What They Never Told You In History Class: Pension Ponzi Scam investigated by Craig MacMillan and silenced by the Corrupt System in de-facto canada

Craig MacMillion has been unlawfully detained in Regina Saskatchewan by the RCMP on March 23, without charges, as a Political Prison for uncovering a Ponzi Scam in the Pension Fund-

He has been incarcerated to silence him from his investigation

Video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAviygeRE9M&feature=youtu.be

December 20, 2018

Union Association Local 179

Plumbers, Pipefitters and Welders

Regina, Saskatchewan

RE: 2018 State of Affairs

Dear Brothers:

It has been one year since our Election in December 2017. Let us discuss the events in 2018 that have led to Local 179 United Association to have less than 10% of market share in Industrial and Commercial Piping for the province of Saskatchewan.

As I stated last year in my platform, Building Trades in Saskatchewan are under attack. At the beginning of January 2018, I took a drive to Swift Current to visit a $750 million-dollar, 350 mega-watt gas generating plant named “Chinook”. As I drove around the worker parking lot, 70% of the license plates were from out of province and country, mainly from Alberta.

I tried to get answers from the Premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, as to why this was the case. One question I asked was, “With all of the unemployed tradesmen in Saskatchewan, including Local 179, why is the parking lot full of Alberta plates?” After several attempts to reach Brad Wall, he proceeded to cut off all communication from reaching him and I could no longer call him and he never did speak with me.

I also put an application in to PCL Energy from Edmonton, Alberta. They posted this power station on the website only for a few days, as PCL does not have to post any advertisements or hire Saskatchewan people. I called PCL Energy in Edmonton, Alberta to ask about employment as a Pipefitter on this site.

Human Resources told me they transferred 180 Welders and Pipefitters from Ft. McMurray, Alberta to Swift Current, Saskatchewan. They were told that Saskatchewan had a shortage of skilled tradesmen. She was shocked when I told her Local 179 has been building and working with SaskPower for over 50 years, from shut downs to new power plants and our unemployment rate is 70% over 900 tradesmen without work.

Next was a meeting with Jim Mabee, Director of Saskatchewan Builds Supplier Development and Priority Saskatchewan. Jim actually let me explain why Local 179, building trades and people from Saskatchewan should be working on the Chinook power station. For over an hour, I marketed our business to Jim, who listened and contemplated this. Jim’s final statement was “I don’t believe UA Local 179 has the skills or the manpower to do this piping job. Go to your Union meeting and see what your Brothers say, then report back. My office door is always open.” I was shocked he challenged Local 179 to meet this piping project requirement, even keeping his door open.

On Saturday, January 20, 2018, UA Local 179 had its monthly meeting in Regina. I was present at this meeting, so when “New News”, came up I brought this to the attention of the membership. I stood up and held up Jim Mabee’s business card. I repeated exactly what Jim said. This man says that , “we don’t have the skills or the manpower to work on SaskPower’s Chinook Station.” Bill Steeves, who is on the E-Board, asked, “Can you get that in writing?” Again, I told the membership including Bill Peters, Business Manager, his door is always open, what do we have to say to Jim Mabee. Not a word from anyone.

Needless to say, I never went back to Jim Mabee’s office. Also, I never went back to CBC News who also stated, “where are your Brothers”. This job shows that PCL Energy is using the laws of Saskatchewan to allow this to happen, and with no Government knowledge or Union interference. Even the workers at Swift Current like the Unions and Government position, which is stay the course, say nothing, do nothing.

The Northwest Partnership Trade Agreement between the Prairie provinces and BC allows companies from other provinces to bid on work and if they get the contract, they can transfer workers from job to job and province to province. Saskatchewan is the only province that has no clause or amendment to make companies advertise or hire local Saskatchewan people, and companies like PCL Energy take full advantage of this.

This brings us to late October 2018. Still high unemployment in the Building and Trades, including Local 179. Most members are struggling to get 700 unemployment hours while 25,000 out of province workers enjoy working on many job sites in Saskatchewan, including billions of dollars worth of industrialized construction work.

Late October, Dion Malakoff, Business Manager of the Building Trades of Saskatchewan and Ryan Meili, Leader of Opposition Party NDP, petitioned at Chinook Power Station for procurement of Government projects like SaskPower new power stations and hire local with community benefits especially when out of province workers pay no Saskatchewan income tax and likely buy big items like cars or houses in their own province, especially when Alberta does not have PST provincial sales tax.

This led me to contact Dion Malakoff and explain that we should be protesting the Northwest Trade Partnership Agreement. He agreed. I also tried to contact Ryan Meili and Trent Witherspoon. I called these individuals two dozen times with no call from Ryan and no call back from Trent, who is a long-time member of the Legislative representing then NDP, who Local 179 donated substantial amounts of money to support his run for Leadership, which he lost to Ryan.

A week later, Troy Knipple, who was Local 179 Business Manager between 2009 and 2014, was discussing procurement and community benefits with Ryan Meili and how he is concerned about out of country and province labour working on Saskatchewan job sites.

