Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Impressive Work

You don’t have to look far in the prairies to find a CLAC member who contributes to a better workplace and helps build better communities

Guide Magazine

By Dennis Perrin, Prairies Director

CLAC members continue to do very impressive work across the prairies. These individuals are your caregivers, custodians, educational assistants, grocery clerks, school bus drivers, and construction, manufacturing, and pipeline workers.

Local 151 members have built many impressive projects in Saskatchewan over the years. One of them continues to be the BHP Jansen Potash Mine. Located approximately 140 kilometres east of Saskatoon, when complete, this potash mine will be one of the largest in the world, with a production capacity of 800 million tonnes per year.

Members have been working on the project for the last 10 years. Work initially began on the site preparation, camp construction, and service and production shafts some time ago. The project had a few delays along the way, but thankfully BHP made a final investment decision and anticipates spending approximately $10 billion to construct the facility.

Local 151 has had hundreds of members working on the project over the years and expects to have more than 1,500 members working on it by the summer. CLAC-signatory companies such as Aecon Industrial Solutions Inc., Ledcor Construction Ltd., Nason Contracting Group Ltd., PCL Energy Inc., Tarpon Construction Management Ltd., Thomas Kanata Inc., Woodland Constructors Ltd., and WorleyCord Energy Solutions Ltd. have all performed work on the project to date. With a state-of-the-art camp that can house over 2,500 workers, this is a project that many skilled trades workers want to be a part of.

Also in Saskatchewan, we are doing more impressive work in local Indigenous communities with the construction of tiny homes (pictured above), which are typically only 400 to 500 square feet in size. Tiny homes are mobile (on wheels) so they can be moved easily from location to location.

The CLAC Training Team in Saskatchewan is working with the four local communities in the Touchwood Tribal Council. Eventually, the elders from these communities will each have a tiny home to call their own.

Members throughout the prairies continue to see impressive wage gains. In the last few months, members working in a number of sectors for a number of signatory employers have ratified collective agreements with great improvements to terms and conditions. These include members employed by Brand Energy Solutions (Canada) Ltd., Brock Canada Field Services Ltd., Golderado Contracting Corp., Hanover School Division, Hinton Scaffold Solutions Inc., Ledcor Construction Ltd., Ledcor Maintenance Services Ltd., Maple Reinders Constructors Ltd., Nuna Logistics Limited (Northwest Territories and Nunavut), and Skyway Canada Limited. CLAC is pleased to help members keep up with the inflationary pressures that so many working Canadians continue to face.

Talent shortages continue to be a real challenge across many parts of Canada. Provinces and local communities are getting creative in how to address these shortages, and recently the Alberta government announced a $5,000 refundable tax credit for anyone in the skilled trades willing to move to the province. Many CLAC projects continue to experience these shortages, so any kind of relocation incentive is a welcome move.

Impressive Work

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