Don’t abandon community benefits agreements

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/09/2016 (3330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An audit of the East Side Road project conducted by Manitoba’s auditor general revealed gaps in how the community benefits agreements and the untendered pre-construction contracts were being managed. Tory insiders attempted to paint Tuesday’s report as “scathing,” but it was hardly that. It’s largely moot anyway, because the concerns were addressed to the East Side Road Authority, which no longer exists. This is now Manitoba Infrastructure’s headache.

There’s little doubt Premier Brian Pallister looked to the audit as justification for dismantling the East Side Road Authority in May.

While he states he remains committed to completing the project, with an estimated cost of about $3 billion, the premier is returning to his playbook of slashing costs and keeping his eye on the public purse.

It’s all very prudent and certainly something on which he campaigned. Manitobans signalled they were tired of the NDP government with a history of project cost overruns, tendering issues such as the Tiger Dam fiasco and increased debt.

Except Mr. Pallister announced Tuesday the project will continue without the community benefits agreements with First Nations communities. The agreements offered training and mentoring by the ESRA and provided access to untendered pre-construction work contracts.

The ESRA worked with First Nations communities to establish construction companies so eventually they could work on the East Side Road. Giving these organizations access to pre-construction contracts ensured small, local companies could compete and indigenous people were trained and provided meaningful employment.

In other words, it meant jobs and a bump to the economy in the region. But this is something the new government has ideologically rejected.

Now, Mr. Pallister has said the concept behind the project was commendable.

“The idea in theory of what the government was doing was great — invest in the betterment of the people in that area, not just the road,” Mr. Pallister said.

“We don’t know if there was residual advantages. We know training was offered and no such monitoring was done to ensure people got jobs.”

That’s fixable. Monitoring can occur. The agreements are still workable. But that no longer seems to be the plan.

It is obviously not a project that is going to be straightforward from beginning to completion. It is also not a project that will be inexpensive to complete. There are still a lot of variables that need to be addressed, including environmental assessments and issues with the Manitoba Métis Federation, which complained the ESRA had not properly consulted with that organization regarding the effect of the road on traditional hunting and fishing lands.

Despite this, it’s an important and necessary project, one that will connect 36,000 people living on the east side of Lake Winnipeg who currently have no reliable mode of transportation to connect them with the south.

The Pallister government has already turned its back on Manitoba’s north, with Omintrax in Churchill and Tolko in the Pas closing down, throwing hundreds of people out of work. It can’t ignore the interests of First Nations residents trying to gain important experience on projects that keep their families fed and their communities thriving.

Or can it?