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Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Massive layoffs hit Sunridge LEXI BAINAS CITIZEN
Protesters stand in the way of a dump truck trying to make the turn from Shawnigan Lake Road to Stebbings Road on Monday morning. They chalked up a small victory as truck traffic was significantly lighter than usual. [KEVIN ROTHBAUER/CITIZEN]
Protest slows dirt truck traffic KEVIN ROTHBAUER CITIZEN
Related stories: » SIA responds /Page 3
For a road where it isn’t uncommon for dump trucks to pass at the rate of six per minute, southern Shawnigan Lake Road was surprisingly quiet on Monday morning, despite the fact that South Island Aggregates was expected to begin dumping tonnes of contaminated dirt in the area. Protester Shelagh Bell-Irving chalked it up as a win for the efforts of local residents, who turned out to protest the dumping. “If anything, we’ve had a little victory because we’ve slowed the trucks down,” she said. “They don’t want us to back them up down the Malahat.” Despite occasionally torrential rain, residents gathered at the intersection of Shawnigan Lake and Stebbings roads to impede trucks trying to reach the SIA site. “I’m pleased with the number that came
out,” Bell-Irving said. “I’m just happy some people showed up. We’ll be here as long as it takes. I don’t know if we’ll be here every day, but pretty darn close. It’s a matter of getting people to wake up.” Some 40,000 tonnes of dirty dirt are expected at the site prior to a hearing on the soil treatment in March — the beginnings of what could be five million tonnes over the next 50 years. Bell-Irving said it would take 8,000 trucks to bring in the first 40,000 tonnes. Potentially laced with heavy toxic contents such as fuel, lead and arsenic, the soil comes from contaminated sites in Esquimalt and Prince Rupert. Despite assurances to the contrary from SIA, residents are concerned the contaminants will end up in their drinking water. “When Shawnigan Lake gets poisoned,
it will take down the whole underground aquifer,” Bell-Irving said. Briefly taking shelter from the downpour, Bell-Irving gestured to the rain. “They’re not meant to be dumping in bad weather, according to their permit,” she said. “That’s what, only July?” Bell-Irving noted that the Shawnigan aquifer, which serves about 7,000 residents, is just four kilometres from Sooke, and fellow protester Cliff Evans pointed out that the hill where SIA is located backs onto the Saanich Inlet watershed, creating the potential for contamination well beyond the Shawnigan area. “It’s just a travesty that this contaminated soil is coming into our watershed,” Evans said. Bell-Irving vowed that she would continue her protest until SIA stops trucking in the dirty dirt. “I’m going to be back here,” she said. “This is just the first of many. I’m not going to let them do this.”
Sunridge Place workers were stunned on Monday when 264 of them, all members of the Hospital Employees Union, were told they will be out of a job by June 2. “I can confirm for you that Feb. 17 the vast majority of the workers at Sunridge received layoff notices,” HEU communications officer Margi Blamey said Tuesday morning. “We don’t represent the nurses, but the vast majority of the people who do work there are HEU members. That includes 124 casual employees and about 140 regular full-time and part-time employees.” Sunridge Place has been sold, and employees have been told the new owner will be introduced next week. Employees were not told if the layoffs are related to the sale. “This is something that B.C.’s ombudsperson was extremely concerned about and addressed in her February 2012 report entitled The Best of Care. She notes that large-scale staff replacement is very disruptive to residents because they lose the familiar and trusted caregivers who look after them on a daily basis,” Blamey said. “This is huge.” The timing of the notification to the workers is part of a protocol that’s dictated under the Employment Standards Act. Workers don’t know if they will be offered a chance to come back for lower wages, as has frequently occurred before. “We do not know how this will play out,” Blamey said. “This is all new to us, and we’re going to be looking at all of our options. The new owner operator will inherit the HEU as the bargaining agent. That doesn’t go away. So they haven’t lost their union. This is not a contracting out. This is a layoff that covers everyone else in the workplace.” See LARGE SCALE, Page 4