The Province of British Columbia will not be settingguidelines or goals on how many local workers BC Hydro must hire to work on theSite C dam.
Energy Minister Bill Bennett cited concerns that doing socould at $3 billion to the dam’s $8.8 billion price tag.
“It has to be a competitive process,”Bennett said.
“It has to be an open process where youtake the bid that is going to be the most respectful of the ratepayer. It’s theratepayer who ends up paying for this. We can’t add a whole bunch of costs toit because we want to direct a Crown corporation on who they should do businesswith."
Without a competitive process, Bennettestimated the dam could cost up to $12 billion.
“I get the concern, and I want BritishColumbians to benefit from this project as well,” he said. “They’re going toget those opportunities.”
When asked if he was concerned aboutthe possibility of the majority of work going to firms and workers outside ofthe province, Bennett noted that of the 160 people currently working at the damsite, somewhere “between half and two-thirds” of them were from the province.
“It’s very much premature, with 60 daysin and a couple of relatively small contracts awarded, to panic at this pointin time,” Bennett said.
Bennett noted that BC Hydro is offeringapprenticeship and training opportunities for skilled trade opportunities, aswell as hosting job fairs this week in Northeast B.C.
According to court documents, Hydroexpects to award 20 contracts worth $185 million for site preparation andservice work in 2015. Hydro further expects 12 of these contracts to go toFirst Nations or related companies.
The largest contract to date wasawarded to Morgan Construction, based in Alberta, for north bank preparationwork.
Craig Fitzsimmons, a BC Hydrospokesman, said this contract was for $60 million.
However, he would not provide the costsof other contracts.
“We are not in a position to releasefurther cost details for other contracts at this time, as there are commercialsensitivities associated with this information,” Fitzsimmons said.
One company hired to build the workercamp is working under an interim contractual agreement.
That firm is Two Rivers Lodging Group,made up of ATCO Structures & Logistics Ltd. and Bird Design BuildConstruction Inc, whose head offices are based out of Alberta and Ontario,respectively.
“The final contract has not yet beenawarded, so I cannot provide the value at this time,” he said.
