Natural Resources committee  It's a good question. I think we can do a lot of work. I agree that, at the beginning, there will be some type of co-worker who will have to come from abroad. Can we train our workers to do that work? Yes. We've done it on other projects. If I understood it rightly, the boring machine for the LRT....

Natural Resources committee  We haven't had any discussions with officials. We've had some brief conversations with the minister's office. If there's a will, there's a way. We always want to work with anyone who wants to work with us to find solutions. We'll be more than happy to sit with officials to see how we can put proper wording in there.

Natural Resources committee  That's a good question. Rarely do I say that I'm jealous of our neighbours south of us, but, in this case, I am. President Biden has put the metal to the pedal. He has been true to his word, and he's acted. They have acted. I will say that unionized construction work has reaped the benefits.

Natural Resources committee  Let me be clear: Corporations and companies will always find loopholes. In talking about Bill C-49, the government told us that, under the “Principles” component of this bill, industrial benefits should be covered. Principles mean nothing. If you look at the benefits plan, it says companies will give us “first consideration” for supply.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the question. Obviously, we build it all and we see that renewable energy is necessary not only for climate change but for us to get ahead of it. I think it's very important in the sense that it will provide us with opportunities, but we need to make sure now, through the tax credits, that those opportunities really do exist.

Natural Resources committee  Good afternoon. On behalf of the International Union of Operating Engineers in Canada, I am honoured to appear before the committee today. The majority of our members build and maintain Canada's infrastructure. We build it all, such as hydro dams, mines, nuclear plants, solar farms, wind turbines and pipelines.

Natural Resources committee  No, because obviously what happens is some of our members who also get training leave the union, and then they're in the non-union sector. So they obviously have the training. I guess it came out the wrong way, in that sense. But our workers are trained. We have training. We're the largest investors in training.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  We have 14 different trades that cover different things. As I said, we're the heavy equipment aspect. I think some of the technical things.... Ours is more applicable to all sectors. Those who work probably more inside the facilities, such as the electricians and the pipefitters so on, may have more expertise particularly around certain aspects of the structure itself, in that, again, they would be trained to have that.

Natural Resources committee  I'm not the expert on that side. As I said, our workers just like to build things. In moving forward on any model you have for storage—this is for any energy facility you have out there—don't be afraid to regulate to no end. Safety is huge. Regulation is paramount. Workers abide by the regulations.

Natural Resources committee  For the construction side, I think we're pretty well regulated, because in Ontario particularly our members are the highest trained. So I would not want to comment on that. I think the trade themselves would have comment on that. But again, we already meet the highest standards, and I've never heard of an issue on the construction side, so I think on the construction side right now we're quite good and the regulations work quite well.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. As I said, if they are given the training and opportunity to get the hours to become a proper journeyperson, yes. It only takes a little bit of training to move them off to another facility.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, it does. Yes.

Natural Resources committee  I understand that. That was my—

Natural Resources committee  It's hard to say, because who knows what the facility will look like in five years from now? Right now, at the facility we have a lot of issues in retaining and attracting new talent to come out there. So obviously in five years, if there has not been a significant investment into the facility, it's going to look very different.