Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for inviting LiUNA Western Canada to appear before you today.
My name is Eric Olsen. I'm the political director with the LiUNA Western Canada subregion.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with us, we are the Labourers' International Union of North America. We are the largest private sector construction union in North America. We have over 500,000 members and more than 140,000 in Canada. Our western Canada subregion has approximately 20,000 members in four locals servicing the four western provinces and the north with a proud 100-year history of building some of the most important and vital infrastructure in the country.
A few of the notable projects our members have built recently in western Canada are the Trans Mountain pipeline, the Keeyask dam, LNG Canada and the Site C dam. All of these major construction projects require skilled labour from across Canada.
Labour mobility will be a key element as Canada builds major energy, transmission, port, road, rail, mining and defence-related infrastructure throughout western Canada and the north in the coming years. Our highly skilled, experienced members transfer easily between locals in order to deliver the critical labour that will be needed on specific projects.
At times, this comes at a cost to the member. LiUNA Western Canada applauds and supports the changes to the labour mobility tax credit contained in this spring economic update. We urge this committee and all MPs to support moving forward with the implementation of the provisions designed to support the building trades members who build this country.
Thank you.