B.C.’s Community Benefits Agreements are a disaster

B.C.’s so-called Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) have sunk to a new low. It’s no wonder the province is being accused of “lip service” after workers at several Cowichan Tribes contracting companies were barred from the Cowichan District Hospital construction site.

It doesn’t seem to matter that the project is being built on traditional territory, or that perfectly qualified local workers are being shut out, even though they’re among the underrepresented groups that the province pledged would get first crack at training and job opportunities when big projects are built using CBAs.

The public has been hoodwinked into believing B.C.’s Community Benefits Agreements were designed to benefit the community. The reality is, they were contrived to reward the government’s favoured Building Trades Unions. Only workers who pay dues and belong to the BTUs can build major infrastructure projects that fall under the CBA framework. That’s how it is, even though 85% of B.C.’s construction workers have chosen not to belong to the BTUs.

As time goes on, it’s even more painfully obvious that the B.C. government’s CBAs are a complete disaster.

This letter to the editor was submitted to the Victoria Times Colonist.