Natural Resources committee  First, we work very closely with our contract partners and those who hire us, to ensure we meet their standards of what they need. For example, with the refurbishment of facilities, as I said, they want nuclear-ready workers. We sat down with our contractors, those who had bid on the work, and the operators and asked them what they meant by nuclear-ready workers.

Natural Resources committee  I can answer that generally. I believe if there were to be discussions, it would be with the Ontario building trades, our umbrella organization. I can't answer if there have been discussions. But if the government is serious about building it, it likely would have reached out to our Ontario building trades.

Natural Resources committee  It's just not nuclear. To go back to an earlier question of oil and gas, those who protest say we have to be off this energy now. Well, it's not possible. We need a long-term plan, which involves honest discussions about where we'll be in 20 or 30 years from now. Like I said, we build it all.

Natural Resources committee  I appreciate it. The problem is that especially when we deal with energy, one accident, light or horrific, always seems to linger and be rehashed and rehashed. Just because something happened somewhere else, everyone says it's going to happen here in Canada. Well, our regulations are different.

Natural Resources committee  Agreed.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, in Pickering and in Bruce, all that work down there is done under a project labour agreement, so our members would be the ones who would be involved in the decommissioning. The decommissioning of some of the stuff at Chalk River right now is being done by our members.

Natural Resources committee  From our understanding, there would be some cost savings involved by offloading this facility. Again, we have never seen a study on the cost savings. If there has been one published, it has never been shared with us. Again, we are going on what we hear. No one has explained it to any of the employees or any of the bargaining units at Chalk River.

Natural Resources committee  I would share your concerns. With what Chalk River was in the past, and where it may be going, I don't believe privatization of that facility should occur, particularly in a GOCO model. I believe you would have a great deal of support. There are concerns about the future operations of this facility around safety.

Natural Resources committee  Off the top of my head, I can't give you that, because it is varying. You would be looking at an hourly wage, off the top of my head, in the high $20s, low $30s, to start off, and higher, depending on the experience, apprenticeship, and the role—the piece of equipment or what part of the work the person is doing.

Natural Resources committee  I'll just speak on behalf of operating engineers. We're heavy equipment. When you deal with a nuclear facility, there are certain things you need to be specifically trained on about how to deal with taking down part of a structure or stuff like that. Our members are trained on the equipment.

Natural Resources committee  There are over 20 bargaining units in Chalk River, and most of them are fairly small. There would be anywhere between a couple to 20 or 40. There are about three big unions: PIPSC, steel, and I forget the other. They would make up a lot of it, but there are a lot of small bargaining units.

Natural Resources committee  As I said earlier, we build it all. We're huge fans of all types of energy. We're big fans of oil and gas, pipelines, wind, solar, and nuclear. We mainly try to focus on building the energy facilities for people. We try to stay away from the commentary side. If there is a will, a desire by government, to continue with nuclear, we'll be there to help ensure the facilities are built to the best standards.

Natural Resources committee  For a long time in the past we relied on others to do that because we were busy working and building stuff; however, over the recent time and in the previous government's tenure, we saw it more. Certain groups were very loud in protesting development. We ourselves, as operating engineers, and some of the building trades have started to promote the projects we work on and highlight the fact that these are jobs for the women, men, first nations, youth, for the future of Canada.

Natural Resources committee  When it comes to Pickering and Bruce, we're only involved on the construction sector, but at Chalk River we also work in the HVAC and some of the power plant facilities. We are a small percentage of the roughly 3,200 members who work at Chalk River. I'm unaware of any of our members who work on the mining side, but when it comes to Chalk River, I know there have been some questions around some safety, because the facility itself is not being given the attention it was given in the past.

Natural Resources committee  Under the collective agreements, there is never a work stoppage. We work very hard on that. In every agreement we'll ask for x number of years, and we guarantee no work stoppage, unless there would be a great issue involved. But no, from our end, we would not create a work stoppage to create a safety risk; no.