VICTORIA – Some of British Columbia’s most powerful labour leaders are pledging to work with Premier Christy Clark’s Liberal government and the energy industry to help thousands of B.C. workers land jobs in what could be the province’s multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas industry.
B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair and B.C. building trades council executive director Tom Sigurdson emerged from a closed-door meeting with Clark saying jobs trump politics when it comes to developing and securing B.C.’s LNG opportunity.
Clark says the unions, her government and industry representatives will work together to develop a strategy to train B.C. workers for what could result in up to 100,000 new jobs in northern B.C.
The BC Fed and the Building Trades Council are two of the top political donors to the Opposition New Democratic Party, but both Sinclair and Sigurdson said the prospect of jobs for their members replaces party politics.
Sigurdson even took what could be viewed as a political shot at NDP Leader Adrian Dix, saying Clark appeared to be the only political leader to wear a worker’s hard hat during the spring election campaign that saw the Liberals hand the NDP its fourth consecutive defeat.
Clark says the union-industry-government committee has plans to develop a strategy document by the end of this month.