When we talk about advancing our industry, we usually mean better plants, better products and better techniques. But there’s another kind of advancement that shapes every sector in the landscape trades: how we’re seen in the eyes of municipalities.
Are businesses in our industry seen as interchangeable commodities, bought on price? Or are we a profession with expertise worth consulting before rules get written? Recent feedback at the municipal level demonstrates that our credibility in the eyes of decision-makers is a strong force for our industry.
As the City of Toronto considered a future without gas-powered equipment, it didn’t just write the rules and wait for us to react. It commissioned Landscape Ontario to produce a study: what works, what doesn’t, and what a realistic transition might look like for those doing the work. That report informed city council’s decision to forego a sudden blanket ban on gas-powered equipment. Change is still coming, but it will be shaped by those who best understand the work.
In Ottawa, a new hardscape contractor licence requirement was introduced. It included illogical and unrealistic stipulations about company lettering on business vehicles and rules about physical business locations that don’t match how many landscape companies actually operate businesses. LO members took the lead on opposing the new regulation, presented our case and were successful in getting the requirements changed.
Neither win came from complaining loudly. Both came from showing up as industry experts with knowledge the decision-makers didn’t have. Our credibility got their attention and we were heard. That’s what being treated as a profession looks like.
So where do we go next? Look at what some buyers are already doing.
More municipalities are starting to ask who is bidding, not just how much a project will cost. Bidders are required to have a minimum number of years in business, and demonstrate experience on similar work. And more and more often, LO membership is a condition of eligibility to bid.
That last one deserves some care. Membership in LO does not automatically guarantee great work, and the municipalities asking for it aren’t treating it that way. But they see LO membership as a bare minimum: a sign that a company has committed to being a professional business that is part of a professional community. It’s a floor, not a ceiling. This is a real shift. Arguably, public work has long been where our expertise counted the least. These changes point in the opposite direction: who does the work really matters.
A more rigorous selection process benefits more than just contractors. Qualified bidders means fewer low-bid substitutions pushed back onto growers. It means fewer failed plantings the public later blames on us. And it means public prices that reflect what professional work actually costs—a benchmark private clients notice.
So here’s our next challenge: municipality by municipality, let’s continue strengthening our collective reputation and presenting ourselves as a knowledgeable, unified voice to those who make the rules that impact our business operations. Let’s continue to build on membership in LO as a foundational requirement for building the spaces and relationships we can all be proud of.
Lindsey Ross
LO President
president@lglinc.ca
