Last week, Tom Sigurdson of the Building Trades Unions ripped B.C.’s construction record in an op-ed in The Province. He was bent out of shape because ICBA had pointed out how successful the evolution of the industry has been since the NDP were last in power in the 1990s. Today, The Province published this short letter to the editor from ICBA President Chris Gardner:
No shame in construction industry
It is amazing that Tom Sigurdson and the B.C. Building Trades have such a negative view of the B.C. construction sector. Nearly 250,000 men and women go to job sites every day building B.C. They are highly skilled and hard-working.
Sigurdson’s view that for the past 20 years, B.C. “has one of the most shameful records on construction” is simply not true. B.C.’s construction sector built Olympic venues, the Canada Line, the Sea-to-Sky Highway, the Port Mann Bridge, the William R. Bennett bridge and many other major projects.
Sigurdson wants to return to a bygone era that denied opportunities for workers and where conflict was the order of the day. B.C.’s construction sector is safer than it has ever been and is training a new generation of workers. No one working in construction in B.C. has anything to be ashamed of.
Chris Gardner, president, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association