Shuswap MLA blasts NDP community benefits agreements as discriminatory

Photo: Contributed

Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo is blasting the governing NDP's community benefits agreements as discriminatory and favouring the party's union friends.

Kyllo, the BC Liberals' shadow minister for labour, called out what he termed "false promises" after First Nations companies were barred from working on the Cowichan District Hospital replacement.

Jon Coleman, a Cowichan Tribes member and contractor says the CBAs prevent local Indigenous people from working on their own territory. Originally contracted to work on the hospital, Coleman has been forced to lay off staff and return leased equipment because of the exclusion.

"Originally estimated to cost $600 million, the project's costs have ballooned to more than $1.4 billion due to Premier David Eby's discriminatory policy that gives special treatment to NDP-supportive unions over local First Nations employees," Kyllo says in a press release.

"The BC NDP’s preferential treatment of their union donors is harming local community employment, grossly inflating costs and adding more layers of red tape and bureaucracy to our health-care system, which is already in crisis."

Coleman said that despite bringing attention to the issue more than a month ago, the premier's office failed to respond.

By excluding them from the project unless they're unionized, the CBA is effectively forcing workers to accept pay rates inferior to what Coleman's company pays them, Kyllo added.

"It's outrageous that community members of the Cowichan Tribes are being withheld from work on their own lands," said Kyllo. "With 85 per cent of B.C.'s construction workers excluded from working on public infrastructure projects under the CBA program, it's no surprise to see the NDP is prioritizing union kickbacks over support for local communities and First Nations."

Despite being told the premier would look into the matter, Coleman says work is being granted to businesses outside Cowichan territory.

"In fact, there is a real possibility that the general contractor will be bringing in temporary foreign workers, because they cannot find local labour," he said.

"The provincial government has effectively revoked our inherent right to work within our traditional territory."