OCTOBER 16, 2025
The 2025 AGM & Conference was hosted at the Westin Trillium House in Blue Mountain on September 29 – October 1. The event brought together over 100 labour, management, and government stakeholders involved in Ontario’s unionized ICI construction industry. We are so thankful to everyone that was able to join us, and we hope to see you again next year.
We kicked off the conference on the evening of September 29th with a social reception and dinner at Kaytoo Restaurant & Bar in Blue Mountain Village. Bringing the industry together to see old friends and make new connections.
The agenda started off in earnest on the morning of September 30th, the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day. In recognition of the day and in light of the great work that is being done at the Building Trades of Alberta (BTA) our first session featured Lyle Daniels, Community & Indigenous Director at the BTA. Lyle’s session focused on what Truth and Reconciliation looks like in the skilled trades and why inclusion matters. The message being that Indigenous Peoples have a documented history in the skilled trades but face unnecessary barriers and hardships on jobsites. If we are able to break these barriers and create an inclusive workspace the industry can address much needed labour shortages in the coming years and provide Indigenous Peoples with rewarding careers.
We followed that up with an Economic Update and Forecast from a familiar face at OCS conferences, Robert Kavcic, Senior Director & Economist at BMO. The key takeaways from forecast are shown in the slide below.
Click here to view Robert’s full presentation.
Following a break, it was time for keynote speaker, Garrison Wynn. Garrison’s presentation was on “What The Most Influential Do Differently”. He focused on the ways in which we interact with people and how we can change our own behaviour and perspective to better connect, communicate, and understand other people. To see the slides from his presentation, click here.
The following industry leaders then held a panel discussion on the successes from the past round of bargaining and what they’ve learned:
- Sandra Shime, Director of Dispute Resolution, MLITSD
- Sean McFarling, General Counsel, LiUNA
- Margaret Taylor, Executive Director, OADC
- Jeff Spitzig, Executive Vice-President, MCAO
- John Graham, UA Local 401
After the panel discussion we posed two questions to the entire room.
1) What would be your number one recommendation for successful bargaining?
Some of the most common answers included things like “Relationship building”, “Schedules and Structure”, “Pre-Conversations”.
2) What issues do you think will impact the next round of bargaining?
The most frequent appearing issues were “Raids”, “Non-Union”, “the Economy”, “Slow-Down in Government Spending”.
The inaugural OCS Award of Excellence was presented to Larry Brokenshire for his years of leadership excellence in the industry.
We then welcomed the Debaters in the evening for some comedic entertainment.
The conference concluded the following morning with the formal business of the Annual General Meeting & Conference.
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