created as a new forum for discussion between the construction industry and government. The group of 14, which comprises members of management and labour groups, is scheduled to meet three times annually to provide input and advice on a range of workplace issues, including labour and employment law, the rise of new equipment and technologies, workplace health and safety, and injury prevention.

The members are:

Management

• Wayne Peterson, Construction Employers Coordinating Council of Ontario
• Graeme Aitken, Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario
• Richard Lyall, Residential Construction Council of Ontario
• Tom Howell, EllisDon
• Karen Renkema, Progressive Contractors Association of Canada
• Sandra Skivksy, Canadian Masonry Centre
• Michael Gallardo, Merit Ontario

Labour

• Patrick Dillon, Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario
• James Barry, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Construction Council of Ontario
• Bruno Mandic, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
• James St. John, Central Ontario Building Trades
• Sean McCormick, Elevators’ Union Local 50
• Joseph Mancinelli, Labourers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA)
• Merissa Preston, LIUNA Local 506.

The panel will complement the work of other construction-related initiatives, including the Construction Health and Safety Action Plan Advisory Group, which developed and implemented an action plan on construction health and safety, as well as the and the Provincial Labour-Management Health and Safety Committee.

The key difference between those panels and the advisory panel is that where the above groups have specific mandates, the new advisory panel will build on these efforts while enabling construction partners to express their concerns directly to the minister.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not yet known when the group will convene its first in-person meeting.