The executive had representation from the bricklayers and masons, limestone cutters]], plasterers, and the typographical union.
This meeting of Ottawa's unions was the result of a contractor who left town leaving his workers unpaid.
A pro-union paper, the Ontario Workman, reported that "By this action, you will observe that the trades men of the capital mean business, as regards the steps necessary to be taken towards the making of a lien law a fact in this Dominion".
The new Ottawa council pressed for the Mechanics Lien Act in Ontario to guarantee wages.
Buoyed by its success it initiated the first official labour meeting with a Canadian Prime Minister in 1873.