10/15/2026
IMPORTANT STATEMENT
𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞
BC Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson seems to have a message for the skilled tradespeople working on the Massey Tunnel replacement project. That message is “your work doesn’t matter.”
The BC Conservatives announced this morning its plan to scrap the Massey Tunnel replacement project in favour of a bridge, despite more than $581 million already spent on the tunnel replacement and a hard-fought commitment from the federal government to contribute $3 billion to the project.
“Our members have been working on this project for almost a year,” said Nav Malhotra, Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer of LiUNA Local 1611. “In fact, our work dates back several years if we include all the highway corridor improvements that have also been part of the tunnel program. Lorne Doerkson is prepared to sink all of that work in one hasty announcement that is motivated not by common sense but by anti-worker ideology.”
The Massey Tunnel replacement project is being completed under a Project Labour Agreement, ensuring workers have access to good wages and benefits while building vital public infrastructure. Earlier this year, BC Conservative MLA Kiel Giddens introduced a private member’s bill to kill PLAs on public infrastructure. The bill was defeated.
“The BC Conservatives and their various forerunners, alliances and spinoffs—the BC Liberals, BC United, CentreBC and OneBC—have routinely demonstrated contempt and disrespect for regular working people, and this is just another example of that behaviour.
“We are well aware of the BC Conservatives’ malice toward organized labour,” said Malhotra. “But we are stunned they would waste $581 million in taxpayer dollars and thumb their nose at $3 billion from the federal government just to make a political point.
“Lorne Doerkson has just given us 581 million reasons why his party is not ready to lead this province,” Malhotra added.
