PCA Launches Court Challenge of B.C. Government’s Infrastructure Framework

(August 27, 2018) – The B.C. government’s new rules for building public infrastructure projects are a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA) whose member companies employ thousands of skilled workers across B.C.

PCA has joined the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA), other BC industry groups, our labour partner CLAC as well as several companies and workers in challenging the government’s recently announced infrastructure framework through a suit filed today in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

“Forcing workers to join and pay dues to the Building Trades Unions in order to work on public projects is an affront to workers’ basic rights,” said Paul de Jong, President of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA). “We’re not about to stand by while freedom of association and workers’ right to choose are sacrificed, all in the name of so called community benefits.”

PCA and other petitioners contend the tendering requirement for the Pattullo Bridge Replacement Project, the first project to be bound by the B.C. government’s new rules, breaches the charter rights of construction workers who are not members of the Building Trades Unions. The petitioners seek to have the “Building Trades only” employment requirement quashed.

“We believe the NDP government’s restrictive and exclusionary infrastructure agreement was designed to benefit its union supporters first and foremost,” added de Jong. “Not only is that wrong, we believe it’s also against the law.”

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

Leave a Comment