Commission de la construction du Québec

The competency certificate is the main instrument that grants the right to work on the basis of training or experience acquired for a given occupation or trade. In fact, the CCQ verifies employees' skill before allowing them the right to work.

There are three categories of competency certificate:

1. The journeyman competency certificate is for those who have demonstrated their qualifications in one of the construction trades.
2. The apprentice competency certificate is for those in apprenticeship for a given trade (depending on the trade, the certificate requires that apprentices complete from one to five periods of 2000 hours each).
3. The occupation competency certificate is for those working on construction sites as labourers or general helpers.[3]

The CCQ has the mandate of ensuring a balance between the demand for labour and the availability of qualified workers. The CCQ manages the workforce through labour pools containing holders of competency certificates in the industry's trades and occupations. The system ensures a sufficient supply of available workers and refers them to the employers who need them. Other aspects of workforce management include the verification and the application of the regulations concerning the hiring and the mobility of workers, the making of interprovincial agreements and terms aiming to encourage worker mobility outside Québec, and the implementation of measures to ensure that workers have the needed skills that they need.[4]

The CCQ administers the complementary social benefits plans, which are notable for their diversity and variety in light of the needs of the clientele. In addition to receiving vacation cheques twice a year, the workforce benefits from private pension and insurance plans, funded entirely by employers and by people practising an occupation or a trade. People covered by the plans maintain their coverage even if they change employers or work regions.[5]

Twice a year, the CCQ sends workers a vacation allowance: at the end of June, for the amount credited between July and December of the previous year and at the end of November for the amount credited from January to June of the same year.

Every month, the employer remits to the CCQ the indemnities for paid statutory holidays and obligatory annual vacations set out in the collective agreements. The amount represents 13% of the salary earned by workers during each week of work:

• 6% in annual vacations
• 5.5% in paid statutory holidays
• 1.5% in sick leave[6]

Construction Holiday was made official in 1970 by a government decree and took effect for the first time in Québec in the summer of 1971. The vacation period is one of the working conditions to which employers and workers have agreed.

It is estimated that during this part of the summer, about one quarter of Québec's labour force is on vacation. Thus, for more than 35 years, the last two full civil weeks (Sunday to Saturday) of July have marked the construction holiday. The tradition was slightly modified in 2008:

• Winter 2016–17: December 25, 2016, to January 7, 2017
• Summer 2017: July 23 to August 5, 2017[7]

One of the roles of the CCQ is to oversee the application of the collective agreements negotiated between the employer and union parties. To ensure coherent and uniform working conditions throughout Québec, the CCQ has been granted certain powers, which it exercises daily, under the Act on Labour Relations, Vocational Training, and Manpower Management in the Construction Industry (Act R-20).

The CCQ may suspend work on a construction site and claim the sums due that are established via expertise that is based on the scope of the work or by any other means or evidence.

Since 1987, criminal lawsuits have been brought by the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales, and fines have been paid into the province's consolidated fund.[8]