The Boom Continues in BC
Over 20,000 members . . . and growing. To say things are booming in BC may be an understatement. Here’s a look at what these members have been up to
By Kevin Kohut, BC Director
It is simply incredible to witness our members who—through various “thick and thins” of the past couple years—continue to build, transport, and provide services for the province. Over 4,000 Local 501 members are back in the swing of things in ’22, including at Rogers Arena, thanks to a return of not only sports, but also a full array of concerts and comedians booked through the year. Life ensues!
Members working in manufacturing continue their busy pace despite persistent global supply chain challenges. And healthcare members are finally seeing some “normalcy” return to prepandemic levels, including new members from two Bethesda Christian Association facilities who recently joined the local.
Work continues to increase for over 13,000 Local 68 members in the industrial/commercial/civil construction and pipeline sectors, including new members employed by Coast Mountain Resources Ltd., a quarry and construction aggregate facility, and Golderado Civil Ltd., a civil construction contractor.
In the Dawson Creek region, 250 Local 68 members employed by Aecon Construction Solutions Inc. have been successfully constructing the Wild Lake compressor station—the “beating heart” of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline. The compressor station is at the beginning of the pipeline and provides the necessary compression to push the gas to the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat. At a time when Canadian energy is critical, thousands of Local 68 pipeline members continue to build the TransMountain and CGL pipelines.
National news was made and cautions were high earlier this year when 20 masked vandals carried out a highly coordinated assault on workers and equipment on the CGL pipeline, which left an RCMP officer injured and millions of dollars of damage. Although the attack was not directly on CLAC members, we were quick to call on the government to provide sufficient and sustained security measures to ensure the safety of all workers throughout the duration of this project.
The Site C Clean Energy Project, where nearly 1,000 Local 68 members continue to work, was at 55 percent completion at the beginning of the year. Though originally slated to be completed by the end of 2023, due to the pandemic, as well as some geological challenges, completion has been delayed until late 2025.
In the transportation sector, we have been meeting with our signatory companies to find creative solutions to address the significant need to attract new drivers. One particularly aggravating factor is the increased cost of the MELT program (Mandatory Entry Level Training), which costs up to $16,000. This has created a barrier for many would-be applicants from receiving the required certification.
On the legislative front, BC was the first province to legislate five sick days for all workers, excluding federally regulated employees. But there was some initial confusion regarding implementation, specifically, whether those working under a collective agreement were included. We met with the deputy minister of labour to discuss our concern, and the government, acting on our and others’ recommendations, subsequently amended the act so that employers can no longer contract out of the five-day minimum standard.
Of course with BC booming, we’ve had to hire additional staff to meet the ever-growing representation needs and to maintain high service levels. If you’re new to CLAC and don’t know who your steward or representative is, log in to myCLAC. You will find them listed there, as well as lots of other helpful information.