# Canadian politics: Quebec contractors given contracts to rebuild Fort McMurray



## TomB19 (Sep 24, 2015)

I had lunch yesterday with a man who works in the oil patch out of Edmonton. He was mentioning Fort Mac and it came out that people are pretty chuffed the contracts all went to Quebec.

I did a little googling and it turns out he was on the button. Quebec benefits while local contractors were not giving the opportunity to bid.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

^^

do you mean SNC Lavalin? they're a longtime infrastructure & project manager in Fort mcMurray.

there are probably not very many companies in canada that could carry out the engineering that will be required. Did your lunchtime copain rabbit on when SNC was first retained in fort Mac? i'd never heard of any complaints against quebec at that time.

outside contractors should be smart enough to hire local sub-contractors, in fort Mac or anywhere else in the world they are working. 

.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

Are you sure about that? From this news article regarding local contractors upset about loss of contracts they mention SPEC being the firm that was hired by insurance companies to do the clean up. The company's head office is in BC not Quebec.
http://globalnews.ca/news/2769815/f...im-theyre-being-left-out-of-wildfire-cleanup/

It also states that local contractors are free to bid for subcontractor work. Most (80%) of the municipal and provincial contracts went to local contractors.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

TomB19 said:


> I had lunch yesterday with a man who works in the oil patch out of Edmonton. He was mentioning Fort Mac and it came out that people are pretty chuffed the contracts all went to Quebec.
> 
> I did a little googling and it turns out he was on the button. Quebec benefits while local contractors were not giving the opportunity to bid.



might i inquire again if you are sure about this. If so, won't you please name the quebec contractors you believe were recently awarded fort mcMurray cleanup contracts, to the chagrin of local fort Mac contractors.

me i cannot find any such contractor. The only name i can find is SPECs of british columbia.

quebec's SNC Lavalin has provided services in fort mcMurray for many years. But the company doesn't surface as a recent key name in fort Mac rebuilding projects.

.


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## twa2w (Mar 5, 2016)

TomB19 said:


> I had lunch yesterday with a man who works in the oil patch out of Edmonton. He was mentioning Fort Mac and it came out that people are pretty chuffed the contracts all went to Quebec.
> 
> I did a little googling and it turns out he was on the button. Quebec benefits while local contractors were not giving the opportunity to bid.


You do know that chuffed means pleased?


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

no i didn't know!

i thought it just meant "all worked up" while the emotion could go either way ... i guess we could say cmf is the chuffedmoneyforum


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

"Chuffed" has had opposite meanings at various times and places. See http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/114209/chuffed-happy-or-unhappy for discussion of this anomaly. I think because it is essentially a slang word, and idiomatic usage changes with fashion. I'm sure there are other examples in english, but I can't come up with any at the moment.


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## new dog (Jun 21, 2016)

If this is true it would be a slap in the face to Alberta who pays Quebec every year in equalization payments. Lately I haven't seen the Quebec favouritism that was the norm in the past which has me thinking it may not be true. Then again I haven't looked into it so I could be wrong.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

new dog said:


> If this is true it would be a slap in the face to Alberta who pays Quebec every year in equalization payments. Lately I haven't seen the Quebec favouritism that was the norm in the past which has me thinking it may not be true. Then again I haven't looked into it so I could be wrong.



i don't believe the thread title or the claim is true in the least. 

the only company that turns up in a google search for fort Mac post-fire contractors is a langley BC headquartered outfit named SPECs. The story was way back last june. SPECs was involved in a contract to demolish 1800 fire-damaged buildings & some fort Mac contractors objected to the non-local aspect - as well they should.

just about all the google stories recited how hard the alberta & the fort Mac governments are working to make sure that nearly all of the sub-contracts go to fort mcMurray contractors. There are figures saying 92% of all fort Mac rehab is going to fort mcMurray enterprises. Not just alberta contractors, but highly local fort Mac contractors.

readers will notice that TomB has not returned to support his allegation, although in his initial post he said he had personally googled up evidence - he did not say what evidence - that quebec contractors had "benefited" while "local contractors were not given the opportunity to bid."

i'm still waiting for the names of the quebec contractors who were said to have "benefited." If no names appear, the story has to be dismissed as another unfortunate attack on quebec. IMHO wrongful accusations should be confined to novelty nelley & beau bass in the US election thread. I for one expect better quality reportage from other cmffers, inclluding TomB.

