Quebec defines 25 distinct construction trades and doesn't let people work across trades. No wonder Canadian productivity is sagging!

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By Gabriel Giguère

Question: How many workers does it take to change a door in a Quebec school? Answer: As many as seven, according to the province’s labour minister, Jean Boulet. Why? Because the carpenter who works on what’s inside the wall has to leave installation of the doorframe to the interior systems installer, who must let the plasterer do the plastering, and so on. And people wonder why Canada has a productivity problem!

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To address this sorry state of affairs, the minister has tabled a bill to modernize the Quebec construction industry and, among other things, let construction workers do more work across job classifications. Although the new legislation would reduce the number of workers needed to change the door, it would do so only if everything can be done in a single day. If it takes longer than that, the old featherbedding rules apply.

The bill is........

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