Workers Win Pay Raise and Cost of Living Agreement
After 136 days, the strike of transit workers in the Whistler area ended on June 14. The lack of any public transit in the area caused real hardship, especially for low-paid workers, as well as to the 80 striking workers.
The workers took strike action on January 29, after working for two years without a contract as the company dragged its feet on negotiations. The workers were demanding pay parity with workers in Metro Vancouver as the Whistler area is just as expensive a place to live, yet they were paid $3 to $5 an hour less.
Whistler is a major tourist centre, both for winter sports and summer recreation, visited by three million people a year. Living in the town is expensive and many of the workers in Whistler live in more affordable neighbouring communities, some up to 60 kilometres away. Without the bus service they had to walk, hitchhike or use taxis to get to and from work, as well as to shop or socialize. Walking is dangerous on the busy highway and taxis could cost $30 a trip.
In spite of the difficulties for the transit riders, the public was strongly supportive of the striking workers, with over 2,000 signing a petition.
After four months, the province finally appointed a mediator whose recommendations were the basis for a settlement. It includes a pay raise of 13.5 percent over five years plus a signing bonus, improved pensions, and benefit coverage for part-time workers, who were previously excluded. They won a Cost-of-Living Adjustment, an important achievement for workers across Canada.
The length of the dispute raises many questions about public transit in this and other smaller BC communities.
Public Transit not Public Subsidies for Private Profits
BC Transit, a publicly-owned corporation, oversees transit across BC in some 83 communities outside of Metro Vancouver. However, in almost all cases, apart from some of the large communities, the actual service is delivered by a private for-profit company. The main provider in the Whistler area is Whistler Transit Ltd which is owned by PWTransit Canada, which in turn is part of the Pacific Western Group of Companies.
Why are public services delivered by companies whose goal is to make money? This is a way for public money to subsidize private profit. Why did the BC government, the ultimate paymaster, let the company drag out the strike for over four months? It could have pointed to the obvious failure to deliver the service it was supposed to, as grounds to review the contract.
Long-Term Failure on Transit
BC Rail was a provincially built and owned rail network that ran from Vancouver to northern BC providing freight and passenger services. It operated at a profit until 2000. In 2002, the passenger rail service that connected Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler and other communities to Prince George in the north was ended.
In 2004 the BC Liberals decided to privatize BC Rail. In a scandal-ridden process they sold a 60-year lease to CN Rail, for a claimed $1 billion. However, due to a tax indemnity scheme CN only really paid $500 million. CN has various options to extend the lease. Technically, the province still owns the railbed and the right of way and a right to run passenger trains.
The entire sale process was mired in dodgy dealings. A company, the Progressive Group owned by BC Liberal insider Patrick Kinsella, was paid by the then publicly owned BC Rail nearly $300,000 to advise on the sale. Two ministerial aides, Basi and Virk, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of breach of trust. The BC government paid them $6.4 million in compensation for their legal costs. Many people suspect there was more going on than ever saw the light of day.
Just as BC was selling off the railway it was preparing for the Winter Olympics of 2010 to be held in Vancouver and Whistler. In 2004 the BC government awarded a $600 million contract to widen the highway from Vancouver to Whistler, in most places, to four lanes. For most of its length, the road hugs the edge of a mountainside perched between high rock walls and the ocean. The widened road had to be carved out of a rock cliff or hung out over the water!
The wider road means a lot more traffic on the route, resulting in more pollution and soaring house prices in Squamish and Whistler, as some people now commute into Vancouver from these communities. The mayor of Squamish, Karen Elliott, said in 2020 that the expanded highway “brought some big city problems … the cost of housing, it went up very quickly. Our vacancy rate has been near zero since 2015.”
The rail line from Vancouver to Whistler and beyond still exists. However, as the BC Liberals — the government of the time — are in love with roads (following on from their Social Credit roots) there was never any idea of upgrading that track to provide passenger rail service. A railway line occupies much less space than a four-lane highway, so less rock would have needed to be carved off the mountains.
Rail would be safer and better for the environment and a great tourist trip, both in itself and to get to Whistler. The rail line could then have been extended north to Pemberton, Lillooet, Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Prince George (where it would cross the rail line between Prince Rupert and Edmonton) and Dawson Creek, to connect large parts of BC by rail.
In BC’s politics, money talks so billions are spent to build highways and other mega-projects and services are privatized. One day BC governments will be forced to end their love of big business and super-highways and provide good quality, reliable and affordable public transit as well as implement policies that are better for the environment and people, putting the needs of workers before the desires of the well-off and big construction companies. Mass movements will force change to put people and the planet first.
