Site C Job posting for ‘assisting in temporary foreign worker processes’ emerges

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Fort St. John is today’s target city in BC Hydro’s latest series of Site C dam project job fairs with contractors available from noon until 7 p.m. tonight, at the Pomeroy Hotel to answer questions regarding both the types of jobs available and the hiring process being used to fill them.

Meantime, it didn’t take Premier Clark long to jump into the latest hiring controversy associated with the project.

She used an address to Vancouver’s Board of Trade to make it clear the third dam on the Peace is almost certain to be an election issue next year by taking a verbal swipe at the NDP opposition and questioning why it opposes such job-creating infrastructure projects.

She was responding to questions raised about an online job posting from one of the companies contracted by BC Hydro to work at the dam site and seeking a human resource person to manage temporary foreign workers.

BC Building Trades — the umbrella organization for construction unions in the province — raised the alarm, with Executive Director Tom Sigurdson conceding once it did, the posting on a Fort St. John jobs website was quickly scrubbed.

However, he also says any sourcing of workers from outside Canada for jobs on the dam is offensive, when so many B.C. skilled workers are available.

He remains concerned there’s reason to suspect temporary foreign workers could still be hired under the radar.