City Of Winnipeg Changes To Contract Award Process

In reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and effective immediately, the City of Winnipeg has informed us its changing its process for awarding contracts. The city will be moving away from hard copy contract document packages to an electronic system.

The City of Winnipeg will now be providing a link and password to contractors in the award letter, allowing them to download the contract documents for a period of 10 days. 

Contractors can expect to see a change in tenders and RFPs to accommodate this new practice. Where the tender has closed and the award letter still needs to be sent and for contractors who have been awarded contracts and have not yet received hard copy contract documents for execution, there will be a direct communication providing them with notice of the change and the link and password to download the contract documents, and asking for their concurrence on the change.

In the same vein, some construction documents contained a provision for the City to furnish documents to the Contractor. This will also be done electronically, and accordingly the provision in the Tender will be modified to read “Upon award of Contract, the Contractor will be provided with ‘issued for construction’ Contract Documents electronically, including Drawings in PDF format only.”

Advocating Over The Airwaves

If you’ve been listening to the radio since yesterday, you may have heard a joint ad from the Winnipeg Construction Association, Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and Merit Contractors Association advocating the provincial government to increase infrastructure investment to help us pull the economy up after the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can listen to the radio ad here, and read our full position on the issue here.

B2B Manitoba

Is your business looking for Personal Protective Equipment to keep working safely? The province has partnered with several local organizations to create B2B Manitoba, an online marketplace for businesses to buy and sell non-medical PPE.

Click here to see what’s available.

Signage To Promote Physical Distancing

As we move towards our new normal and offices around the province begin to re-open, you may find yourself in need of signage to encourage employees and visitors to keep their distance.

WCA Member Signex Manufacturing Inc. has a number of solutions that may be appropriate for your workplace. Click here to check out what they have available.

Construction During A Crisis Recovery

Earlier today, WCA released a statement calling on the provincial government to invest in the construction industry to help re-start the Manitoba economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A short while after that, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced the Manitoba Restart Program,, a $500 million investment over the next two years for shovel-ready projects.

We we welcome this program from the provincial government as a good start. For our full news release on the program, including our position that more can be done and some principles we would like to see applied to projects, click here.

Coming Together In A Time Of Crisis Webinar

Join WCA President Ron Hambley, along with representatives from the Calgary, Edmonton and BC Construction Associations for a round table discusion moderated by Procore Vice President Jas Saraw on how the industry has been handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

The session is a free webinar hosted on Zoom, taking place on May 14 at 3:00 p.m. Central. Registration is open here.

Safety Signage And Glass Shields

As Manitoba’s economy begins to re-open, safety signage and shields are going to be key to keeping employees and visitors safe. WCA member SRS Signs has been concentrating its efforts on providing easy access to safety shields and COVID-19 signage – check out what they have to offer here.

Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy Applications Now Open

As of 6:00 a.m. this morning, businesses who qualify for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) are able to apply for the 75% payroll subsidy online.

We’ve mentioned this program many times over the past several weeks in this space, and encourage all our members who qualify to apply for the subsidy.

You can click here to apply for the subsidy. Funds are expected to hit bank accounts on May 7 for those who apply.

If you have questions about the application process, or whether you’re eligible, you can call the Manitoba Economic Support Centre at 1-888-805-7554.

Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance

On Friday, we got more information on the federal government’s commercial rent assistance program (CECRA). It’s designed to lower rent by 75% for small businesses who have been affected by COVID-19.

The program will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50% of three monthly rent payments that are payable by eligible small business tenants who are experiencing financial hardship during April, May, and June.

The loans will be forgiven if the mortgaged property owner agrees to reduce the small business tenants’ rent by at least 75% under a rent forgiveness agreement, which will include a term not to evict the tenant while the agreement is in place. The small business tenant would cover the remainder, up to 25% of the rent.

Impacted small business tenants are businesses paying less than $50,000 per month in rent and who have temporarily ceased operations or have experienced at least a 70% drop in pre-COVID revenues.

It is expected that CECRA will be operational by mid-May, and further details will be announced soon.

FREE Webinar: How To Keep Employees Engaged And Productive During Stressful Times

It’s hard enough for supervisors and managers to keep employees engaged when things are going well. One of the hardest challenges for anyone in leadership is to manage and lead employees that are not engaged or motivated to do their job. This is especially challenging during these times with the uncertainty and emotional turmoil with COVID-19.

Join WCA for a free webinar presented by Wendy Hofford on Friday, May 8 from 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. to learn strategies to increase employee engagement and productivity during a turbulent time.

More details and registration is available here.

Inter-Provincial Travel

We’ve been tracking the status on inter-provincial travel ever since last week when Dr. Roussin instituted a new public health order requiring everyone returning to Manitoba self-isolate for 14 days. At first, it seemed as though there were no exemptions to this for construction workers, but late yesterday we received new information both for workers coming into Manitoba to perform work and for those who have been outside of the province to perform work.

For those coming in to Manitoba to perform work:

Construction workers are allowed to enter Manitoba to perform construction work – but the province has released a bulletin featuring measures they must take to ensure the safety of themselves and others. If you have workers coming in to the province to perform work make sure you’re following the measures which you can find here.

For those with workers going in to other provinces to perform work

As of April 17, anyone returning to Manitoba will be forced to self-isolate for 14 days, or be in violation of the Public Health Order and subject to fines.

An exception to this order was added on April 22, which impacts construction workers:

(f) Manitoba residents who regularly travel outside Manitoba to areas that are close to the Manitoba border to work, access health services or for other essential purposes, including access to their property or business, if they:

(i) are not displaying any symptoms of COVID-19,

(ii) restrict their travel outside Manitoba to the minimum required for the purpose of their visit, and

(iii) limit their use of local services to the minimum required given the circumstances of their visit;

So, construction workers in Manitoba may continue to travel for work as long as they are close to the border, don’t have any symptoms, do not do anything other than work while away, and limit their use of local services while in another province.

