Local 793 President Dave Turple represented the Local at the Canada’s Building Trades Unions’ (CBTU) annual conference in Gatineau, Quebec, this past week, which included a stop in Ottawa to attend a Day of Mourning ceremony.
President Turple was joined by the leaders of many other Locals from across the country, as well as IUOE Canadian Region Director, Patrick Campbell. Across three days at the Hilton Lac-Leamy venue, they were able to question guest speakers such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, and Minister of Labour Seamus O’Regan.
CPC leader Pierre Poilievre also spoke at the event, but did not take questions.
The conference, themed Training a Safe and Skilled Workforce, began on Sunday with a ceremony marking the National Day of Mourning at the CBTU Workers’ Monument located in Major’s Hill Park in Ottawa. President Turple laid a flower on the Operating Engineers’ marker to remember those members of the International Union of Operating Engineers who have been killed or injured while at work.
While in the capital, President Turple also took the opportunity to join Nunavut Premier, P.J. Akeeagok, for a working lunch. Joining Turple was Rick Kerr (Executive Director of OETIO and Local 793 Treasurer), Zach MacInnis (Local 793 Eastern Ontario Area Supervisor) and Steve Schumann (Canadian Government Affairs Director at IUOE). The event, hosted by the Canadian Club of Ottawa, was a chance to discuss opportunities for Local 793 in the far North. Local 793 has about 1,000 members working in the territory at Baffinland’s iron ore mine in the Qikiqtani region of North Baffin.
As well as holding politicians to account, protecting workers’ mental health was a key area of discussion at the conference.
Canada’s six-time Olympic medalist and mental health advocate Clara Hughes spoke about her years-long work to combat the stigma surrounding mental illness, while Respect RX Pharmacies owner Mark Barnes stressed the importance of training workers to use Naloxone, a life-saving injectable medication that can reverse an overdose caused by opioids.
Tackling the opioid crisis is a priority for labour leaders, as research released in 2022 showed that one in 13 opioid-related deaths in Ontario between 2018 and 2020 occurred among construction workers.
The CBTU is an alliance of 14 international unions – including the International Union of Operating Engineers – that collectively represent 600,000 skilled trades workers in Canada.
