The Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario is giving a big thumbs-up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline and the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline project.
In a Dec. 2 news release, the organization said the approvals send a “strong signal” to the industry, which will start mobilizing to meet the anticipated labour demand for these projects.
"The opportunities that will come to workers as a result of these project approvals will help build Canada's future workforce," said Patrick Dillon, the council’s business manager, in a Dec. 2 news release.
The Toronto-based organization represents 150,000 construction trades workers.
Dillion expects Ontario workers will benefit in building the infrastructure to export Canadian oil to the Asia-Pacific market through supply chain opportunities in pre-fabrication, manufacturing and construction.
He said there must be a premium placed on public safety with the strongest environmental safeguards put in place to meet Canadians’ expectations.
Dillion added pipeline projects of this magnitude stand to provide training and skills development opportunities for thousands of Canadians.
"Growing the workforce goes hand-in-hand with nation-building and growing the economy in an environmentally responsible way. The pipelines will provide much-needed investments in Alberta's ailing economy which has suffered from oil price shocks and wildfires in recent years.
"We must grasp the opportunity before us, to diversify the workforce as we build these projects.”
