Share
Canada’s largest union in the private sector says that BC’s proposed pipelines and raw resource exports policies are a recipe to kill good BC jobs.
“BC needs a plan for good jobs, but the BC budget is a job-killer,” said Scott Doherty, Unifor Western Dirctor. “Ripping and shipping oil bitumen or raw logs is profitable for a handful people, but that doesn’t create jobs.”
Unifor estimates that 25,000 jobs could be created in BC if the oil bitumen that is scheduled to flow through the Northern Gateway pipeline were instead refined in BC. For the long term, Unifor is calling on the Premier to work with the federal government on an energy strategy that will hold Canada to ambitious greenhouse gas emission targets and help re-train workers for green jobs.
“Right now, British Columbians are getting robbed,” said Doherty. “Under Christy Clark’s plans, British Columbians are receiving virtually no benefit from the harvesting of our natural resources. Future generations are going to be left with a hollowed out economy and a compromised environment.”
Unifor has also been critical of the Premier’s clumsy approach to public transit. The union says that expansion of public transit is urgent, but the uncertainty created by Clark over the Metro Vancouver transit referendum will only cause delays in funding and planning.
“We can’t wait another two years for leadership on transit. The Premier must act now to relieve our over-burdened public transit system,” he said.
