Contractors favour fair competition

I am writing in response to the Aug. 24 comments in the Letters to the Editor section of the Leader-Post by Don Jedlic re: Do Contractors fear the competition?

The Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association believes free market competition is the best way to create jobs, opportunity and improve living standards. We also believe Regina residents deserve the best value, accountability and transparency from their local government.

The City of Regina, however, disagrees and has refused to provide the SHCA with a breakdown of their costs — despite repeated requests — even though our members pay taxes to the city.

Local businesses invest their own money to compete with municipally owned enterprises run on tax dollars; that is not the definition of free and fair competition. Private contractors absorb personal risk when bidding projects, while municipally owned enterprises transfer that risk directly onto the taxpayer. When municipalities unfairly compete, taxpayers, private sector businesses and their workers lose out.

On May 8, the Leader-Post published a story showing the City of Regina spent

$15 million more on salaries in 2016 than it did in 2015, and that the number of employees jumped from 4,900 to 5,200.

The city’s director of finance pegged the increase directly to union agreements, and stated that the workload of city staff has increased in recent years.

The city increased salaries and the number of employees while local businesses saw a 60-per-cent reduction in publicly tendered work and fewer jobs, with no proven cost saving or best value to Regina taxpayers.

Contractors don’t fear fair competition, they welcome it. Shantel Lipp, president, Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association