A short while ago, I was introduced to a couple of men who had immigrated to Alberta, to pursue the opportunities Alberta has to offer. Both were born in Egypt, and both were university graduates and professional engineers – one in chemical engineering, the other in electrical. They each had resumes that would choke a horse, and their experience included work on some of the largest engineering projects in the world. In other words, both of these men were well-educated top-flight engineers, and their knowledge of Canada in general, and Alberta specifically, was very impressive. In addition, their command of the English language was superb, and the chemical engineer spoke four languages while the electrical fellow spoke five.
As I got to know them, it struck me that there was a degree of uneasiness in their voices, as if they had a secret they wanted to share, but were not sure whether they should. As our conversations progressed, I worked hard to put them at ease and, eventually, they accepted my assurances and began talking about what was on their minds. By now we had moved into a separate room in the building, and I think this privacy helped make them more relaxed. What they shared were details of a major problem on Alberta construction sites.
The topic involved the treatment of foreign workers in Alberta, the supervision of these workers, the overall level of safety on many construction projects and what seemed to be an endless list of huge quality problems and construction mistakes that were constantly occurring, and not being fixed. Both of them sensed that some of the local employers were willing to expose the foreign workers to dangerous conditions without the necessary training and safety equipment—conditions they would never impose on “domestic” workers. But their concern went even deeper than just the foreign workers; they were equally concerned about the buildings, roads, bridges, dams, and other infrastructure being built in Wild Rose Country. Their experiences had shown them countless examples of poor workmanship, incorrect designs, failures to build what was in the blueprints, and daily examples of installations and assemblies that came nowhere near reaching the standards specified in Alberta’s building codes.
Of all their examples, one in particular caught my attention – a situation I nicknamed “the crying wall.” They told about occupying a new commercial building in downtown Edmonton – a building that, when it rained, managed to have water coming right through the interior walls and flooding the floors. Now, this was not a case of simple condensation dripping off a few cold windows, these were large interior walls that sprayed a significant volume of water into the offices. They noted that the construction errors required in order for this problem to occur must have been massive – leading one to wonder how many hundreds of other errors the building contained. Another example was even scarier. During an on-site interview with a mechanical engineer, they found the engineer’s description of much of his work to be highly unusual, and often incorrect. When they probed further and asked the engineer to be candid, he admitted that his actual training was in accounting. However, unable to find an accounting job, he looked around for other positions and had been hired by the firm, even though he had identified to the company that he had no education or training in mechanical engineering.
The cause of these issues was harder to understand, but both fellows viewed it as a combination of too much work, too few skilled workers, woefully inadequate supervision, and a pervading sense that foreign workers were not entitled to the same safety and consideration as the local workers.
Brian McLeod is a St. Albert resident.
