August 19, 2024
Brynn Bourke,
Executive Director
I CAN CLEARLY REMEMBER December 2014 when then premier Christy Clark announced the province would build Site C. Somehow it’s 10 years later and the mega project is almost complete.
Site C has been a fixture in the unionized construction world nearly the entire time I’ve worked with the BC Building Trades. Its construction has been as complicated as it has been controversial.
Before Site C, project labour agreements between BC Hydro and Building Trades unions through the Allied Hydro Council had been used to build every major hydro project for more than 60 years.
Together we built the W.A.C. Bennett Dam in 1967. We built the Duncan, Keenleyside and Mica Dams along the Columbia River between 1964 and 1973. We built Kootenay Canal in 1975, Seven
Mile in 1980 and Revelstoke in 1985.
In 1996, we renewed the Allied Hydro Project Agreement and another generation of work would go on to be performed. Stave Falls Power Plant in 2000, the Burrard Upgrade in 2003, the Brilliant
Power Plant in 2007, Revelstoke Unit 5 in 2011 and the Waneta Power Plant in 2015.
We built them all. We built them on time. We built them on budget. And we built them union.
But then came Site C. The BC Liberal government desperately wanted to build it and just as desperately, did not want to build it union. The BC Building Trades launched a massive campaign mobilizing members, taking out radio and print ads, lobbying ministers, calling on the Liberal government to preserve the successful Allied Hydro model.
They were unmoved and refused to negotiate an agreement.
However, never having built a dam without the BC Building Trades, they worried about completing the project without us. For the first time, the government broke up dam procurement so different parts of the project would be built by different construction teams.
The main civil work was granted to a non-union group. But delays and lack of labour ultimately forced BC Hydro to ask Building Trades members to help complete it. In the end, the BC Liberal government failed. It was BC Building Trades members who built most of Site C: the turbines and the generators, the spillway and the powerhouse.
Despite all of those issues (caused by an attempt to freeze out the best construction workers in the province!), Site C still had its biggest challenge to come.
I remember the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was Site C and LNG Canada that kept me up at night. Those early days of the pandemic were some of the hardest of my career as myself and business managers met daily to plan how we could keep members safe and working.
COVID didn’t hit Site C in a serious way until 2021. But when it did, it hit hard.
Checking the updates from BC Hydro was a daily task of mine. Some days hundreds of workers were reported infected and had to quarantine in their camp rooms. Those years of courage and sacrifice by Building Trades members who worked away from their families through a global pandemic to build essential infrastructure should never be forgotten as part of the story of Site C.
And now somehow, in what seems like the blink of an eye, Site C construction is nearly complete. And in the end, it couldn’t have been built without us. Unionized construction workers of the BC Building Trades touched every inch of that project.
Myself and the BC Building Trades staff recently traveled to Site C to see the project, but more importantly, to visit with our members on site. And while the scope of the project was jaw-dropping to see, it was conversations with members that will stick with me. Their pride in the project is palpable. They are aware that this project will deliver clean energy across the province for decades. Maybe even a century. This is a legacy project and they know it.
The completion of Site C is imminent and it will be a dam big moment in B.C.’s history. I’m glad Tradetalk was on location to capture the story.
By Brynn Bourke, Executive Director