LTE: Building B.C. should be open to all qualified workers

RvE LTE Van Sun - Nov 10
It’s encouraging that Premier John Horgan believes that contracts to build taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects in B.C. should be awarded to the “best bids.”

 While there are no details about what the criteria is, we know what it should be. Fair and open tendering, not union affiliation, should be the principals that guides public-procurement practices across B.C. That means all of B.C.’s skilled tradespeople should have the same chance to work on public infrastructure projects, whether they’re members of a specific union or have no union affiliation at all.

Qualifications should be based on skill, not membership in the building trades. If the goal truly is to hire British Columbians, then all qualified B.C. companies and their workers should be allowed to play a role in building our province and its economy.

Rieghardt Van Enter, B.C. director of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada