MEDIA RELEASE: Conservative plan to cancel Massey Tunnel replacement would immediately put 200 tradespeople out of work and another 1,700 jobs at risk

by | Oct 21, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 21, 2026

Conservative plan to cancel Massey Tunnel replacement would immediately put 200 tradespeople out of work and another 1,700 jobs at risk

VANCOUVER – The BC Building Trades is sounding the alarm over the BC Conservatives’ plan to cancel the Massey Tunnel replacement. The move would effectively fire 200 people currently working on site and put another 1,700 construction jobs at risk.

“Committing to cancelling a project that’s already underway is shocking,” said Brynn Bourke, Executive Director of the BC Building Trades. “More than 200 women and men who are currently working at this site would lose their jobs and the paycheques that support their families – and commuters would be stuck in traffic even longer.”

Crews have been on site since January. The significant construction underway now includes:

  • Crews driving steel piles for the walls of the casting basin on Deas Island, where the tunnel sections will be built.
  • Barge crews sealing off a bay with a steel wall on the Richmond shoreline.
  • Crews building access roads and a 300-metre bridge to Deas Island.
  • Crews moving earth for the tunnel approaches, demolishing the Canadian Fishing Company facility on the Richmond side and relocating power and telecom lines, working up to 24 hours a day, six days a week.

On October 15, the BC Conservatives promised to cancel the in-progress tunnel project and revive the bridge plan. They offered no planning, no current costing estimate, no construction start date, and no opening date. Cancelling would also put at risk up to $3 billion in federal funding already secured for the tunnel replacement project. According to the project’s report (p.3), $581 million had already been spent on construction as of June.

“Tradespeople build this province,” said Bourke. “Callously firing them, with no regard for their futures or livelihoods, is an insult to the people who devote their lives to building the roads, bridges, and schools we need to build a good life here – and to commuters who want a new crossing built.”

“We can’t understand why the BC Conservatives would fire working people, sacrifice $3 billion in federal money, waste hundreds of millions of dollars already spent, and leave commuters in the region without a new crossing longer. It’s frankly baffling.”

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Media Contact:

Layne Clark

604-908-0239

[email protected]