What a disappointment... No wonder I haven't heard much about it.

Fixed that for you. (Memories of the ghastly expensive Island Highway comes to mind.)

Lol what highways are "unionized" in BC then?

^ I think that was an attempt to correlate construction contracts awarded to unionized construction companies as somehow more expensive

Having worked on both union and non-union projects (being exempt) I can attest that's pretty much a fallacy

Going back in time, the island highway was rammed through by an NDP government at costs well-above market as it required that a unionized construction company be used.

If you're asking the question, then that just shows how little you know. Thanks for playing.

Well a lot has changed since the '70s. The NDP only won one election in the '70's, the rest of the time it was a Social Credit government in power.

If you want to talk corruption, I think the Social Credit has a leg up on the NDP in that regard.

The NDP of the '90s spent a lot on infrastructure in fact. Not without some boondoggles and scandals, but they did build stuff.

Long live the fast ferries! :haha:

Yeah that was something else. What a mess

Here's the story I was referring to from the 90s:

http://vancouversun.com/opinion/opin...e-same-old-ndp

"When the Island Highway was built using a union-only approach, for example, labour costs were inflated by more than $70 million as a result. Effectively, significant public money was diverted from any number of other important potential uses to pay for a union premium"

Without any corroboration I find that figure a little spurious. While I was no fan of the NDP in the 90’s this piece is more of a hatchet job by an obviously biased writer

Well I'm not hear to watch you plug your ears and say "fake news".

https://books.google.ca/books?id=5De...20cost&f=false

and

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...x5qynZ9RFFzkUZ

"The Vancouver Island Highway project of the 1990s is a close-to-home example of a PLA in action. Thanks to the deal handed to unions by the NDP government of the day, taxpayers and island drivers paid $72 million in higher costs that resulted in overpasses being scrapped and replaced with stoplights. They got less for more."

And with that, I'm done. Anybody around here in the early 90s is generally well-acquainted with the story.

^ Thank-you. I'm sorry but I'm not as gullible to just accept some op. ed. piece by an obviously biased writer as fact. If your inclination is to call anyone questioning a biased source as a "fake news" propagator I'd give your critical thinking skills a reality check

Were the woes on the Malahat the direct result of the PLA ?(And thank-you for brining that up... It's a term I don't think I've heard since I lived in Vancouver some 20 years ago... but I remember it now) Knowing the government of the time, very possibly. Were there other contributing factors though or was it all the fault of union labor ?

I think it's a bit of a stretch to equate union labor with higher project costs, just as it's a bit of a stretch to equate open shop labor with low quality. Both assumptions are made regularly.

Is the twinning near the east end of Yoho National Park almost done?

The Parks Canada website says "spring 2018" so we should be driving on it by summer. It also mentions planning, consultation, assessments, studies, etc. are underway to complete the remaining 40kms through Yoho (Phase IVB) but there is presently no funding committed for construction. Lets hope the Feds pony up for this so work can keep pushing westward with the twinning & upgrades. Then once work is done in Yoho they can carry on to Glacier and Mt. Revelstoke NPs.
PLEASE!
:fingerscrossed:

I really wonder how much BC has to pressure the Feds in order to get it done then...

Yeah, does make you wonder - probably takes extensive lobbying of the Feds. And judging by what Metro-One has stated about the current NDP government in BC, highway and road upgrade projects are not something they are interested in. :(:hell:

This also doesn’t help:
https://www.columbiavalleypioneer.co...-construction/

I’m sorry to hear that you guys are gonna pay more for less, again...

Called it, I'm sad to say.

At this point, I’m actually glad that NDP has suspended most highway programs. For example, if twinning TCH costs more because of this and yet there are lights here and there, I would rather that it be not done at all. I would rather that the road-building party come back and do it properly (and by that I mean bypassing small towns along the way, sorry people). :D I know they won’t like it, but there are only 2 options: business or safety of all. When the risk of latter far outweighs the former due to high volume of traffic, they will realize that it’s not worth opposing those bypasses.

Disclaimer: It’s only my opinion.