By / Don Wall
Celebrations were muted as Ontario construction stakeholders reacted to the Ford government’s decision that the construction sector would be considered essential and thus could continue to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each of six stakeholders contacted focused on the heavy responsibility they said the sector would bear to keep jobsites safe and sanitary to prevent the spread of the virus — a point emphasized for the second day in a row by Ontario Premier Doug Ford during his daily COVID-19 update March 24.
Ford announced the afternoon of March 23 that multiple sectors would be deemed unessential and shut down to help fight the spread of the virus. That evening a list of 76 business sectors was posted on the government website, deemed “essential workplaces.”
Construction projects associated with health care, transit, transportation and transit, among other project types, were listed specifically and there was a catch-all category: “construction work and services, including demolition services, in the industrial, commercial, institutional and residential sectors.”
