The Wuskwatim generating station, about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg, will be able to produce 200 megawatts of power for Manitoba Hydro and its customers when it is operational in 2011.(wuskwatim.ca) Manitoba carpenters say the majority of construction jobs at the $1.3-billion Wuskwatim Dam project are going to workers from outside the province.

A $289-million construction contract for the hydroelectric project was awarded in December 2008 to the O'Connell-Neilson-EBC Partnership, a consortium of three firms from Quebec and Newfoundland.

That contract included work for building earth dams and dykes, concrete superstructures rock excavation and cofferdams.

'The hiring process has loopholes in it that the company has discovered in order to get through the obligations that were made to Manitobans.'—Brian Smith, United Brotherhood of Carpenters

At the time, Manitoba Hydro said preference for employment should be given to Manitobans.

But the United Brotherhood of Carpenters said the consortium has been hiring most of its workers from Quebec and Newfoundland.

Out of 188 carpenters on the job last month, just 20 were from Manitoba, according to union spokesman Brian Smith.

And out of 20 apprentices, just two were from Manitoba, he said.

"I don't know what deals were cut where or by whom or how, but I know that there's a concerted effort to get the training for out-of-province people so they can take it back and work on projects in other provinces," Smith said.

Crews at work on the Wuskwatim generating station site. (hmiconstruction.ca)"The hiring process has loopholes in it that the company has discovered in order to get through the obligations that were made to Manitobans."

Hydro spokesman Glenn Schneider said the utility simply "came up short" in finding qualified Manitobans.

"The availability hasn't been there. There's quite a bit of work that's still going on in Manitoba — a number of major projects — and its sometimes difficult to attract even apprentices to a northern location that's isolated and away from family and friends and on a shift cycle," he said.

The Wuskwatim project is a joint venture between Manitoba Hydro and the Nisichawayasihk Cree — the first time the Crown-owned utility has entered into an equity partnership with a First Nations community on a generating project.

The dam and generating station, about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg, will be able to produce 200 megawatts of power for Manitoba Hydro and its customers.

Work on the project began in 2006 and the generating facility is expected to open in 2011.

Bruce Steiner, a carpenter in The Pas, was told he wasn't qualified when he applied for a job at the Wuskwatim site.

'That's not only today's employment but it's the training for the future that's even more disconcerting.'—Progressive Conservative MLA Rick Borotsik

"Everybody I talk to in The Pas says that the same thing's happening to everybody — it's all easterners out there working. There's very few northerners [from Manitoba] up there," he said.

Opposition MLA Rick Borotsik, the Progressive Conservative Hydro critic, said the lack of Manitobans working on the project is a big loss.

"That's not only today's employment but it's the training for the future that's even more disconcerting," he said.

Most of the work for carpenters at Wuskwatim is now done, but Smith said better assurances for Manitoba workers must be put in place for the next big projects — the Keeyask generating station, a 640-megawatt dam to be built at Gull Rapids on the Nelson River; and the Conawapa generating station, a 1,485-megawatt hydroelectric dam on the Lower Nelson River.

Requiring contractors to hire a specified number of Manitobans is not a prudent thing to do, said Schneider. Asking that Manitobans be given priority is one thing, but forcing the companies hire locally could negatively impact the project.

"Trying to put conditions on a contractor when we also have an obligation to bring the project in on time and on budget is not appropriate in terms of trying to run a multi-million-dollar project," he said.

"We have to give the contractor some latitude in terms of actually getting the work done with the people that the contractor deems are necessary to get the job done."