A group that represents construction companies has asked the Competition Bureau to investigate an agreement between The Ottawa Hospital and a labour organization to build the new $2.8 billion Civic campus.

Karen Renkema, vice president of the Ontario region with the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada, said an exclusive labour agreement between the Unionized Building and Construction Trades of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec and The Ottawa Hospital is both unprecedented and not in the public’s best interests.

The agreement prohibits contractors and workers who are not affiliated with the unions that are part of the agreement from bidding on and doing work on the hospital’s new campus, said Renkema. No other health-care facilities in Ontario have been built using the kind of restrictive labour agreement that is part of the new Civic build, according to Progressive Contractors’ association.

“There is something seriously wrong when thousands of Ottawa-area construction workers and local companies have no chance to build one of the largest infrastructure projects in the city’s history,” Renkema said. “This is a deal that shuts out local talent and does not provide good public value. That warrants an investigation.”

In a statement Monday, the hospital said the labour agreement was reviewed by the Ontario Labour Relations Board and allowed to move ahead.

The hospital announced the agreement in January, saying it would help ensure construction of the 2.5 million-square-foot facility moves ahead on schedule. The new Civic campus, located on a 50-acre site at the eastern edge of the Central Experimental Farm, bordered by Carling Avenue, Preston Street and Prince of Wales Drive, is scheduled to open in 2028.

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