The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.
Chinese companies should be banned from construction work in Canada because of their questionable track record here and around the world. It was shocking that Enbridge Inc.’s Pat Daniel said his company was willing to allow a Chinese company to buy a stake in and to bid for the construction of the proposed Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline.
Not only should Chinese companies be banned from construction or bidding but Investment Canada should ban them from buying resource companies or related assets.
China’s strategy is to buy resources around the world, then low-ball to get construction contracts by using Chinese laborers and materials. This is not only damaging to the domestic economy, and unnecessary, but in some cases laws and obligations have been flouted. Just for the record, my husband heads Canada’s largest infrastructure and construction public company in Canada.
In 2007, Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company brought in 132 Chinese workers to an Alberta oil sands site to assemble their storage tanks and do other work. Two workers were killed and several injured. The remaining Chinese workforce was moved out of Alberta and work stopped.
The Alberta government charged Sinopec, its subsidiary and their oil sands client with 53 safety charges. Sinopec and its branch plant have refused to appear in court. They say they have not been served papers because they are in China where they cannot be served papers to appear in court. Instead of acceding to Canadian law, they have not appeared.
In November, an Alberta Court of Appeal ruled the company must stand trial on these serious charges. In February, Sinopec said it wants the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn this ruling because it should be exempt.
The 132 Chinese workers were not paid an estimated $3.17 million by their Chinese employer even though they worked four months before the accident. Alberta employment standards spokesman Barrie Harrison said that the prime contractor, the Canadian oil sands project client, put the $3.17 million in wages and benefits in trust even though it had no obligation to do so.
In an interview last year, Harrison said: “We are still trying to determine the best, most secure method of returning these funds to the workers, who are now either back in China or working at other sites around the world. We’ve had nothing new to report on this file for quite some time.”
The Canadian embassy in Beijing has been involved in trying to right this wrong, at taxpayer expense. This outrageous behavior by China and its companies should be reason enough to ban Chinese companies from bidding on construction work or having workforces in Canada. After all, a major corporation has no respect for the rule of law here; has damaged Chinese workers; damaged its Canadian client; cost the taxpayers of Alberta a great deal of money to try and clean up the mess and prosecute wrongdoing and has cost the taxpayers of Canada, Canada’s immigration department and Canada’s justice system as well.
For the rest of this article, please go to the National Post website: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2012/03/31/china-must-improve-its-construction-record/