Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon to the committee. It's a pleasure to speak to you today. I thank you for inviting me.
My name is Dennis Perrin, and I'm the prairies director for the Christian Labour Association of Canada, otherwise known as CLAC. My area of responsibility within CLAC lies in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The committee has already heard a significant amount about CLAC from my colleague Brendan Kooy. I'll refrain from speaking to those points today. I am here to present CLAC's position and thoughts specifically on the closed tendering process that exists with some of Manitoba's large publicly funded infrastructure projects.
Specifically, I will refer to three examples of closed tendering: the Burntwood/Nelson agreement, the Bipole III agreement, and the east side road and floodway expansion agreement. The first two pertain to the construction of large hydroelectric dams in Manitoba. The latter pertains to the expansion of the Red River Floodway, along with the construction of an all-season road along the east side of Lake Winnipeg.
This infrastructure work represents a significant investment of tax dollars, including federal funding. Unfortunately, all three projects are subject to construction monopolies, and limit access for construction workers on the basis of union affiliation. The monopolies on these projects are completely voluntary. There is no binding obligation on the part of the province to award this work on the basis of union affiliation.
The east side road agreement compels all construction employees on the project to pay union dues to one of the approved building trades unions, regardless of what union affiliation the contractor and its employees previously had. The agreements relating to hydroelectric dam construction take it one drastic step further, and force potential employees to sign a union membership card and join one of the approved building trades unions as a condition of employment on that project. In addition, these employees must pay dues to, and be represented by, one of these building trades unions.
The committee has already heard from many witnesses about how closed tendering construction monopolies are unfair to workers and limit competition. Creating monopolies for certain unions has two major detrimental effects. One is the unfairness for construction workers who cannot access public infrastructure work because they have the wrong union affiliation. The other is the reduction of the bidding pool of potential contractors. This is precisely what is happening in the province of Manitoba.
It is unfair to construction workers in Manitoba to be told which union they must join in order to work on the publicly funded infrastructure projects that their tax dollars pay for. Furthermore, closed project labour agreements restrict competition. This means an increase in price, a smaller labour pool, and a reduced chance that projects will be done on time and on budget.
Proponents of these types of closed project labour agreements have typically argued that they provide greater labour stability on a project. Closed tendering in construction, folks, was yesterday's solution to industry challenges, and is no longer necessary today.
For example, the managed open site model is an alternative to closed tendering. This model has been frequently utilized on large-scale, multibillion-dollar construction projects, particularly in the province of Alberta. Instead of completely restricting access to work to one group of unions, the managed open site model allows access for workers and contractors affiliated with the building trade unions, alternative construction unions such as CLAC, and also the non-union sector.
Eliminating these types of preferential agreements in Manitoba and preferring alternatives along the lines of the managed open site model would increase worker choice, enhance competition, and ultimately benefit taxpayers.
Thank you very much for your time. I'd be happy to answer any questions the committee might have.