MONTREAL — Around 150 construction sites have been slowed down or brought to a standstill by the strike by government engineers, according to estimates by the Association of Road and Major Works Contractors of Quebec (ACRGTQ). Sites, particularly in the regions but also in Quebec City and Montreal, are thus being affected, according to a joint statement from the ACRGTQ, the Association of Consulting Engineering Firms and Bitume Québec. The indefinite strike by the Professional Association of Government Engineers of Quebec (APIGQ) began on July 6. There are 1,900 engineers involved, working mainly at the Ministry of Transport, but also at the Ministries of the Environment, Municipal Affairs, Natural Resources and Cybersecurity. In an interview on Wednesday, the ACRGTQ’s Executive Director, Caroline Amireault, lamented the impact of this strike, which has already been felt by some contractors and workers, and the repercussions that will continue if the labour dispute is not resolved soon. “For some of our contractors, the 2026 season is over; it’s been jeopardised. There will be financial losses; there will be job losses. But now, we want the remainder of the 2026 and 2027 seasons to go ahead as planned, especially as we are facing a maintenance deficit for our assets in Quebec. ”Currently, 50 per cent of our roads are in poor or very poor condition," said Amireault. The impact of the government engineers’ strike is being felt at various stages of a construction project: authorisations, supervision and planning. For example, once a construction site has received the necessary authorisations and work has already begun, “government engineers come in every day to take samples to check that the correct materials are being used and to verify the quantities, because ultimately, those quantities will be invoiced. So government engineers are present on our sites every day,” explains Amireault. “We also have engineers based in the ministry’s offices, who are drafting the tender documents for upcoming contracts. So, if those engineers are not at their desks drafting the tender documents for the upcoming contracts due at the end of 2026 or in 2027, then those construction sites too – which have not yet started – are at risk,” she adds. She calls on the Government of Quebec and the APIGQ to return to the negotiating table to reach an agreement, for the good of all. The dispute These negotiations have been dragging on, as the APIGQ’s collective agreement expired on March 31, 2023, at the same time as those of all public sector employees. APIGQ members had already gone on strike for eight days in 2025 as part of the same negotiations. They had also gone on strike for one day, on May 29 this year. Then, from 11 June onwards, they went on strike on Thursdays, in the evenings and at weekends, before moving to this indefinite strike on July 6. Essential services are, however, being maintained during the strike. Around 300 engineers are assigned to these services, according to APIGQ president Marc-André Martin. The dispute centres mainly on the allocation of a “sectoral budget,” which is intended to provide specific benefits to certain job categories deemed to be priorities. This would allow for increases beyond the 17.4 per cent pay rise over five years secured by all public sector employees. Martin believes that, given the state of infrastructure in Quebec, government engineers should be considered a priority category and benefit from such a “sectoral budget.” In July, the Treasury Board had stated that the negotiating team had “the necessary mandate to reach an agreement” with the engineers’ union. It had pointed out that it had already “reached agreements with 99 per cent of employees in the public and parapublic sectors.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on August 12, 2026.
