Catch up on the latest industry news with The WCA Newsletter.

Catch up on the latest industry news and notes with the May 27 edition of The WCA Newsletter here.

It was a wet and wild day at Elmhurst Golf and Country Club on May 18 for our annual Spring Golf Tournament, but we managed to survive the weather and enjoyed a great day on the golf course. A big thank you to everyone who braved the elements and came out for our first Spring Golf tournament since before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was fantastic to see everyone out on the course and in the clubhouse!

Pictures from the day are available to view and download here.

Congratulations to the Westland Construction team, who posted the low score of 61 and won the tournament on a countback. Westland’s team was made up of:

Craig Hildebrandt
Tom Ambrosie
Roman Hudon
Mark Penner

Congratulations gentlemen, and congratulations as well to all our prize winners:

Closest to the Hole – Sponsored by Home Depot

#8 – Men’s Closest to the pin: Dan Demarcke

#14 – Ladies Closest to the pin: Tannis Karklin

Dan and Tannis both win a Garmin Approach S10 GPS Golf Watch

Longest Drive – Sponsored by Building Products and Concrete Supply

#9 – Ladies Longest Drive: Terri Randall

#17 – Men’s Longest Drive: Kyle Heroux

Terri and Kyle both win a Yeti Hooper Flip Cooler

Door prizes (red tickets included with your registration)

$100 Home Depot gift card – Sponsored by CSAM Ticket #0096787 CLAIMED

TaylorMade Golf Stand bag – Sponsored by Expressions Ticket #0893602

TaylorMade Golf Stand bag – Sponsored by Expressions Ticket #0096147 CLAIMED

Bag o’ Goodies – Sponsored by HUB International Ticket #0096776 CLAIMED

All prize winners please contact holly@winnipegconstruction.ca for information on how to claim your prize.

Thanks of course to all our sponsors for making the day possible!

The latest issue of The WCA Newsletter is now available online here.

Catch up on the latest industry news with the April 29 edition of The WCA Newsletter here.

The Spring edition of Build Manitoba, our quarterly industry magazine, is now available online – you can check it out here.

Catch up on the latest industry news and notes, including a look at both the provincial and federal budgets, in the latest edition of The WCA Newsletter which you can find here.

On April 12, the Manitoba government released a budget aimed at recovering from the extreme fiscal pressures of COVID-19, continuing to provide some tax relief and investing in needed healthcare facilities, schools and personal care homes.

The budget projects total revenue of $19.3 billion in 2022/23 with a total expenditure of $19.9 billion leading to a deficit of $548 million. The Province predicts a balanced budget in 2028/29. Manitoba posted a razor thin surplus of $5 billion in 2019/20 prior to feeling the effects of COVID-19. Prior to that year, Manitoba has not had a surplus budget since 2008/09.

For residential property owners and farmers, the Education Property Tax Rebate has increased from 25% to 37.5% for this budget year and is said to increase to 50% 2023.

There is tax relief for business owners with payrolls larger than $1.75 million. Effective Jan.1, 2023 the payroll tax exemption threshold will be increase to $2 million from the current $1.75 million and the threshold for the lower payroll tax rate will be increased to $4 million from $3.5 million.

Of note is the publishing of a three-year commitment for Strategic Infrastructure spends. For example, Manitoba Housing commits to spend $67 million per year for the next three years on maintenance and renovations. The Health department has committed to spend $885 million over the next 3 years in Infrastructure investments. Education Infrastructure investments over the next three years are estimated at $381 million, $328 million and $221 million respectively.

