The B.C. Building Trades has launched a campaign to protect Community Benefit and Project Labour Agreements to ensure major public projects are built by local, skilled workers from British Columbia, while expanding apprenticeships, training, and providing safe working conditions and paying family sustaining wages.

In early March, the B.C. Conservatives introduced legislation that would ban Community Benefits and Project Labour Agreements on all public projects.

“Community Benefit Agreements and Project Labour Agreements ensure B.C. workers build B.C. infrastructure and train the next generation of trades workers. At a time when we’re facing a skilled labour shortage, major private-sector projects are choosing to sign agreements with the BC Building Trades to secure skilled labour. The B.C. Conservatives’ bill would move B.C. backwards, preventing public projects from signing agreements and accessing that same stable labour supply,” said Brynn Bourke, executive director for the B.C. Building Trades.

“We’ve seen what can happen when public projects are built without these agreements,” continued Bourke. “The B.C. Conservatives want to take us back to a time when public projects like the Canada Line were built using temporary foreign labour. On that project, foreign workers were paid less than $4 an hour.”

The bill was applauded by the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, saying the requirement of labour-neutral procurement on all public sector construction projects will save taxpayers billions of dollars over the next decade.