Op- Ed “A return to fair tendering”
October 17, 2024
Author: Tanya Palson, Executive Director, Manitoba Building Trades
Published: Winnipeg Free Press, Oct 16, 2024
WHEN ideology trumps reason, you make decisions precisely like the former PC government’s decision to ban project labour agreements (PLAs).
This decision showed that the PCs were willing to harm their major infrastructure projects’ labour and cost stability to say they did something bad for the building trade unions. By forfeiting PLAs, the PCs gave up cost certainty, workforce development, and transparent dispute resolution mechanisms on large projects. Manitoban workers did not benefit, and neither did the taxpayer.
The PCs worked in lockstep with Merit Manitoba contractors, and together, they tried to ensure PLAs became synonymous with “forced unionization.” Merit was so steadfast on this misrepresentation of the government’s project agreements that a case was taken to the Supreme Court, which promptly recognized that Merit had no merit in its claim.
As the council of unions who administered these project agreements, we couldn’t agree more with this decision because “forced unionization” doesn’t exist. We know this because we have always voluntarily restricted a building trade union’s right to organize any contractor on a PLA project, some agreements going as far as to include a cooling-off period where the unions relinquish the right to organize those contractors for a set number of years after a project has concluded.
PLAs are a widespread construction management tool that allows for fair and open tendering.
They are not a tool to “force” but rather a tool to “enforce” labour supply and cost certainty, local and diverse hiring, training opportunities, and employment standards on job sites.
With an agreement in place, the industry is bidding on equal and standardized labour provisions that include additional outcomes the government hopes to achieve with investment in major infrastructure.
The evaluation of bids on public projects should be based on quality and expertise and not on who can pay their skilled workforce the least. This is fair. This is open.
Many of Manitoba’s most significant infrastructure projects were built under a project labour agreement.
Manitoba Hydro had one of the most successful and longest-standing project agreements in Canada’s history before the Crown corporation let it expire in 2023. The Burntwood-Nelson Agreement (BNA), in partnership with the Allied Hydro Council, successfully employed and trained tens of thousands of Manitobans on major hydro installations since the 1960s.
The ridiculous ban on PLAs meant that while the rest of the country has gotten to work using PLAs to build their critical infrastructure on time and on budget while bolstering their local workforce, here in Manitoba, we tied our hands and eliminated an effective project management tool.
One only needs to look to British Columbia, where after years of consecutive provincial Liberal governments, their apprenticeship program was broken, and their workforce development was in dire straits.
The BCNDP government wasted no time, knowing that good jobs and a strong economy would be vital in giving British Columbians a hand up. Styling PLAs as Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), British Columbia has seen incredible positive workforce impacts delivered through major infrastructure projects.
Ninety-one per cent of workers on projects tendered under their Community Benefits (or PLA) framework in B.C. are B.C. residents. The percentage of women and Indigenous participation under their PLA increased to nine per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, while the average representation in B.C.’s construction industry is less than five per cent for both groups. These numbers become more compelling when you note the percentage of hours worked by these underrepresented groups — 10 per cent of all hours worked were women, and 14 per cent of worked hours were Indigenous.
Repealing the ban on PLAs is a stellar decision by the Kinew government, signaling that they are serious about workforce development.
It opens the door for fair and open tendering on public infrastructure and allows them to create the benefits we have seen other jurisdictions across North America enjoy while providing cost certainty to the government. Manitoba Building Trades is ready to work with the government to maximize the value these frameworks can deliver for taxpayers economically and socially going forward.