BCGEU Launches Highway Maintenance Campaign

Monday, January 21, 2008 08:31 PM

Highways maintenance worker, Dan Baker, outside City Council Chambers

Prince George, B.C. - A highways maintenance worker from Terrace has appeared before Prince George City Councillors this evening to raise awareness about a new BCGEU campaign targeting maintenance issues on the province’s roadways.

Dan Baker says since the provincial government privatized highway contracts back in 1988, maintenance of the roadways has been in decline. He says a $30-million dollar cut in provincial funding in 2002 further compounded the issue, leading to cuts in the number of front line highways workers. Baker adds cuts within the Ministry of Transportation, itself, has led to further problems with the private contractors now regulating themselves, "they are their own watchdogs."

Baker says after 2002, there were a few mild winters, but with true winters returning, the BCGEU is now hearing a growing number of safety concerns from the motoring public.

As part of this safety campaign, the BC Government and Services Employee Union has produced a checklist for the motoring public to take with them on the road. The checklist also contains the numbers of the province’s private contractors. (For more information on the campaign, click here)

Prince George Council has referred Baker's request to endorse a resolution calling on the Ministry of Transportation to enhance the monitoring and reporting of highways maintenance to its Resolutions Committee for consideration.

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Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 08:31 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on January 22 2008 12:59 AM

Now why would the city do that? Has the city received information that isn't tainted? Just doesn't seem right to knee jerk this one. The MoT isn't likely to bother replying if the city is frivolous or being used by a union agenda. Looks more like a contract dispute that anything else.

Posted by: Eagleone on January 22 2008 5:41 AM

I disagree and think it is more of a needed public service that is being exposed.

I think this Dan Baker guy is on the right track when it comes to enhancing the accountability of our road maintenance of provinicial highways for the public rather than the contractors. A simple flow chart would show that that link is broken right now.

Posted by: buddy on January 22 2008 6:27 AM

It's time we start demanding better road maintenance instead of blaming drivers for not being able to control vehicles on our roads. Quality and quantity of maintenance has been on a steady decline since privatization.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 22 2008 8:57 AM

Tell us what we had already suspected for a long time!
Campbell government...plain and simple.
Time to fess up Gordon!

Posted by: lostfaith on January 22 2008 9:33 AM

I am speaking as a former truck driver who travelled our northern sections of highway on a daily basis for 3 years.
First of all we need to remember that it's not the plow/sand truck and other equipment operators that decide whether or not they should actually go out and make our roads safe. It's the call of the managers of our private road maintenance contractors. Why is it that the highway from PG to Bednesti and PG to the double pullout near the Huble farm road are so dangerous to drive after a snow storm. Yet, when you get to these points and beyond the roads are mysteriously pretty darn good? Why is it that it takes fatal crashes on our local area highways before we see sand trucks out there, usually because the RCMP have called them out.The Vandehoof and Bear lake area road maintenance team does a really good job, my hats off to you. Keep up the good work.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 22 2008 9:54 AM

Well said lostfaith, and quite true!

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on January 22 2008 10:34 AM

Well then the concern the city council must respond to is to urge the Minister not to allow the current contractor to renew, and possibly early termination for non-performance.

That way the whole gang goes down the road. The public does not have to put up with anyones agenda or petty fighting. We are paying for service and should be getting it. That's the beauty of privatization, the consumer is the only one that matters, never mind the rest of the BS.

You can't have people getting killed and say "Oh well, it wasn't us." Bull - you are fired and we get someone else. Clearly the current bunch have lost sight of the objective. Unions strike and managers try to cut service - good bye, and hire someone else. And if they screw up fire them too. No one is going to use lives as pawns.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 22 2008 10:41 AM

...well said Yama!
That pretty much sums up the way i have always felt about privatization...aka,government downloading!

Posted by: gitterdun on January 22 2008 11:03 PM

The contractors can only do as much as the government is willing to pay for.....if the goverment has pid the contractor for 1000 hrs of snowplows and we get lots of snow what is going to happen if 1000 hrs isn't enough? Baker told council that the government has cut funding. If mother nature is going to revert to the heavy snowfall winters of the past then the government needs to improve funding. Maybe the rate needs to vary with the amount/days of snowfall.