Supporting local jobs and creating economic opportunities
Part of maximizing the benefits our projects generate for BC communities is ensuring they generate local and Indigenous job and procurement opportunities.
There are a number of ways we do this, such as working with contractors on their hiring policies or organizing business networking opportunities where local and Indigenous businesses can learn about upcoming work. Whenever possible, we prioritize hiring local businesses and dealing with local suppliers for our projects. Here are some of the benefits generated by our projects in recent years:
- Our FortisBC Gas Line Upgrades project delivered approximately $74 million to local businesses between 2014 and 2019 and created job opportunities with local companies.
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While expanding our Tilbury LNG facility in Delta, we’ve spent more than $136 million in BC since 2014. We’ve partnered with many local businesses on the project, including more than 85 businesses in Delta alone. Many of those businesses prioritized hiring local workers for our project.
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On the Pattullo Gas Line Replacement project in Burnaby, as of 2021, approximately $32.9 million of project spending was with 78 BC-based businesses. We worked closely with our construction contractor to share details about this project – including employment, training and contracting opportunities – with local Indigenous communities and businesses. To date, 13 Indigenous-owned and -affiliated businesses worked on the project, involving contracts worth more than a combined $10 million.
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In 2021, the Inland Gas Upgrades project spent $38.5 million with 190 BC vendors. Of that, approximately $14.2 million was spent locally within the seven communities where construction took place, 66 per cent of which was spent with vendors from 15 local Indigenous-owned or -affiliated businesses.
Creating pathways for employment is another way we support local communities and workers. We partnered with Proactive Safety & First Aid to create a safety officer internship for a member of the Ktunaxa nation in the Kootenay region. In association with the Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment and Training Association, we organized an opportunity for students to spend a day at an active job site near Mackenzie.
Leaving behind a legacy
When we finish work in a neighbourhood, we do our best to leave it better than before we started. One of the ways we do this is by collaborating on legacy projects that people can enjoy long after our work is complete. We work closely with municipalities and community groups to find projects that will be a good fit, and that will benefit the entire community. The projects we’ve contributed to in recent years are as varied as the communities themselves:
- An area in Vancouver known as Little Italy benefited from our partnership with the Commercial Drive Business Society to paint local crosswalks in the red, white and green of the Italian flag.
- The East Kootenay community of Elkford is enjoying a new outdoor meeting space thanks to a number of contributors including FortisBC.
- We contributed to a number of bike and walking trail upgrades in Penticton, Cranbrook, Coquitlam and Burnaby.
- Four-legged community members and their families are benefiting from our contribution to a new agility centre at a Delta animal shelter.
- A community bus hit the road in Mackenzie with FortisBC providing the final funding required to bring the bus into service.
- Our restoration initiatives have also included making improvements to streets and parks, as well as private property such as parking lots, following excavation for gas line construction.