Ryan Meili and the leaders of Local 179 pick Troy Knipple to represent the unemployed workers of Saskatchewan. I find this ironic considering in 2013, PCL Energy who had industrial work at the Agrium potash mine had a failure with completing the work and left 80 to 100 temporary foreign workers in a desperate situation.

Dustin Duncan, who is a Sask Party member of the Provincial Legislature and at the time Minister of Labour, was in contact with Troy Knipple and between the two came up with a quiet deal to bring in the temporary foreign workers into the Union hall with BFI Contractors as signatory to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Troy Knipple ran for Business Manager for Local 179 in 2017. His campaign was also silent, never said a word or wrote a word during the six week campaign.

I am against the Temporary Foreign Workers program provincially and federally, but in this case most of these men came from Ireland and they had a story to tell about the desperate situation they were put in but this was a quiet deal between Troy and Dustin but the truth about the TFW program was not brought forward. At the same time many TFW’s are migrating to Fort McMurray and after two years they can become citizens of Canada and also Albertans who are now working on many jobs in Saskatchewan like SaskPower Chinook Power Station. Good for the TFW’s who are now Albertans working for companies like PCL Energy on Saskatchewan’s Government power plant. Now Troy is concerned still no mention of the North West Partners Trade Agreement which makes this all legal.

Because of the interview which concerned me for many reasons, I wanted to know who organized this disorganized interview. I was informed the Leader of the NDP and Opposition Party Ryan Meili contacted Local 179 and Troy became the spokesman because other candidates were camera shy. I did not come up as a candidate for this public interview with Ryan Meili. After the interview the Sask Party said nothing will change on the Labour issues confronting the citizens of this province.

This relationship between Local 179 and the NDP leads me to believe we have an alliance. I began calling all 13 NDP Caucus members explaining that avoiding the North West Partnership Trade Agreement should be made public knowledge. Out of 13 members, only one MLA, Carla Beck, representing Regina Lakeview read the Trade Agreement and agreed this is problematic for Saskatchewan Labour and the NDP stated this in 2006. I also called 20 t 25 Sask Party Caucus members, the 60 Saskatchewan Caucus members and Local 179 want to talk about procurement not about the North West Parrtnership Trade Agreement.

The strategy for both political parties is to govern Alberta. The NDP ,who holds political power in Alberta want to keep it so having thousands of Albertans working in Saskatchewan help the NDP for many reasons and the Sask Party who are working with Jason Kenny and ex-Premier Brad Wall with the United Conservative Party to get power in Alberta. They tell the companies and labourers from Alberta that Saskatchewan is booming with a shortage of workers from all occupations. Citizens and Labour has become political pawns for the battle of power in Alberta.

I called Bill Peters on November 15, 2018 to inform him that Business and Government will not save unions. He agreed so I told him I’ll be at the meeting on November 17, 2018 to bring the North West Trade Partnership Agreement to New Business and organize a protest under the solution of concerned citizens and we must become politically active. Bill agreed also stating we must work together.

On Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 11 am I attended the Union meeting of UA Local 179 in Regina. The tone was set for the meeting when Brandon Faul ,Local 179 Apprenticeship Coordinator, stated he had a sporting event to attend and had to be gone by 12 pm. When the meeting went to New Business, Bill began to discuss enabling agreement at Belle Plaine Mosaic for a couple of jobs with South East. Bill sat down and within seconds the meeting went to health and welfare. I still stood up and tried to discuss New Business and Bill Peters shut me down. This is not legal.

Greg Moore is the President who presides the meeting and did not adjourn New Business or ask members for any New Business. Also, during the meeting Cody Summners, who works for UA Canada as an organizer for Canada but concentrating on Saskatchewan ,attended the meeting with an invitation

from Bill Peters. Bill prohibited Cody to attend meetings but Bill wanted Cody to attend this meeting to discuss salting jobs and policing and punishment for Local 179 members working on non-union or CLAC sites.

Landon Mohl and Cody Summners stood up together to discuss this, except Cody was not allowed to speak because he was going to expose the Local 179 position with Piping working Saskatchewan, which is UA Local 179 and has 7% of Industrial Piping and Welding work in Saskatchewan. There are hundreds of unemployed tradesmen and many are running out of options. Bill Peters strategy is to stay the course, in other words, don’t say or do anything and hope for the best that was in the January’s meeting on the 20^th.

On September 15, 2018, at that meeting, Bill Peters strategy is that if you are on Federal Employment Insurance you should state that you are sick and extend your EI claim for a few more weeks.

On November 17th, 2018, Bill’s strategy is for you to work for CLAC or non-union but only if you tell Bill and you don’t work to your full potential. This strategy is absolutely ridiculous for many reasons. The lack of respect and general rules during these meetings shown by Bill Peters is a disgrace to our members.

I also question his campaign promise on giving raises to retirees. Ten months before the December 2017 election, Bill Peters had dealings with the Provincial government who are the Sask Party. Making deals with the Sask Party on a Global Market pension plan that has made an average return of 2% over my 33 years and a pension plan that is in a market that Bill Peters or the Saskatchewan Government has absolutely no control of, is suspicious business.

