PCA Defends Economic Opportunity Site C Presents

Vancouver (Sept. 21, 2017) – The Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), upon the release of the BCUC Preliminary report on Site C, continues to emphasize the importance of the economic value of the project and the employment and opportunity it creates for all workers and companies through its innovative ‘Open Managed Site’ model.

“While the BCUC’s mandate looks at important elements relating to Site C, it has completely missed the value that this project brings to workers on the site, the companies that employ them and even the broader BC public,” said Rieghardt van Enter, BC Regional Director for PCA. “Regardless of the outcome of the BCUC process, we believe that BC Hydro rightly chose to implement the Open Managed Site model at Site C and that it’s resulted in a more fair and competitive project as a result.”

PCA represents employers who have approximately 1,000 workers at the Site C clean energy dam, most of whom would not have been able to work on previous BC Hydro projects because of restrictive hiring and tendering policies. The project already has over 2,000 workers on site, will contribute $3.2 billion to provincial GDP during the construction cycle alone and provide a large and long-term source of clean and affordable power to British Columbians for more than a century.

“With millions of dollars already invested and over 2,000 workers employed at the project, turning back now is not a practical option,” added van Enter. “Jeopardizing the livelihood of so many BC skilled tradespeople and the communities where they live, is not the right thing to do.”

About the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA)

With offices in BC, Alberta and Ontario, PCA is the voice of progressive unionized employers in Canada’s construction industry. Our member companies are responsible for 40 percent of energy and natural resource construction projects in British Columbia and Alberta and are leaders in infrastructure construction across Canada. PCA member companies employ more than 25,000 skilled construction workers in Canada, represented primarily by CLAC.

For further information, contact:

Danna O’Brien, Danna@obriencommunications.ca 416-500-0699