MPI Rebates

Jeff Wharton, Provincial Minister of Crown Services, announced this morning that Manitoba Public Insurance would be giving rebates totaling $110 million back to ratepayers due to a surplus resulting from a drop in claims due to COVID-19.

Rebates will be approximately 11% of your premiums, for an average of $140-$160 per policy. Cheques are expected to be in the mail at the end of May or early June.

Manitoba Gap Protection Program

This morning, Premier Brian Pallister announced an aid program for small and medium businesses who are ineligible for federal aid programs including the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and the Canada Emergency Business Account.

The Manitoba Gap Protection Program will provide up to $6,000 in non-interest bearing forgivable loans to eligible small business. The loan will be forgiven on December 31, 2020 if the business attests it has not received any major non-repayable COVID-19 federal supports such as the CEWS and the CEBA. If the business has received federal COVID-19 benefits, the loan will be be added to the business’ 2020 tax bill.

To be eligible for the MGPP funding, a business must:

• Have been operational on March 20, 2020, the date the Manitoba government declared a province-wide state of emergency under The Emergency Measures Act because of COVID-19;
• Have temporarily ceased or curtailed operations as a result of a COVID-19 public health order and have been harmed by the health order;
• Be registered and in good standing with the Manitoba Business and Corporate Registry;
• Have not qualified for federal government COVID-19 grant support; and
• Have an email address and a bank account.

More details, including the application process and timelines, are expected next week.

Hand Sanitizer

We still have a substantial stock of hand sanitizer, and have opened sales up. There is no longer a cap on how many bottles a member can buy, and we’ve also opened up sales (at a small up-charge) to non-members.

You can order hand sanitizer here. If you’re a member, make sure to log in to get your member discount. Click here to buy.

Re-Opening The Economy

Both Premier Brian Pallister and Chief Provincial Public Health Officer said today that they have been looking at a plan to begin re-opening the economy. We can expect more details on this next week.

Wage Subsidy Portal Opens April 27

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made two announcements about the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the 75% payroll subsidy being in the works from the federal government.

• Applications will open through CRA on April 27. The government also said they expect 90% of the applications to be processed by May 5 and money to be out the door soon after that.
• CRA has released a CEWS Calculator that organizations can use to determine how much they’ll be getting from the program while they wait for the funds. This can help them access credit since they know how much money they can expect. Click here to use the calculator.

Workers Compensation Board Giving 20% Rebates

We also learned this morning that the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba is going to be offering 20% rebates to eligible employers due to a surplus.

The rebate will be 20% of your 2019 premiums, and will be credited to your account in May. In order to qualify, employers must have fulfilled their payroll reporting responsibilities for 2019. If you haven’t yet reported, it’s not too late to report your 2019 payroll to receive the surplus.

Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance

Premier Brian Pallister also announced Tuesday that Manitoba has signed on to the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program, and will be contributing $16 million to the program. Details on this are still murky, but we know the premiers have a call with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland today to continue to work on what this will look like. Pallister did mention that the program will involve “forgivable loans” of some sort.

Inter-Provincial Travel

Late last week, we reported that any construction worker returning to Manitoba from out of province must self-isolate for 14 days, under the current public health order. The province clarified this order twice, and as far as we can tell, workers coming back from working in other provinces must self-isolate unless they didn’t travel further than 50km outside the border.

We are aware several of our members have jobs working on critical infrastructure in other provinces – we’re seeking clarity on whether or not these workers would be considered exempt, but it appears as though the order does apply to them at this time.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we will be providing regular updates to our members with concise, relevant information they need for their businesses, employees and personal health.

For a list of industry resources, government programs, FAQs and more, visit our dedicated COVD-19 website at www.TogetherWeBuild.ca

For more frequent updates please follow us on Twitter @WCANews.

For past editions of these bulletins please visit the News section on our website.

Keep working safely – follow CSAM’s COVID-19 Best Practices

If you have any questions about the pandemic, please email our COVID-19 hotline at covid19@winnipegconstruction.ca.

Wage Subsidy Portal Opens April 27

This morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made two announcements about the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the 75% payroll subsidy being in the works from the federal government.Applications will open through CRA on April 27. The government also said they expect 90% of the applications to be processed by May 5 and money to be out the door soon after that.CRA has released a CEWS Calculator that organizations can use to determine how much they’ll be getting from the program while they wait for the funds. This can help them access credit since they know how much money they can expect. Click here to use the calculator.

Workers Compensation Board Giving 20% Rebates

We also learned this morning that the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba is going to be offering 20% rebates to eligible employers due to a surplus.

The rebate will be 20% of your 2019 premiums, and will be credited to your account in May. In order to qualify, employers must have fulfilled their payroll reporting responsibilities for 2019. If you haven’t yet reported, it’s not too late to report your 2019 payroll to receive the surplus.

Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance

Premier Brian Pallister also announced this morning that Manitoba has signed on to the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program, and will be contributing $16 million to the program. Details on this are still murky, but we know the premiers have a call with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland today to continue to work on what this will look like. Pallister did mention that the program will involve “forgivable loans” of some sort.

Inter-Provincial Travel

Late last week, we reported that any construction worker returning to Manitoba from out of province must self-isolate for 14 days, under the current public health order. The province clarified this order twice, and as far as we can tell, workers coming back from working in other provinces must self-isolate unless they didn’t travel further than 50km outside the border.

We are aware several of our members have jobs working on critical infrastructure in other provinces – we’re seeking clarity on whether or not these workers would be considered exempt, but it appears as though the order does apply to them at this time.