BHP says name never submitted
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 29/00) - A Yellowknife journeyman welder says he's mystified as to why he can't work for contractors who do work at Ekati.
Joe Bourque, a welder-pipefitter-plumber, has been trying to get work with companies that get contracts to do jobs at the BHP Diamond's Ekati mine northeast of Yellowknife.
But he says local companies keep telling him he is not allowed on the site. "At the moment, no one's telling me why and I just want to know why," he said.
Bourque said the Yellowknife companies have told him the same thing -- that BHP won't allow him at the mine site.
Yellowknifer contacted Paul Bros Welding, Back Bay Welding and JSL. Two did not respond by press time but a spokesperson for one of the companies did said when it submitted its list of names of who it will be bringing on site, a list which included Bourque's, the company was told Bourque was not allowed at the mine.
Bourque, 50, has worked at the mine site during the construction phase.
He's afraid if Yellowknife companies are not phoning him to work for them at Ekati, they might just stop phoning regardless of where the job might be.
Bourque said he has contacted BHP's human resources department and even written a letter to Jim Excell, the top executive for the Ekati mine.
"They're (BHP) not even acknowledging me," he said.
BHP spokesperson Graham Nicholls said Bourque's name has never been submitted to BHP by a potential employer for security clearance.
"If his name were to be submitted for security clearance, we would entertain it," Nicholls said.
"In order to work at the site (you) need security clearance. Without security clearance, neither he or anybody else would be able to work (at the mine)."
Nicholls said it is up to potential employers -- in this case the welding companies -- to submit Bourque's name.
Contractors are well aware of this policy, Nicholls adds.
