OSWCA Advocacy Day at Queen’s Park: Building the Foundation for Ontario’s Future

Build infrastructure. Build certainty. Build faster. Keep people working.
On November 4th, the Ontario Sewer and Watermain Construction Association (OSWCA) hosted a successful Advocacy Day at Queen’s Park, meeting with provincial officials and policymakers to discuss how we can work together to ensure Ontario’s infrastructure investments translate into real projects, good paying jobs, and long-term economic growth.

With billions of dollars being invested in water and wastewater infrastructure, the need to build has never been greater.

A Critical Moment for Ontario’s Construction Industry
The 2025 construction season has been one of the slowest in years. While some municipalities have continued to tender projects, some others significantly scaled back.

The impact: fewer projects built, over one million fewer unionized hours worked, and more than 1,000 jobs lost — a 21% decline across our industry.  
At the same time, Ontario faces a growing infrastructure deficit, and the need to invest over $250 billion to maintain and expand infrastructure over the next decade to accommodate growth.

Our Message to Government
To protect Ontario’s workers, businesses, and communities, we need certainty — sustainable, long-term investment in infrastructure that ensures a steady pipeline of projects. Consistent infrastructure delivery keeps people working, supports Ontario’s skilled workforce, and gives our members the stability they need to plan ahead.
Now is the time to turn approved budgets into real infrastructure projects, get shovels in the ground, and keep Ontario building — today and for the long term.

Our Key Priorities
At Queen’s Park, OSWCA members highlighted three key priorities for provincial partners:

• Accelerate implementation of a Public Utility Model to create a sustainable, dedicated, and transparent funding model for water and wastewater infrastructure across Ontario
• Encourage municipalities to tender projects and spend approved capital budgets
• Standardize how we build and streamline permitting processes

Thank You to Our Members
Our Advocacy Day’s success was made possible by the dedication of OSWCA members who joined us at Queen’s Park and brought key industry issues to the forefront of our discussions. We will continue working alongside government and industry partners to deliver on Ontario’s infrastructure goals. As the leaders in infrastructure delivery, OSWCA members build the systems that make growth possible — because nothing gets built without the infrastructure our members deliver.

Read more about our Advocacy Day priorities here:

[Download our Advocacy Document(PDF)]