.


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## TomB19 (Sep 24, 2015)

humble_pie said:


> readers will notice that TomB has not returned to support his allegation...


Thanks for being spunky. lol!

OK. Situation update.

I hadn't heard of this, before having lunch on Wednesday. I know several people who work in the oil patch. Some of them intelligent and highly accredited, but none that are politically objective. These guys are all CPC and they blame everything that happens on the NDP and LPC. ... so I did a little searching, before posting this thread.

By the way, when someone explains that local companies can't handle the engineering required to clean up after a fire, you know you're reading some political bullshit. That was directed at you, humble_pie. Alberta has plenty of talent, including a large pool of engineers, and the Alberta economy is pretty soft right now so they could use the business. Let's not pretend Alberta doesn't have people who can assess a structure and decide if it can be viably restored or needs to be demolished.

I was hoping to post something a little better researched. This thread was created from my smart phone. Hence, the lack of posting. It's been a wild few days for me and this thread doesn't register on my life priorities scale.

SPECS is based out of Vancouver. That contract was awarded by a consortium of the insurance industry, so I don't see how that is political and, therefore, not the topic of this thread.

OK, all that said, here's what we know.

- There are several web sites that cite Quebec favoritism, with regard to the Fort Mac situation, but they go by URLs such as "OilRebel.com", etc. This is what I most likely found with my initial search. See my third paragraph.

- We know there are Quebec contractors in Fort McMurray. http://globalnews.ca/news/2741010/q...ing-into-safe-in-fort-mcmurray-neighbourhood/

- I believe aid will primarily be in the form of DFAA funds which will be transferred directly to the province of Alberta.

I'd like to know why Quebec contractors are in Fort McMurray. Who brought them there?

It's going to take some time to follow the flow of money out of Ottawa. It could be, this thread was misguided by bad information.


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## TomB19 (Sep 24, 2015)

I'm not sure how this ties in but how come an Ontario company is running a cleanup operation?

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/ontario-c...a-workers-for-fort-mcmurray-cleanup-1.2918993


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## TomB19 (Sep 24, 2015)

Something smells, about the DFAA funds.

Federal government transfers $300M to Alberta for disaster cleanup. An Ontario company TBM Service Group initially contracts a cattle drive with a Calgary hiring firm (About Service), then the Ontario company rescinds the contract and engages a BC company.

The Alberta government indicates it did not hire TBM Service Group.

It shouldn't be this difficult to follow the trail of money. Apparently, someone stands between the Alberta government and TBM Service Group. The Alberta government should reveal this information but I haven't seen it published, anywhere. Google seems to be unaware of it.



Ralph Goodale said:


> This is the payment thus far. We fully expect that there will be additional obligations but we wanted to get this amount of money, about $300 million, into the hands of Albertans as quickly as possible.


http://globalnews.ca/news/2769323/p...ta-recovery-following-fort-mcmurray-wildfire/


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

What is being done in Fort Mac ? Does anyone on CMF live there for updates ?

In looking at some consumer websites rating insurance companies, some customers are very angry about the settlements offered.

Is collecting insurance a problem ? Is rebuilding homes a problem ?

In some southern US states they still haven't cleaned up, recovered or rebuilt since Hurricane Katrina.

As a Canadian I don't want my fellow Canadians to wait for help in rebuilding.

Information is the key to public pressure on insurance companies and the governments involved.

The media should be covering this every day. A Fort Mac update every single day, until Fort Mac fully recovers.

One sad fact about natural disasters and insurance, is that the property insurance companies increase premiums for all their policyholder base citing catastrophic losses as the reason, and too often the insurers overcharge the extra premium to profit from the disaster.

If we are all going to "chip in" that is fine with me...............but git er done and don't screw the people around.


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Is it possible that we are in the inivitable stage where we examine the massive rebuilding project for irregularities because it is interesting? 

Many of my friends and associates who work in the trades have been employed in the rebuilding effort. Work is being provided to Albertans. 

I can't speak to insurance claims.


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## TomB19 (Sep 24, 2015)

That's good to read. Thanks olivaw.


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