Hire only Ontarians for Ring of Fire work

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Monday, May 4, 2015

Peter Collins, chief of Fort William First Nation, wants to get away from out-sourcing work when they have qualified people that can do it. I take my hat off to him and maybe the provincial government should take a page out of his book. Here’s what I’m talking about.

In 2014 I worked at a hydro dam project on the lower Mattagami River north of Kapuskasing. The general contractor was based in Quebec and brought their workers. There were a lot of Ontario trades people there but why so many Quebecers?

For us, going to Quebec to work is next to impossible, and if you do you don’t know what your vehicle will look like when you get off work or who’s waiting for you.

This project was funded with our tax and hydro dollars; all of the workforce should come from Ontario and all products from the food we ate to the toilet paper and everything in between should come from Ontario distributors and retailers.

If this was put out to contractors bidding on these jobs everybody would be playing on the same field.

The Liberals have offered to put up $1 billion towards the Ring of Fire project. How many of the companies working on it will be based in Quebec and bring in their workers, leaving Ontario workers at home?

Any and all companies looking for funding for projects in Ontario should have to go by the same guidelines. They’re our tax dollars and they should support us.

This problem has been going on for years and no political party or politician will tackle it for fear of shortening their political futures or the future of their counterparts in Quebec.

Politicians don’t make a move unless there are votes in it.

Al Arvelin

Thunder Bay