Toronto, April 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) support today’s announcement by the Government of Ontario to restrict active construction. This new measure will reduce activity in the sector and enhance COVID-19 prevention measures, while enabling the completion of new homes that are moving towards occupancy.

“The health and safety of our workers is the industry’s number one priority,” said David Wilkes, BILD President and CEO. “Following the recent release by the Ministry of Labour of new health and safety guidelines for construction sites during COVID-19, members have implemented strict controls to ensure worker safety. This includes additional requirements for sanitization, physical distancing, illness reporting and logging the number of workers on individual sites.”

Both BILD and OHBA support the government’s increased inspection activity. They endorse shutting down sites that do not meet the Ministry of Labour requirements and consequently place workers at risk. Both organizations strongly encourage any worker with concerns about on-site conditions to report those to a site supervisor, call the Ministry hotline at 1-877-202-0008 and leave the site.

“We all want safe jobsites,” said Joe Vaccaro, OHBA CEO. “Across Ontario, industry members have been enhancing their COVID-19 protocols as required by government. With the new provincial restrictions on active job sites, members will continue to focus on worker safety and delivering keys to the thousands of families waiting for their homes to be completed. Let’s keep each other safe. We are all in this together.”

With 1500 members companies, BILD is the voice of the home building, land development and professional renovation industry in the Greater Toronto Area. The building and renovation industry provides $34 billion in investment value and employs 270,000 people in the region.  BILD is proudly affiliated with the Ontario and Canadian Home Builders Association.

The Ontario Home Builders’ Association is the voice of the residential construction industry in Ontario, representing 4,000 member companies organized into 27 local associations across the province. The residential construction industry contributes over $51 billion dollars to Ontario’s economy, employing more than 330,000 people across the province.

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For additional information or to schedule an interview with BILD’s President and CEO Dave Wilkes, please contact John Provenzano, BILD Communications and Media Relations Manager at JProvenzano@bildgta.ca (416) 617-7994, and to schedule an interview with OHBA’s CEO Joe Vaccaro, contact Leah Sisnett, OHBA Communications, at (416) 525-8071.