B.C. preparing for province’s LNG labour needs

In light of the recent agreement between the government of B.C. and Pacific NorthWest LNG that sets the stage for a potential $36-billion US investment in northern B.C., people are — correctly asking — will B.C. be ready with the workforce needed to build LNG projects?

Since 2013, the Premier’s LNG Working Group has been working to make sure that the answer is yes — that B.C. has the skilled workers the industry requires and that British Columbians have the skills to be the first in line for the jobs on LNG projects.

Our working group has representatives from LNG proponents, labour, First Nations and government. Additionally, just over a year ago we brought forward 15 recommendations on planning, skills training, marketing and developing best practices to provide the greatest benefit to the province.

The recommendations cover a wide range of subjects, including First Nations and local hires, training pre-construction, apprenticeships during construction, postconstruction jobs and temporary foreign workers.

Government accepted all the working group’s recommendations.

Now we are working toward implementing those recommendations.

Importantly, we have already seen one of our recommendations become reality. The provincial government just announced that it is moving forward with apprenticeships on public projects.

This new policy will see the government make sure young workers get lined up with apprenticeships on provincially funded projects worth more than $15 million. That is a tangible result of the commitment and work the LNG working group is doing to ensure British Columbians are trained and prepared for the future.

This fits in directly with the aspirational goal the working group has laid out — to have 25 per cent of apprenticeships in the workforce on all LNG projects. Projects of this size offer a major opportunity to ensure we build the province at the same time we build the project.

Today, wec ontinue to work together recommending priorities for skills training, working across all ministries and agencies to ensure that the province is aware of the resources that need to be marshalled to ensure workers are trained for tomorrow’s jobs.

In mid-June, we will meet for two days in Terrace to review our progress to date and to plan our actions for the coming year.

The use of temporary foreign workers has been a key part of our discussions and recommendations.

After we have exhausted the supply of B.C. workers and we have reached out across Canada for qualified trades people, then — and only then — do we look at TFWs.

We also recognize that there are unique skills that will be required to build the LNG industry. Some of these skills are not available in B.C. For that reason, we may need to rely on TFWs, but they can help train B.C. workers while they are here so we can fill that skills gap.

In order to ensure that temporary foreign workers will not be replacing British Columbians or Canadians able to do the jobs, the working group has established a committee and its members are working on a protocol to prevent this from happening.

Once a project is built, the operational phase is also going to require skilled workers and we are working now to begin the training process so that British Columbians, particularly those in areas near projects, will have the most opportunity to fill those positions.

Through our combined efforts with First Nations, labour, the proponents and the government we are working to be certain that we have the skilled people we need to build a robust LNG industry that will provide jobs to British Columbians for generations to come.