Just one question; why are the unions listed, international unions? Does this mean that U.S. workers are going to be working up here on it? That is if it ever goes ahead.
Just wondering why they would sign on international instead of Canadian.

There aren’t any pipeline builder experts in Canada. (Rollie eyes!)

Oh, this is going to be so exciting.

We really don’t have that much of a say in the matter. The Feds are making this decision, not the Review Panel.

They are going to say build, Next day the dirt is going to turn.

I believe the hiring halls work like this…
Red seal members from BC have first shot at these jobs, followed by members from other parts of Canada. Next in line would be non-union qualified tradesmen from BC then the rest of Canada who are issued a work permit. When there are no qualified Canadians available the unions bring in qualified tradesmen from other countries to work on projects here. They get the same compensation, including benefits, as Canadian members.

A little different than what AW, Timmys and McD’s try to pull off. Good to see the head office’s pull their franchises when they get caught lying and cheating…

Give me more, that is just the name of the unions, no conspiracy.

Just because it has international or North America does NOT mean they will be bringing in USA workers. It’s just the unions they are saying they will be using.

Personally I don’t trust enbridge as I love my province and with their history of spills I cringe at what the will do to our beautiful land when they have a spill, not if, but when. They have numerous spills every year ..

In all that I have been reading, sounds like Enbridge is better than TransCanada.

I love the way TransCanada handled Evan Vokes. Hope the NEB hires Evan Vokes, that would make all the pipelines review work practices in the field.

Canadian workers put in thousands of miles of pipe every year. We have qualified workers, engineers and QA/QC people. These kinds of worker may not be prevalent in the immediate area, but there are lots of contractors in Alberta that has done bigger jobs than this. Don’t be surprised once it starts, we have the sludge flowing with in 24 months. They will start digging in a dozen location, and will be connecting the lines at the pumping stations.

Not surprised Enbridge is coming out with a positive story to try and counter-act all the negative stories in the press last week.

Must assure their investors, don’t you know!

Harper will most likely try to push this pipeline through despite a lack of social license, and massive opposition to it, as most Dick-tators tend to do.

“The MOU guarantees a minimum target of about 2,100 person years of employment of union labour on the project.”

According to Enbridge Northern Gateway’s May 2010 Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment (ESA) – Human Environment, application filing B3-16 page 4-17, direct onsite person years of employment during construction of the project is 5,537. Another 17,227 person years of direct employment are attributed to purchases of goods and services from suppliers and service providers.

So, by entering into the MOU the union bosses are supposedly securing 2,100 person years of employment for their members. What about the remaining person years of employment mentioned in Enbridge Northern Gateway’s application, who will be doing that work?
The following evidence and JRP condition answers that question.

Enbridge Northern Gateway’s sworn witness, Mr. Fiddler, replied during JRP questioning Vol. 105:

“With regard to employment and the contractors, the large bore contract — pipeline contractors community is a community that we’re very familiar with and we’ve got extensive experience with and, as I mentioned earlier, have ongoing discussions. Ultimately, there are cycles in the economy where they do need to recruit and have foreign — employ foreign worker programs.”

“An element of that at this stage that we’ve talked with them about is a “U.S. First” approach…”

“Similarly, we will get into those discussions with the tank builders relative to the Kitimat terminal. Tank construction, again, is predominantly a union — union labour focus and there are a limited number of companies in Canada that build large-diameter hydrocarbon tanks.”

The JRP gave full recognition of temporary foreign worker hires in Condition 26 of their recommendations:

Temporary Foreign Worker Labour Market Opinion

a) Northern Gateway must notify the NEB within 14 days after any application is made to Service Canada for a Labour Market Opinion by it, on its behalf, or by its contractors, for the purposes of using Temporary Foreign Workers for Project construction.
b) Northern Gateway must file with the NEB a copy of any Service Canada-issued Labour Market Opinion within 14 days of it or its contractors receiving it.”

The estimated employment numbers mentioned in Enbridge Northern Gateway’s application were derived on the assumption of 100% domestic procurement of pipe for the project. According to replies given by Enbridge witnesses during questioning (transcript Vol. 105), the pipe they are now proposing to use is not manufactured in Canada; Enbridge has spoken with Korean company Daewoo about provision of the pipe. Foreign procurement of the pipe will reduce the number of jobs for Canadians.

Intervener, Is there a Canadian pipe manufacturer that is capable of supplying this pipe. I am sure there are distributors but, I don’t think there is a manufacturer.

The biggest problem we have is we have the iron to make the steel. We have coal and the gas to make the steel. We even have foundries that has the blast furnace to make the steel.

But the mills are outdated and can not meet production rates to keep per unit price down. The technology to make the precise steel is not affordable. The market place in Canada is too small and the production would be too much. Thus China and the far west countries has been providing us the steel. Sad, but that is economics.

Enbridge, the unions are on the side of jobs for the people of Canada. Don’t confuse that with on your side in favor of your pipeline.

@Dragonmaster: Who are you presuming to speak on behalf of?

He Spoke – see excerpt below from the November 22, 2012 Transcript 106, a reply from Enbridge witness regarding manufacture of the pipe in Canada.

MR. TOM FIDDLER:

“The 22-millimetre plus 36-inch diameter pipe that we’ve committed to, from a safety perspective creates a challenge for the current — well, currently there’s aren’t mills in Canada that are tooled to produce that wall thickness of — at that diameter of pipe.”

Contradictory to that reply given by the Enbridge witness during questioning, was a reply given by an Enbridge executive during their Community Advisory Board conference in May 2013.

A Community Advisory Board member asked where the pipe for the project will come from and if there will be sufficient supply; the reply was:

“Enbridge has long-term contracts with Canadian companies that manufacture steel. There is a limit to capacity and therefore there will be a competition to source product from Canadian companies if multiple pipelines are approved.”

I think it highly unlikely that Canadian pipe manufactures were able to re-tool their operations in that six-month period, making me question why the difference in replies.

Of interest to note – keeping in mind that the employment, economic and taxation numbers are derived on an assumption of 100% domestic procurement of the pipe, here is the effect foreign procurement of the pipe will have on those numbers according to Enbridge’s response to the Federal Government’s Round 2 information request, evidence B46-2:

– construction period employment would be reduced by roughly 3000 person years
– construction period value added would decline by about $850 million (in 2009 dollars)
– construction period government revenues would be reduced by approximately $100 million

There was an article in the Financial Post on March 28,2012, which says that PetroChina wants to bid on building the Enbridge pipeline.

I wonder if this is still on the table.