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But the ITA’s numbers show that the ICBA and non-union companies have thousands more apprentices in those trades. Combined, ICBA and non-union companies sponsor 10,329 construction and industrial electrician, plumber, sprinkler fitter, steamfitter-pipefitter and welder apprentices. The unions train 2,073. That’s a margin of 5-1 for the open shop.

And we’re not certain those union-trained apprentices are even staying in B.C. The Piping Industry College is advertising a program to certify Canadian union plumbers to work (and move to) New Zealand. That’s right: the same unions who claim B.C. has a huge worker shortage and constantly fearmonger about foreign workers taking jobs from British Columbians is shipping B.C.-trained plumbers halfway around the world. The first group of B.C. union electricians started working in New Zealand in March.

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All of this makes the NDP government’s move to building trades union-only monopolies on major taxpayer-funded projects so offensive. By forcing all workers on the Pattullo Bridge to join a building trades union and to become an employee of a new Crown corporation is a sop to the unions who donated $2.5 million to the NDP over the past few elections.

Money talks, folks. This gift to the friends and insiders of the NDP isn’t about training or hiring more young people or providing more opportunities for women. Indeed, the statistics prove non-union apprenticeship is thriving. It’s money at the heart of one of the most offensive backroom deals to come out of Victoria in decades.

Chris Gardner is president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association.

Letters to the editor should be sent to provletters@theprovince.com. The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@postmedia.com.

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