Between October 2017 and 2018, the CCQ conducted 597 visits to construction sites of the Société d'habitation du Québec, in order to ensure fair competition and a healthy climate on construction sites.

The advanced state of dilapidation of the low-cost-housing stock in some housing bureaus justified a wide range of major investments this year. Upkeep of 66,000 public low-rent housing units; renovation, maintenance, and repairs of buildings; and construction – it adds up to a big project!

Out of an inventory of 2,463 buildings, 717 have an infrastructure condition index of poor or very poor (80% of buildings). The budget planned for investment in the social housing sector will be at a peak from 2017 to 2020.

This operation was conducted with the collaboration of the Société d’habitation du Québec, which wants all money invested in improving infrastructure to be carefully spent.

Given the investments announced and the scale of the projects, the Vice-President, Verification and Audit decided to target the blitz on work being done in the Société’s social housing stock. The CCQ has intervened in this sector in the past, and it was already identified as being at risk, as a number of irregular situations were detected, including:

• Noncompliant subcontractors
• Undeclared hours
• Workers without competency certificates
• Ratios not respected
• Discrepancies between contracts and work done
• Fake invoices

The CCQ is counting on raising awareness and communication to increase compliance in the industry. It will not hesitate, however, to use all the powers at its disposal to ensure respect for the rules, particularly for chronic offenders. Out of the 307 sites visited, 11% had at least one infraction. Therefore, during these site visits, the CCQ made workers and employers aware of their obligations and of the importance of reporting all noncompliant situations.