Dear Editor

Rarely are the stakes so high in an Alberta election. But that’s how it is for many Alberta contractors and workers who make their living in construction.

We are at a crucial point in our province’s history, when a political party asking for our support promotes a policy that’s designed to exclude most of Alberta’s construction workforce. Eighty percent of construction workers are non-union or alternative union. If things here, go the way they did in B.C., that vast majority could be shut out of certain public projects, all because they are not members of a favoured union.

Opposition Leader Rachel Notley is pledging to replicate a flawed B.C. labour policy, which prevents companies and workers from bidding on and building public projects, unless they agree to join and pay dues to select Building Trades Unions (BTUs).

As we’ve seen in B.C., this favouritism has resulted in fewer bids and higher costs on public construction work, which means other projects like new schools or hospitals, don’t get built.

Alberta was built through the talent and hard work of different labour groups and labour models. Labour diversity is the “Alberta Advantage” not division.

Paul de Jong, president of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA)