Energy East Pipeline Project - Canada's Building Trades Unions

OTTAWA, Oct. 5, 2017 /CNW/ - The failure of the Energy East Pipeline Project could not come at a worse time for those people who make a living in the construction and maintenance industries in Canada particularly those in the West and in New Brunswick. This is deeply disappointing to our industry and to those who make a living in that industry. The project would have eliminated Canadian dependence on foreign oil and would have given the ability to Canadian producers to ship their product from tidewater.

Robert Blakely, the Canadian Operating Officer of Canada's Building Trades Unions said today in Ottawa;

"Perhaps the time has come to decide what opportunities are really important for us as Canadians and to decide what sort of regulatory system and what sort of certainty that industry can look forward to when seeking project approvals.

It is clear that Canada needs and wants a regulatory system that is second to none and most of us thought that we had that. If we have a way to deal with our issues perhaps we need to stick to that. We do not need to have the rules of the game to be changed in midstream. That is neither fair nor appropriate; we ought not to ask a proponent to take a multi-billion-dollar gamble on a process that changes simply because a dog barked on Upper Teacup Road.

The Building Trades regrets the opportunities that have been lost in Atlantic Canada, Québec, Ontario and on the Prairies.  What have been lost are high quality, high paying jobs in all of those regions on the construction of this world-class, nation building project. The continuing jobs on maintenance and upgrading are not just jobs for a short term but jobs for the life of the asset. What has been gained seems to be things like the continuity of oil tankers on the St. Lawrence River, railcars loaded with hydrocarbons passing through our cities, paying for gas at the pump using of the world price and not the made in Canada price and the continued reliance on expensive foreign oil sources. We lose the environmental advantages that the pipeline could have provided.  This does not seem to be a rational balance"

Canadians need to understand that at the end of the day project approvals are a political decision; a political decision seems to have been made here and it is not one that is necessarily in the interests of Canadians particularly our members.

About CBTU - The North America-wide Building Trades coordinates activities and provides resources to 15 affiliated trade unions in the construction, maintenance and fabrication industries. In Canada, CBTU represents 500,000 skilled trades workers.

SOURCE Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO