History
In its current form, the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) was founded in 1987. Its origins, however, go back to 1934: for more than 30 years (1934-68), the employers and unions in the construction industry had their agreements recognized mainly through the Act Respecting Collective Agreement Decrees. Parity committees, the ancestors of the CCQ, administered the Construction Decree on a regional basis.
In 1968, the government of Québec adopted a statute specifically for the construction industry, the Act Respecting Labour Relations, Vocational Training, and Workforce Management in the Construction Industry (Act R-20), which provided for the creation of a province-wide organization to apply the law. From 1971 to 1975, this organization was the Commission de l'industrie de la construction (CIC), which was succeeded by the Office de la construction du Québec (OCQ) from 1975 to 1986 and then, starting in 1987, by the CCQ.
The fundamental role of all of these organizations
All have had the mandate of overseeing application of the collective agreement or the Construction Decree. Over the years, other mandates have been added, including :
- Administration of the complementary social benefits plans (1963);
- Supervision of safety on construction sites (1972–80);
- Administration of a salary-compensation fund in case of employer bankruptcy (1973);
- Organization of the union membership election (1975);
- Verification and supervision of the application of hiring standards and labour mobility (1978);
- Ensuring the competency of the labour force and oversight of the application of measures and programs concerned with vocational training (before 1968 and since 1987, except with regard to management of the apprenticeship record book and qualification examinations since 1993);
- Fighting against under-the-table work in the construction industry (1994).
With the exception of supervision of safety standards, which is now under the aegis of the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), all other mandates listed above are currently carried out by the CCQ.