Quebec company will hire New Brunswickers

Last Updated: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 | 3:42 PM ET

CBC News

Road builders in New Brunswick are fuming over a highway contract that's been awarded to a firm in Quebec. Local construction firms worry about the loss of jobs in New Brunswick but the company that awarded the contract to Quebec says workers in New Brunswick will still see a lot of work.

The contract in question is for grading work on a stretch of highway between Mill Cove and the Canaan River. The Maritime Road Development Corporation won't say how much the contract is worth, only that it's significantly less than the $20-million price tag Opposition politicians raised on the floor of the New Brunswick legislature Tuesday.

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MRDC awarded the contract to a Quebec firm because they had the lowest bid. That has road builders in this province upset.

Jim Hughson, the manager of the Road Builders Association of New Brunswick, says past experience has shown that Quebec companies don't usually hire New Brunswick workers.

"If you go back to past history, in recent years, there have been a number of Quebec firms that have come in to the province to do various aspects of work. And in all of those cases, they have brought their own workforces with them," he says.

Sharon Pond of MRDC says the Quebec company is committed to hiring New Brunswick workers.

"They figure that by the time they're done, they may have as high as 90% or plus on the labour side. They're in the province right now hiring people to work on the equipment -- labour, supervisors, those kinds of positions," she says.

Pond says the Quebec company also plans to buy about 80% of its goods from New Brunswick suppliers -- maybe even more. She says this is just one of many contracts and the vast majority of the highway construction work is going to New Brunswickers.