I'd like to thank the committee again for affording us the opportunity to address it on Enbridge's Line 5.
I'll tell you a little about the association, just so you know. What I'm afraid of here is that you're going to hear a lot of the stuff that you've heard before, but I think it's important that we do repeat this.
The Sarnia Construction Association is a local mixed-trade association. It represents the construction industry in Lambton county. We have 68 unionized contractors—they're all union members, all union contractors—and 23 associate members or suppliers that provide construction services to the multinational petrochemical refinery companies located and operating in Sarnia's Chemical Valley. These facilities mainly produce gas, diesel, jet fuel and other related by-products that result from the refining process. We also have petrochemical plants, of course.
You've heard this number before because I heard it previously: the Chemical Valley is responsible for creating 4,900 direct jobs and another 2,400 indirect jobs in Sarnia-Lambton. Simply put, one-third of the population of Sarnia-Lambton relies on the Chemical Valley for employment. This includes our locally based, skilled manpower workforce that works in the construction industry. That workforce is approximately 6,000 skilled tradespeople working and living in Sarnia-Lambton.
Consider this: approximately six million to seven million man-hours are generated annually in construction work in the Chemical Valley. These are highly paid, unionized, skilled tradespeople. This represents a payroll of approximately $325 million annually. That's based on 6.5 million man-hours at $50 an hour. These dollars are injected into not only the economy of Sarnia but also the economies of Ontario and Canada. This number simply shows payroll generated in construction.
What about all the spinoffs? Man-hours have been as high as 10 million to 15 million worked in Sarnia in the past. The Sarnia complex is very important to the industrial base of Ontario and Canada. These facilities generate wealth and, ultimately, tax dollars to governments.
The facilities that generate the wealth and, ultimately, tax dollars are three refineries located in the Sarnia region. Consider that these refineries, along with the Nanticoke refinery, produce gas, oil and jet fuel for consumption in Ontario only. Almost half the oil used in the refining process comes [Technical difficulty—Editor].
Should the oil [Technical difficulty—Editor], the impact on Ontario, central Canada and the west would be unquantifiable. To maintain these operations, oil would have to be sourced through other means. None of these means are as safe, environmentally, and as sound as the pipeline. [Technical difficulty—Editor] trucked, shipped or moved into the [Technical difficulty—Editor] disaster or explosion increases exponentially.
Enbridge has offered a solution to the Government of Michigan to reduce concern over potential environmental [Technical difficulty—Editor] exceptional one, and it will continue to meet the needs of our industry, including the energy needs of the midwestern [Technical difficulty—Editor].
Line 5 is an important economic link between Canada and the United States. Imagine what would happen if we reduced the flow of oil to our refineries by 50%. That would most likely [Technical difficulty—Editor] Ontario and Quebec would see significant retractions in their economies and standards of living. We believe that Enbridge has offered a safe and viable alternative to current pipelines situated on the lake-bed of Lake Michigan.
We urge Canada, the State of Michigan and the United States to work jointly to build a better and growing economy in both jurisdictions.
Given our concerns, we support Enbridge's Line 5 plan to build a tunnel to safely deliver oil and natural gas to Canada and the United States.
I read that, but I want to make one comment just so everybody knows...and Mike touched on this. Our association has formed a committee with labour, with the building trades, and we've been meeting not only with Enbridge but also with local, provincial and national politicians.
Our industry has support. We have the support of the Council of Ontario Construction Associations, which probably represents 37,000 or so contractors. We have the support of the Canadian Construction Association, which supports our position. We have the support of the building trades—6,000 tradespeople locally. We also have the support of the provincial building trades, which probably represents another 200,000 or so tradespeople, and we have the support of the Canadian building trades. If you total all that, we probably have 500,000 Canadian building trades supporting our position on Line 5.
This is an issue that affects everybody in the country, not just the Sarnia area. We may be what I would consider the largest industrial centre, in Ontario anyway, and Line 5 in our industrial centre affects everyone. It affects the west, where we get our gas. It affects the economies of Ontario, where people have to drive to work. It affects other provinces to the east of us.
It is very important that we look at this seriously. We need to work with Michigan; I truly believe that. I think we could find the solution. I think Enbridge has offered that solution, so I'm hoping we can get this resolved so the uncertainty is removed from the economy.