Vancouver 2010 - Winter Olympics dealing with Labour Shortages and Cost Overruns


Greg Joyce, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 15, 2005

VANCOUVER -- The 2010 Winter Olympics are four years away but already concerns about labour shortages and ballooning construction costs are prompting Canada to scour other countries for skilled labour.

As construction on Olympic venues moves into overdrive in 2006, organizers, politicians and construction experts alike say they're increasingly worried that a shortage of skilled workers will pose serious problems for the Games.

"I know contractors that have been to Europe; they've conducted job fairs in England, France, Belgium and other parts of Europe,'' says Manley McLachlan, vice-president of the B.C. Construction Association. "We're very conscious of a shortage right now of certainly the fully skilled workers. This is going to be an ongoing challenge, not only for Olympic projects but for projects going beyond the Olympics.''

Vancouver-Whistler was awarded the Games in July 2003 on a bid that set aside $470 million (in 2002 dollars) split between the federal and B.C. governments for construction and renovation of venues. But that isn't going to be enough -- a point conceded by all involved, including the B.C. cabinet minister responsible for the Games.

Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen says the province has committed a fixed total of $600 million for construction, endowments and legacy, and included in that is a $139-million contingency fund for cost overruns.

The chief executive officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) warns that a major construction boom is already underway in B.C. and that construction costs -- including Games construction -- could escalate by as much as 50 per cent.

John Furlong has also expressed concerns, again echoed by several economists and Hansen, about the shortage of skilled workers at a critical time.

"We don't have enough of the skilled trades necessary just to carry out the functional construction tasks,'' said Lindsay Meredith, an economics professor at Simon Fraser University. "When you've already got shortages showing up and you get a huge black hole like the Olympics, it's going to suck in everything in sight.''

Referring to the labour shortage, she added: "I'd try to poach everything that was breathing.''

The 2010 Olympics "come at a time when we are not drawing on a big pool of unemployed people,'' says Maurice Levi, professor of international finance at the University of British Columbia.

"If there were times you would have wished the Games on us, it would be at a time when the economy is slow.''

Games organizers, said Hansen, anticipated the possible labour shortage, which is why they are beginning to build venues four years in advance and plan to have most of the projects completed by 2008.

That would avoid the problems of some previous Olympics, such as Athens in 2004, when workers were still finishing sites in the days before opening ceremonies.

The government is also trying to help alleviate the labour shortage by importing workers and increasing skills training, said Hansen.

Companies have been recruiting in central and eastern Canada for skilled workers, he said.

"In addition, we have a program we use when an employer identifies a skilled worker. We can fast-track their immigration status.''

B.C. is also significantly increasing the amount of workers engaged in skills training. In the past 20 months, the number of registered apprentices in the province has increased to more than 23,000 from less than 15,000, he said, with the goal to have more than 30,000 registered apprentices in place by 2007.

But no one should hold out any hope that the B.C. government is going to cough up any more money to deal with increased labour costs, Hansen said.

"We've made it quite clear to (the organizing committee) that the $600 million from the province is it. They have to manage all their cost pressures within that allocation.''

The Games organizers have already received "well over what they anticipated in terms of their sponsorship revenues,'' he added. "Their costs are going up but so are their revenues.''

However, Hansen suggested Ottawa might increase its funding if the Games go over budget.

"When it came to the increased cost pressures that everybody knew would be happening, they were going to deal with those as they arose,'' he said.

The labour shortage will continue until well after the Olympics, the B.C. Construction Association says.

The organization, working with the Ottawa-based Construction Sector Council, forecasts an array of projects in the province totalling about $70 billion through 2013.

Put in perspective, the total construction cost of Olympic venues is about one per cent of that total, said McLachlan.

"The overarching message we've seen is that by 2013, we're going to need 50 per cent more workers in the industry than we had in the year 2004 -- about 60,000 people,'' he said.

Which could mean good news for anyone looking for a job in B.C.

David Green, a labour economist at UBC, says skilled labour shortages and rising commodity prices "will mean that wages for skilled workers and prices for the inputs to all this construction will go up around here.''
-- Hospital wait times, lost manufacturing jobs, high school dropout rates and expensive decisions on electricity supply will challenge the Ontario government in 2006, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Thursday.

"I'm pleased with our progress, but I'm not satisfied," the premier told reporters in a state-of-the-union type address before the close of the fall legislative session.

"There are still far too many young people dropping out of high school. We still have to get class sizes down. We still have to do more to reduce (hospital) wait times. And we still have to find a way to work with the private sector to make our economy stronger."

Provincial members of parliament don't have to return to the Ontario legislature until Feb. 13.

The fall session, which began in early October, saw the introduction of bills including proposed legislation to make it mandatory for students to remain in school until age 18 and a City of Toronto act that would give the city greater powers, including over taxation.

Both those pieces of legislation, along with an imminent decision on whether to build new nuclear reactors to prevent electricity shortages, proved controversial for McGuinty.

And opposition critics continue to charge that the McGuinty government is all about broken promises.

They're still pointing to the health-care premium introduced in 2004 as the biggest reversal of a provincial election policy. But they've also attacked the premier in recent weeks over decisions to lift a freeze on post-secondary tuition fees, private health-care deals and perceived delays in hiring more police officers amid a shooting spree in Toronto.

"I think that what voters are going to look at is my record in its entirety," McGuinty said, noting that his relationship with voters was made "difficult" by the health-care tax.

Similarly, he said he won't shy away from the nuclear debate. The province is reportedly eyeing a massive multibillion-dollar expansion of nuclear power supply in Ontario to ensure future supply isn't at risk.

That looming decision, along with the Toronto act, will "test" the government's popularity around the province, he said.

"I won't run away from any of those issues and I hope that Ontarians understand that...what I'm really all about is trying to work as hard as I can to do the best that I can for all Ontarians."

But critics continue to blast McGuinty on the jobs front.

Some 52,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Ontario last year, with the automotive and forestry sectors hit particularly hard.

The Conservatives have accused the premier of taking a "callous" attitude towards those lost jobs. They demanded Tony Wong, parliamentary assistant to McGuinty's ministerial portfolio for research and innovation, quit after calling communities suffering job losses "crying babies."

Wong later apologized for the remark and McGuinty has said the issue is closed.

New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton said one of the government's biggest errors is in energy. He said the province has allowed electricity prices to soar, forcing forestry companies to leave northern Ontario and take manufacturing jobs with them.

"By simply driving up the price...you will chase those industries that are electricity-intensive out of the province," Hampton said.

"And that's what's happening."

McGuinty maintains that Ontario isn't alone in losing manufacturing jobs. He said many U.S. states and other provinces are also struggling with China paying as little as 25 cents an hour for its labourers.

The answer, he said, is for Ontario to invest in a highly skilled labour force.

"To hang on to our manufacturing jobs, we have to find a way to transition to them to a point where they're more productive and more value-added," the premier said.

"It would be a mistake to think that we don't have to change in order to maintain our growth and prosperity. We do have to change."

© The Canadian Press 2005