IUOE News February 2015

District One
Taking a look
at what 2015
will bring us
Craig McIntosh,
Business Representative
Cheaper gas. Who would have thought gas in Vancouver
would drop from $1.54 a litre last June to $1.03 as I write this?
Low gas prices are great for consumers, but Alberta and all the
skilled tradespeople working in the oil patch don’t like it when
a barrel of oil goes below $50 down from $105 last July.
Many of the proposed oil sand projects have been put on
hold. Tradespeople are being laid off as the cost of producing
oil from the oil sands is more expensive
than traditional drilling. When
tradespeople get laid off they chase
the work, and a lot of Alberta tradespeople
may be looking for work outside
the province for the first time in
many years.
The province of Alberta has put new contracts on hold and
has instituted a hiring freeze due to budget issues associated
with the declining oil prices. Alberta has also decided not to
exercise the option to extend a firefighting contract with
Conair to supply 6 Fireboss air tankers and a bird dog plane.
This will affect seven Local 115 members who are pilots at
Conair.
A lot of Alberta tradespeople
may be looking for work
outside the province for the
first time in many years.
Site C Dam
In December the BC government gave the green light for the
Site C Dam in Fort St. John. BC Hydro say it is hoping
construction can start in July. That is optimistic, given how
many legal challenges have been filed with the courts. The
lawyers for the landowners and affected First Nations are set
to fight. The court decisions will likely not be completed
before July.
Transit Plebiscite
In March you will be mailed the Metro Vancouver Transit
Plebiscite Vote. The mail-in ballot question will ask whether
you support a 0.5 percent PST hike to help fund a Broadway
Skytrain extension in Vancouver, light rail in Surrey and a
new Pattullo Bridge.
This will receive a lot of media attention over the next few
months. The “no” side will say Translink doesn’t manage
transportation in the Lower Mainland very well at all, and
they don’t deserve any more money. The “yes” side will say
hold your nose and vote for the tax hike because population
and congestion continue to grow in the Lower Mainland.
These major projects do create a lot of jobs for Operating
Engineers, and if the vote is “no” it will delay these projects for
years while we talk about how to fund them.
2015 will bring more protests against
major projects such as Site C, LNG, pipelines
and the transit vote. The challenge this
year will be finding work for our skilled
tradespeople. You hear lots of talk about a
possible shortage of skilled tradespeople, but
it’s hard to know if there will be enough work to employ them.
Bentall Commemoration
Each year on January 7th the Building Trades meet at a memorial
by the Burrard Street Skytrain Station to remember the
four carpenters who died in 1981 when their flyform broke
away from the 36th floor of the Bentall Tower IV. It is a sobering
reminder at the beginning of the year of the dangers of
construction work.
Some of the carpenters’ families attend each year and talk
about how their lives changed when their loved ones went to
work that day and never came home.
Work Safe.
IUOE LOCAL 115
GENERAL
MEMBERSHIP
MEETING NOTICE
Saturday
March 21
9:30am
The OE Hall in Burnaby,
4333 Ledger Avenue
4 News March 2015