August 26, 2010

Accessibility compliance focus of Ontario General Contractors Association seminar

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

With an accessibility standard for customer service in force in the province’s public sector, the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) has scheduled a full-day seminar to bring firms up to speed when doing business with government agencies.

The Sept. 23 “train the trainer” event is intended to give human resources personnel, safety managers and others in administrative roles the knowledge and tools to comply with the standard, part of a long-range plan to make the province fully accessible.

The standard in part requires that staff be trained to meet the needs of customers with a variety of disabilities and to communicate with a person in a manner that takes into account his or her disability.

Customer service policies, practices and procedures must be documented in writing.

While the private sector in general must comply by 2012, firms including contractors and subtrades doing business with government agencies must ensure their services are accessible now.

“As far as we know, this requirement is in every public-sector contract,” said OGCA president Clive Thurston.

“That is what we are being told by the ministry (of Community and Social Services) and by our own members bidding government contracts.”

The workshop will be presented by Christine Karcza, who has more than 30 years’ experience in disability management and who acted as a barrier-free consultant to the Royal Ontario Museum during construction of the Crystal.

Karcza, an advocate for people with disabilities, also worked with Waterfront Toronto architects and staff on development of an access plan for the waterfront.

“This is a going to be a very relevant and hands-on session for our industry,” Thurston said. “Christine has gone out and talked to a number of our members to get scenarios that would apply both in the office and on the job site.”

Karcza is to translate the legislative language into “an easily understood” overview, introduce templates to help firms develop and implement customer service practices and procedures for serving disabled clients and provide practical communications tips for interacting with people with various types of disabilities.

The seminar, to be held at the association’s offices in Mississauga, is open to non-OGCA members as well as staff from other industry associations.

“We’re encouraging everybody who does work for the public sector and needs to have someone capable of providing this training to join us,” Thurston said.

The seminar kicks off the association’s fall series of continuing education courses.

On tap are a new project management course, slated to get under way Sept. 29, as well as construction law (starting Oct. 5), building code compliance for superintendents (starting Oct. 7) and management for construction superintendents (starting Oct. 18).

The inaugural project management course, developed by OGCA in collaboration with Kasian Architecture Ontario Inc., covers such topics as project delivery methods, pre-construction, the bidding process, contracts, health and safety, managing the project during construction, commissioning and project completion.

OGCA said the objective is to address issues in a manner “that will provide knowledge that is useful and applicable to all project stakeholders.” The course is being submitted to the Canadian Construction Association for accreditation under the Gold Seal program.

The construction law course, to be taught by Michael Swartz of WeirFoulds, is designed to provide students with a foundation to understand contractual rights and obligations specifically related to construction project performance and provincial legislation.

The course is Gold Seal-certified.

Building code compliance for superintendents and management for construction superintendents also qualify as Gold Seal courses.

“We haven’t run some of these courses in a while,” Thurston said.

“But there are now a lot of new people entering the industry and we thought it was an opportune time to bring them back.”

Additional information and registration forms are available at: www.ogca.ca. The association contact is Julie Burke at Julie@ogca.ca.

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