As I stated last year in my statement, Building Trades are under attack. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 870 have work because they work with CLAC and non-union, helping in lifting loads of pipe, vessels and buildings. This makes sense for Business to use Union operators on a CLAC or non-union site, especially when a few operators can lift tons to get these jobs complete. Since CLAC and non-union have 90% of Industrial work in Saskatchewan, operators have a low unemployment rate.

My last job at the Kerrobert Saskatchewan Enbridge Pumping Station was to move the union operator and 50 tonne crane across the road for AECON but is under its CLAC subsidiary Cannaby. This Enbridge pumping station is a 9 month job that Building Trades and 6 other stations are not on.

Again using the SaskPower Chinook Power Station, the onsite parking lot was 70% out of province plates. This also led Brad Wall to suggest that workers from Alberta should buy Saskatchewan plates so citizens like me drive into an onsite parking lot and we notice Saskatchewan plates rather than Alberta plates. Brad Wall decided to block his Premier’s phone from my calls that has since carried over to Premier

Scott Moe’s phone. This was done only because I was asking, with so many unemployed workers in Saskatchewan, why the onsite parking lot is full of out of province and out of country plates.

Unions and their Business leaders must adapt in today’s world and wheeling and dealing with Government is a dangerous game. Business is in total control of Labour and Union Labour is barely in the game. At least Business will likely keep us around because we have training facilities for non-union and CLAC workers and with hundreds of desperate members and no Collective Agreement, we will accept new lower standards from wages to training and safety standards.

Because of the North West Partnership Trade Agreement, we have enabled companies to disable our Collective Agreements and allow Foreign workers to take every job and every occupation that Saskatchewan has to offer. The fact that Alberta has 180,000 unemployed and under-employed and Albertans enjoy working in Saskatchewan and would rather work in this province than in Fort McMurray which is also producing more unemployed Albertans should alarm Saskatchewan citizens.

Government and Business are running your pension as well, and Business and Billionaires who own 85% of the Global Stock Market will harvest that soon, too. This raises questions about our Global Benefits, all while our Business Agent states, “it is not yours, don’t worry about financial statements, it is not guaranteed,” which is in fact a Ponzi scam Pension plan. Bill Peters says our Pension plan performed unbelievably in 2018, making 10% and going from $300,000,000 dollars to $330,000,000. That does sound great, but let us see the financial statement. This claim Bill makes sounds too good to be true.

On December 19^th at 8 am, Union Hall Regina, I met with Bill Peters and Mike McLean stated , “we know all this to be true. So we confirm the words in the letter as fact.” Other than Bill, Mike and Brandon saying that I do not represent the Union or Local 179 and threatening me with E-Board, I suggested we get on with question and answers pertaining to this letter.

1. Why do you dictate the meetings and not allow members to speak?

2. Why do you want to keep the North West Partnership Trade Agreement a quiet secret?

3. Why did you say nothing 11 months ago when I brought this to your attention at the January 2018 meeting?

4. Would you still say nothing if Jim Mabee said we “don’t have the skills or the manpower” today?

5. Why does Local 179 have only 7% of the Industrial work in this province?

6. Why are the financial statements hidden and secured documents?

7. Why is Local 179’s training fund broke?

8. Why do Union members have no idea about the financial affairs of Union Business including office wages?

9. Why is the Non-guaranteed not yours, don’t worry about it Ponzi scam we are in called a Defined

Pension Plan?

10. Who did you make the Pension deal with months before the election?

11. When you say, “Stay the course”, what does that mean?

12. Are you ok with a financial audit on the financial affairs of this Union?

13. Who represents Union Labour? Who do you work for?

Other than stating I don’t represent Union Labour or Local 179, and lots of “whatevers”, and an apology for dictating the meetings and it will never happen again, also “Merry Christmas”, and a refusal or acknowledgment of the questions the meeting was over.

With all of this political jostling for power from the bottom to the top, Union members and citizens are the last thing these power hungry political clowns are concerned about, from Bill Peters to Ryan Meile, Scott Moe, Andrew Scheer, Justin Trudeau.

As we move into Agenda 21, you will notice you are not invited to the party, even in your own Union. Each member of the Saskatchewan Legislature will receive a copy of this letter , as well as United Association Washington and UA Canada. I will post this letter on Facebook, and also CBC, Prairie Dog and other media outlets will receive a copy. We are not invited to the party, but let’s get involved in the conversation as not much time is left.

Since Bill Peters promised not to dictate the meetings, this letter with those questions will come up at New Business on the Saturday, January 19, 2019 Local 179 Business meeting in Regina. I hope to see more than 20 members. If you feel like entertaining yourself, call one of the 60 MLA’s in this province representing you and question them about these issues. These issues are like mosquito repellant, except political repellant. Watch them run and hide. For any questions or comments call 306-209-5173and feel free to join in on the conversation on Facebook.

This is going to get much worse, especially when Labour unions are ignorant and silent. I urge citizens to speak as time is running out. Nine months ago, the Federal government wiped my campaign and platform and profile off of Facebook as they considered me to be a Federal security risk. I can’t imagine what a risk this letter will be.

Yours truly in solidarity,

Brother Craig MacMillan