February 6, 2013 – Ontario’s economy and the energy sector will be the focus of the Ontario Construction Secretariat’s (OCS) 13th Annual State of the Industry & Outlook Conference at the Hilton Toronto Hotel in March 2013. EBMag will be there!

The conference (which is free but requires pre-registration) invites contractors, trade associations, consultants, trade unions and key owners in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors of Ontario to get a closer look at the current economic and construction sector outlook. This year the conference will have a special focus on the energy sector.

“Ontario’s power sector is in a state of flux, with growing emphasis on renewable energy sources and seemingly constant scrutiny of the way we generate electricity in this province,” said Sean Strickland, OCS’s CEO. “This sector is vitally important to Ontario, and proposed projects will be a cornerstone of construction activity in the near future.”

Keynote economic speaker at this year’s event is Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist with TD Bank’s Financial Group, while OCS’s Katherine Jacobs, director of research and operations, providing the construction outlook.

The conference is also the stage for the annual release of OCS’s Construction Barometer, a tool using data from an OCS/Ipsos-Reid survey to highlight construction activity in the coming year, and provide a snapshot of the mood of industry stakeholders.

The Ontario Construction Secretariat was formed in 1993 as a joint labour/management organization representing 25 labour unions and contractors in the unionized industrial, commercial and institutional construction sectors in Ontario.