While protesters against vaccine mandates and other COVID restrictions dig in their heels downtown, Kathleen Grimes’ excavation crews can’t dig anywhere at construction sites that have been shut down for nearly two weeks.

Grimes’ firm, Site Preparation, is one of many companies working on the $5-billion renovation of Parliament Hill’s Centre Block and other downtown projects that have had to halt their operations due to the protests.

Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Parliamentary Protective Service closed the Centre Block site on Jan. 28 to protect the “safety and security” of workers. Since then, Site Preparation’s employees have had to abandon another downtown project that’s also in the heart of the protest zone.

The longer the “Freedom Convoy” sticks around, the more frustrated Grimes gets. As the demonstrations extended into their 14th day Thursday, she was nearing her wit’s end.

“I believe that people are entitled to be heard,” Grimes told OBJ. “I have no problem with that. But I’m not sure that the protesters realize that no one from the (federal) government is downtown. The only people that are being affected are hard-working individuals that have families to feed.”

More than 300 workers were employed at the Centre Block site alone, said John DeVries, president of the Ottawa Construction Association. He says hundreds of other construction jobs, renovation projects and building fitups are now in limbo while protesters block main roadways, preventing tradespeople from getting to work sites and leaving many without paycheques.

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