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New Canadian Politics Thread

MindzEye said:
Filling executive roles on projects of a type that we have no national track record in delivering successfully with professionals from that country is easy?

Oh, I'm sure we can hire someone for it. I'm not remotely convinced that the local we hired would be a better choice for it than someone who has done similar projects successfully in places these projects happen. There's a reason we hired a Spaniard for the construction of the Alto. It's okay to admit that we don't have everything figured out about everything here. Rail is one thing we are legitimately a fucking backwater in.



I mean, if you want to blame Verster, have at it. That lines up with my overall argument as well though. A guy from the UK rail industry. Hardly the talent pool we want to be dipping into if we're looking for people with real backgrounds in delivering the type of projects we were trying to pull off.

With that said, from reporting on the issue, it really does appear like the legacy Metrolinx people were obstructionist with the German's brought in to do the things. Our Canadians were a big part of the problem that led to the project getting scaled down.
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Yes because I've done it. It's not that hard. I've hired execs for some major projects. Not Metrolinx, but pretty big. Our biggest projects are kinda not that impressive anyways.
Do we really want to get someone from a place with horribly unsafe H&S standards on major construction projects and that has worked with materials that won't work on projects in Canada?
Heck, even B.C and Ontario use different materials often in builds.
 
The point here is that the job requires someone who has a lot of experience in developing this type of massive project. And if the proposal suggests it can be done in 10 years for X dollars, presumably we're hiring a person who has completed a similar project in approx. 10 years, and relatively close to on budget. Also needs to be a person to speak up at the BEGINNING if either the time or cost estimates are unrealistic.

As opposed to half done and eventually abandoned in 25 years, and/or costing double the original estimate.

If such a person exists in Canada, great. If not then hire the best person available who is willing and able to take the job.

It does not fucking matter where they're from.
 
axlsalinger said:
The point here is that the job requires someone who has a lot of experience in developing this type of massive project. And if the proposal suggests it can be done in 10 years for X dollars, presumably we're hiring a person who has completed a similar project in approx. 10 years, and relatively close to on budget. Also needs to be a person to speak up at the BEGINNING if either the time or cost estimates are unrealistic.

As opposed to half done and eventually abandoned in 25 years, and/or costing double the original estimate.

If such a person exists in Canada, great. If not then hire the best person available who is willing and able to take the job.

It does not fucking matter where they're from.
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What does matter is companies are using a clause to save money. They save money by not hiring a Canadian. This isn't a good idea.
 
JackBurton said:
Yes because I've done it. It's not that hard. I've hired execs for some major projects. Not Metrolinx, but pretty big. Our biggest projects are kinda not that impressive anyways.
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You're kind of missing the point mate. This is a rail specific job for the largest regional rail expansion in the country's history, that we've fucking bottled so far, so doing what we've done already on the other largest project we've ever attempted (Alto) and hiring a foreigner with actual experience delivering this type of project isn't a bad thing. TFW is not a synonym for "Indian guy" in this context.

We, point blank period, do not have people in Canada with experience delivering these types of projects successfully. Inner city mass transit and regional rail aren't the same thing...and even the experience we have on delivering inner city mass transit projects is mostly bad over the last 20 years.

JackBurton said:
Do we really want to get someone from a place with horribly unsafe H&S standards on major construction projects and that has worked with materials that won't work on projects in Canada?
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TFW /= some dude from Mumbai
 
The LMIA process is obviously bs and taken advantage of. Government seems to just blindly accept them.

metrolinx likely just found some candidate they like and need to get them a visa. It’s not an impossible role to fill. But also what’s the problem with Canada attracting skilled labour. Lots of experienced Canadians leave.
 
JackBurton said:
I just don't encounter many Europeans for major projects as candidates. I'm sure there's good candidates from there.
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The company in charge of the synchronization on Edmonton's LRT system is German. Most of the LRT is street level with no overpasses. That means having the railroad barriers synched up with the traffic lights at a lot of busy intersections. Germans are good at making trains run on time. Always have been, unfortunately.
 
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