CBT questioned on 'local' hires
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
Several regional district directors have called for the Waneta Dam expansion to expand its scope of what it deems a ‘local’ hire.
Currently the Columbia Basin Trust — a 49 per cent stakeholder in the $900-million expansion on the Pend d’Oreille River south of Trail — had required that 85 per cent of the over 400 new jobs created in the project be hired from within a 100-kilometre radius of the work site (excluding the U.S.).
However, several Regional District of Central Kootenay directors questioned the merit of leaving out several key and affected areas in the West Kootenay, like the northern half of the Slocan Valley, Kaslo, the East Shore and Nakusp.
Area K director (Arrow Lakes) Paul Peterson said the 100-km. radius policy was too restrictive in its wording.
“Was there a particular reason you said 100 kilometre as opposed to 200 kilometres or 300 kilometres? Because it just seems like this (project) is just next door to places like Kaslo,” he asked.
CBT’s vice president of investments, Johnny Strilaeff, said he did not know how that radius was arrived at.
“What we’ve heard … there is well in excess of 85 per cent of the workforce that would be local by this definition chosen,” he said. “That would absolutely not preclude any one from those areas you mentioned submitting an employment inquiry.”
Area B director and regional district vice chair John Kettle said he didn’t know why they chose the number, instead of just defining ‘local’ as the Columbia Basin.
“You put yourself into a box, frankly, by choosing that number,” he said.
CBT president and CEO, Neil Muth, said the concerns would be taken into account as the CBT revises its policy on the Waneta expansion.
Area D director Andy Shadrack also wondered if there would be a training agreement in place to offset the large amount of youth unemployment in the region.
“Within the trade groups there are apprenticeship opportunities,” said Strilaeff. “I don’t know if there have been positions singled out for those opportunities.”
The CBT is one of the partners in the $900-million project that will see the design and addition of a new generating plant to the concrete gravity dam south of Trail, making use of a current surplus of water to generate more electricity.
The project is now underway, with new hires already falling into place to fill the vacancies. Over $162 million in wages over a four-and-a-half year period is expected to be poured into the West Kootenay region as a result of the workforce the expansion will create.
