Community Benefits program on track to create hundreds of local jobs

Kathleen Wynne announces deal between government, business, labour to ensure 10% of work hours go to disadvantaged local community members in Eglinton Crosstown project.

Thestar.com
Dec. 7, 2016
By Sara Mojtehedzadeh

Decent pay. Pride. Responsibility. Swagger. It’s the goal of a now-finalized agreement, a promise made to young people, women, and minority workers living along the forthcoming Eglinton Crosstown rail line.

After years of negotiations, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Wednesday a deal between government, business, and labour to ensure 10 per cent of the work hours needed to complete Canada’s largest transportation project will go to disadvantaged local community members.

It’s expected to create around 300 positions in the area - and to set a precedent for using infrastructure projects to pump money, skills training, and jobs into neighbourhoods that need it most.

“All along this line, there are people who are having trouble getting into the workforce,” Wynne said. “A project like the Crosstown LRT is a chance to change that. It’s a chance to provide those opportunities.”

The Crosstown’s so-called Community Benefits Agreement is the first large-scale initiative of its kind in Ontario. The idea is to use infrastructure projects that attract millions of dollars in spending more purposefully - to create solid employment and apprenticeship opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups.

As previously reported by the Star, the model has been widely praised in the United States for revitalizing communities and tackling precarious work. Prominent organizations like the United Way and the Atkinson Foundation (the charitable foundation connected to the Star) have promoted the framework locally.

Hundreds of workers from the seven low-income areas traversed by the 19-kilometre, $5.3 billion dollar Eglinton Crosstown project will now receive construction and trades training through education centres set up by local unions - who are guaranteeing job placements for those who complete their skills-building programs.

“I’m pretty happy because I know a lot now that I probably would never have known. You don’t usually get jobs after (these kinds of) programs. That’s where I see the value,” says Daniel Turlon, 27, who lives at Jane and Sheppard.

“Fifty per cent or more of Toronto (residents) are now minorities, and still they’re the ones being left back when it comes to jobs and opportunities,” adds Rosemarie Powell, the executive director of the Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN). “This is a real opportunity for society to say no, we care about you.”

An agreement in principle for a Crosstown community benefits framework was struck in 2014. Crosslinx, a construction consortium, won the bid for phase two of the initiative last year and the light rail line’s first station broke ground in March. But it has taken months to negotiate specific local hiring targets.

Originally TCBN proposed that 15 per cent of employee hours on the Crosstown should go to people with employment barriers, including women, aboriginal people, racialized workers, and new Canadians. The final agreement is slightly lower, but community and labour groups say they are thrilled.

“We are a city that’s always been built by immigrants and refugees and their descendents,” said John Cartwright, President of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council.

“Now we want to make sure that the next generations that are here also have an opportunity to come into (the construction) industry, are able to move up and set up their own companies, or be union stewards.”

The agreement will also place workers into technical and administrative roles on the transit project. Andres Izquierdo was a project manager in his native Venezuela before moving to Canada “to start from zero.” After years of re-training, he’s now been hired by Crosslinx to work on the Crosstown initiative.

“I’m glad to hear this skills development incentive is moving forward and the government is more interested to have a long-term investment in people. We need to invest in people and new immigrants,” he said.

The Crosstown agreement will serve as a test of the community benefits model - and as a template for future projects like the $1-billion Finch LRT, which will run through several historically disadvantaged areas in North Etobicoke.

“We're building transit, we're building infrastructure, but we're building stronger more inclusive communities,” Wynne said. “And that's what this is about.”