COVID-19 Updates and CFIB Survey Results

Good afternoon CANS members,

To provide information to you and share your concerns with government, CANS will do our very best to provide up-to-date information on the current COVID-19 virus as frequently as necessary through our digital channels.

To that end, we are sharing a survey conducted by the CFIB, which you can access by clicking here.

CANS Participation in Working Group – 

CANS is also participating in a joint working group with other industry associations, labour leaders and government officials. This group is meeting via conference call every second day for the foreseeable future to share information, gather intelligence and inform policy wherever possible. As your voice to government, I want to hear your ideas, concerns, etc. As such, I encourage you to call, email or text me with issues, questions or possible solutions that you would like taken forward to our government partners.

CANS Staff Working Remotely Throughout Closure – 

While our physical office will remain closed at least until Monday, our team is remotely connected and able to provide most services through our digital platforms. We are doing our very best to stay on top of this rapidly evolving situation and communicate effectively with you. Our newsletter, website and social media have several articles, etc. that you may find useful as we navigate this pandemic.

Some of the important issues we are communicating to the government on your behalf:

• Immediate access to EI as a result of temporary layoffs
• Exploration of tax relief and access to low-cost cash
• Moving bonding to a digital platform to make responses to tenders quicker
• Temporary removal of infection control training requirements in tender responses. (while this sounds counter-intuitive, our partner CSA has suspended all offerings of the course for the foreseeable future). As soon as this course is available again, we will ask that the requirement be reinstated.
• Tenders should be issued earlier and/or extended to allow greater response times with potentially diminished staffing.

Finally, here is a link to a very useful Harvard Business Review article, Lead Your Business Through the Coronavirus Crisis.

Again, please feel free to communicate additional items that are important to you as a member, particularly those related to COVID-19.

Duncan P. Williams
President & CEO
Construction Association of Nova Scotia