A Look Back, a Look Ahead

A lot of amazing things happened for CLAC members in the prairies this past year, so it’s important to reflect on those before plunging into a brand-new year

By Dennis Perrin, Prairies Director

It’s hard to believe that another year has nearly gone by, and now we are on the edge of looking ahead to 2025. The past year came in on a different note in the pipeline sector. CLAC has represented thousands of pipeline workers in western Canada in the past couple of years. The largest of these projects was the Coastal Gas Link (CGL) and the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP).

CGL carries natural gas across the mountains to the west coast while TMEP carries crude oil and various refined petroleum products from Edmonton to the coast in Vancouver. Both projects have largely wrapped up, which left pipeline members looking for employment in other places—and possibly even other sectors. Thankfully, many tradespeople have transferrable skills that lend themselves to other construction work opportunities.

This year also saw major progress on the coke boiler replacement project at Suncor’s base plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta. These units were removed and are in the process of being replaced with two highly efficient natural gas cogeneration units, which will produce 800 megawatts of power while dramatically reducing carbon emissions. Some of the electricity created will power the plant, but most of it will go into the electricity grid. As work continues on subsequent phases of this project, next year will see a major lift by a crane that is the largest in the world.

This past year also witnessed some very impressive wage and benefit increases in collective agreements across the prairies. With generational inflation impacting nearly every working Canadian, it was encouraging to see some very impressive gains made for all members in bargaining—whether they were working in retail, education, manufacturing, construction, or maintenance.

In the last few months, we also saw a number of new members join CLAC, including those employed by The King’s University, Radium North Inc., and MCL Power Inc. Welcome!

As we look ahead to 2025, we expect a lot of opportunities for members in the prairies. Work on major industrial construction projects near Edmonton anticipate ramping up in major numbers. Projects like Air Products and Dow’s Path2Zero in particular are anticipated to employ hundreds, if not thousands, of CLAC members in the coming months and years. We will also see a continuation of work in construction in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, notably the wastewater treatment plant in Winnipeg and the BHP Jansen potash project east of Saskatoon.

There also continues to be more and more workers who are choosing CLAC in the prairies. These campaigns often take much time to realize success, and while not all of them do, many workers see CLAC as the best representation for their needs and concerns.

Now that 2024 is nearly in the rear-view mirror, we can be grateful for everything we achieved and experienced. Here’s to a great 2025!