Editor: Re: New model will cost taxpayers, Record, Aug. 2.
In his opinion piece, Keith Baldrey takes issue with the NDP’s new Community Benefits Agreement. The agreement, among other things, stipulates the condition that all workers on public infrastructure projects be unionized and that underrepresented groups like women and Indigenous people be included more in hiring.
Baldrey argues that the added costs of this condition to projects like the replacement of the Pattullo Bridge is something that should trouble taxpayers. It is more fruitful, however, to think of the issue not just in terms of weighing the costs and benefits to taxpayers, but more broadly in terms of weighing the costs and benefits to the community. It is surely desirable to live in a community in which work is given to those who reside locally, remunerated at a fair wage, and provided in a spirit of inclusivity. If the Community Benefits Agreement helps to realize these things, it may not be ideology that has won the day – as Baldrey asserts – but rather justice.
Elliot Rossiter, New Westminster