Some upcoming projects that received special mention in the budget papers are:

· Personal Care Homes in Carman and Steinbach

· Schools in Sage Creek (K-8), Precinct F (K-8), West St. Paul (K-8), Prairie Point (K-8)

· Healthcare

o New Hospital in Neepawa $127M

o Expansion of Selkirk Regional Health Centre $31.6M

o Expansion of Boundary Trails Health Centre $64.4M

o Expansion of Bethesda Regional Health Centre $32M

o New Hospital at Portage la Prairie $283M

o Renovations at Brandon Regional Health Centre $70M

o Renovations at Ashern Lakeshore General Hospital $10.8M

o Northern Manitoba Hospital developments $115M

Federal Budget 2022 – Summary for ICI Construction

On April 7, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced her government’s 2022 Budget. This Federal budget continues with significant deficits but not as severe as predicted last fall. Last fiscal year (ending March 31, 2022) concluded with a deficit of $113.8 billion, compared to pre-pandemic deficit levels averaging $16 billion (2017-19). The prediction is a deficit of $52.8 billion in the current year. Forward estimates to 2027 do not predict a balanced budget.

This budget was clearly focused on trying to address affordability issues in the home buyers market. Of the 50 times construction was mentioned in the budget, 75% of those mentions refer only to the residential sector.

With that said, there are some construction specific initiatives that will impact the Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional construction sector in Manitoba.  These include:

• Labour Mobility Deduction for Tradespeople – Introduction of a Labour Mobility Deduction, which would provide tax recognition on up to $4,000 per year in eligible travel and temporary relocation expenses to eligible tradespersons and apprentices. This measure would apply to the 2022 and subsequent taxation years.

WCA Note: This is a positive initiative that will benefit tradespeople in the short term. This recognises the need for a mobile skills workforce.

• Canada Green Building Strategy – $150 million over five years, starting 2022-23, to Natural Resources Canada to develop the Canada Green Buildings Strategy. The strategy will include initiatives to further drive building code reform; to accelerate the adoption and implementation of performance-based national building codes; to promote the use of lower carbon construction materials; and to increase the climate resilience of existing buildings.

WCA Note: This can be positive depending on how it’s rolled out and Manitoba’s adoption of relevant building codes

• Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative – $200 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to Natural Resources Canada to create the Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative, which will provide support for retrofit audits and project management for large projects to accelerate the pace of deep retrofits in Canada, including a focus on low-income affordable housing.

WCA Note: This appears to be an initiative available to non-residential building owners to improve energy efficiency.  More details are needed to assess Manitoba Building owners, but this has potential.

• Extend Construction deadline for ICIP Project – Budget 2022 also proposes to extend the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program’s construction deadline from October 2027 to October 2033. To support this extension, Budget 2022 proposes to adjust the program’s funding profile so that funding is available when needed. This extension recognizes delays caused by the pandemic, and will ensure that provinces and territories can fund priority projects.

WCA Note: Manitoba has moved from a late adopter of the ICIP program funds to nearly complete in a short amount of time. The Budget paper states Manitoba has 99% of ICIP funded committed. This is positive. Extending the construction timeframe is a recognition of the current construction environment where should supply chain delays are impacting project delivery timeframes.

As a member of the construction industry, you know that renovation projects can be just as important as new builds. A well-done renovation can breathe new life into a building, bringing it in to modern times and extending its lifespan. 

That’s the approach we’ve taken with our new branding. With the launch of WCA BuildWorks last week we realized we had the opportunity to modernize our brands and logos to better represent our mission and our membership.

With that in mind, we’re thrilled to introduce our updated logos for WCA, WCA BuildWorks and WCA BuildCast:

 Our new WCA logo puts the emphasis on how you know us – as WCA – and on the entire membership by increasing the size of our “Together We Build Manitoba” tagline. While we are officially called the Winnipeg Construction Association, we represent all of Manitoba, and our new logo does a better job of representing that.

The new WCA BuildCast and WCA BuildWorks logos complement both our main logo and each other – representing the full suite of Construction Information Services we offer our membership.

You’ll start seeing these new logos on our materials as soon as next week. Rest assured that just because we have an updated look we’re still committed to providing you with the best in construction information, industry education, networking events and advocacy that you’ve grown to expect from us for more than 100 years. 

Brand Assets for Members

A WCA Membership shows that you mean business. Want to let prospective clients or business partners know you’re a member? We encourage you to download and display our Member Badges on your website or social media pages.

Click here to browse and download our “WCA Proud Member” badges.