Workers at BC Hydro among most productive in ; Analysis of annual revenues and profits shows that Crown corporation compares favourably to private-sector, publicly-traded B.C. companies

Media contact: Sage Aaron 604-317-6153 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Aug 19, 2011

BURNABY - A comparative analysis of revenues, profits and workforces at publicly-traded B.C. companies shows that employees at BC Hydro and Power Authority are among the most productive and profitable in British Columbia.

The Canadian Office and Professional Employees’ Union, Local 378, with data from the July/August 2011 edition of ‘The Top 1000’ — an annual listing published by The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine — analysed more than 60 B.C. companies employing a minimum of 300 workers and with annual earnings in excess of $50 million.

COPE 378 then performed a similar examination of BC Hydro, with information from the Crown corporation’s latest annual report.

The study shows that the average BC Hydro employee generated revenues of nearly $692,000 in fiscal 2010/11, with per-worker profits surpassing $101,000.

Those results put BC Hydro workers 10th out of 64 companies in terms of per-employee revenues, and 7th with regards to profitability.

“We were not surprised to see just how productive is each and every BC Hydro worker compared to their private-sector counterparts,” said David Black, President of COPE 378. “It’s something we’ve long suspected, but it’s nice to see it confirmed by a careful examination of the empirical evidence.”

Gwenne Farrell, COPE 378’s Vice-President, Utilities, said the findings should give pause to Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government, which recently released a study entitled Review of BC Hydro that recommended the dismissal of as many as 1,200 BC Hydro workers.

“The report commissioned by Christy Clark was deeply flawed and misleading,” said Farrell. “Our analysis shows that BC Hydro is one of the best-run and most-profitable companies in British Columbia — and that’s primarily because employees are experienced, hard-working and dedicated.”

-30- Media contact: Sage Aaron 604-317-6153

Tables attached.

TABLE 1 -- Comparison of BC Hydro and Power Authority with private-sector, publicly-traded B.C. companies — ranked by annual revenues per employee

2010 Revenues Number of Revenues per ($ millions) employees employee

1. Lions Gate Entertainment* $1,585.3 497 $3,189,135 2. Methenex Corp.* 1,991.6 878 2,268,337 3. * 3,799.8 3,140 1,209,873 4. CanWel Building Materials Grp 1,033.4 862 1,198,840 5. 10,450.0 9,100 1,148,352 6. Quadra FNX Mining* 924.6 806 1,147,146 7. Taseko Mines 304.7 350 870,571 8. Sierra 650.3 880 738,977 9. Catalyst Paper 1,258.7 1,803 698,281 10. BC Hydro & Power Authority** 4,016.0 5,805 691,817

11. Ainsworth Lumber Co. 371.0 625 593,600 12. Northgate Minerals 497.7 950 523,895 13. Corp 2,415.4 4,690 514,925 14. Coast Wholesale Appliances 135.6 275 493,091 15. Imperial Metals 247.1 504 490,278 16. Fortress Paper 281.6 653 431,240 17. International Forest Products 637.2 1,500 424,800 18. * 2,899.5 6,904 419,974 19. International 4,642.7 11,900 390,143 20. Co. 2,834.7 7,300 388,356

21. HSBC Bank 3,083.0 8,255 373,471 22. Canaccord Financial 577.5 1,670 345,509 23. SouthGobi Resources* 185.3 544 340,625 24. Wall Financial 167.8 506 331,621 25. 688.3 2,089 329,344 26. Sun-Rype Products 138.2 424 325,943 27. MDA Ltd 697.9 2,200 317,273 28. Ritchie Bros Auctioneers* 361.5 1,162 310,671 29. Premium Brands Holdings 534.8 1,800 297,111 30. Corp 9,784.0 34,800 281,149

31. Coastal Contacts 153.2 546 280,586 32. Minefinders Corp.* 95.2 350 272,000 33. Ivanhoe Mines* 346.4 1,347 257,164 34. Peer 1 Network Enterprises 98.1 388 252,835 35. Capstone Mining 302.2 1,207 250,373 36. Amerigo Resources* 153.2 617 248,298 37. Silvercorp* 169.3 700 241,857 38. Paragon Pharmacies 89.2 415 214,940 39. 65.6 340 192,941 40. Absolute Software 64.9 350 185,429 2010 Revenues Number of Revenues per ($ millions) employees employee

41. Glentel Inc. 412.5 2,240 183,929 42. * 811.3 4,448 182,329 43. Silver Standard Resources 117.6 750 156,800 44. B2Gold Corp.* 150.8 973 154,984 45. Conifex Timber 55.8 380 146,842 46. Avcorp Industries 77.3 560 138,036 47. Gold Int’l Resources 133.3 1,018 130,943 48. Aura Minerals 170.4 1,307 130,375 49. Vecima Networks 117.6 903 130,233 50. Village Farms International* 146.2 1,200 121,667

51. Glacier Media 245.1 2,148 114,106 52. GVIC Communications 244.2 2,148 113,687 53. Endeavour Silver 89.0 800 111,250 54. Energold Drilling 54.6 500 109,200 55. Eastern Platinum* 156.8 1,500 104,667 56. Terra Nova Royalty* 123.1 1,196 102,843 57. Pan American Silver 648.9 7,138 90,922 58. Great Canadian Gaming 384.2 4,500 85,378 59. First Majestic Silver 135.2 1,641 82,389 60. CIBT Education Group 56.0 680 82,353

61. Canfor Pulp Products 88.6 1,200 73,833 62. Canlan Ice Sports 69.9 950 73,579 63. Fortuna Silver* 74.1 1,300 56,923 64. GLG Life Tech 59.1 1,411 41,085

* Revenues stated in US dollars. ** BC Hydro’s 2010/11 annual report calculated the number of employees by full-time equivalents.

TABLE 2 -- Comparison of BC Hydro and Power Authority with private-sector, publicly-traded B.C. companies — ranked by annual profits per employee

2010 Profits (Losses) Number of Profits (Losses) per ($ millions) employees employee

1. Goldcorp* 1,574.3 3,140 501,369 2. Silver Standard Resources 346.2 750 461,600 3. Taseko Mines 148.6 350 424,571 4. Quadra FNX Mining* 172.5 806 214,020 5. Teck Resources 1,860.0 9,100 204,396 6. Methenex Corp.* 101.7 878 115,831 7. BC Hydro & Power Authority** 589.0 5,805 101,464 8. Silvercorp* 68.8 700 98,286 9. Canfor Pulp Products 90.5 1,200 75,417 10. Imperial Metals 35.3 504 70,040

11. Capstone Mining 72.6 1,207 60,149 12. HSBC Bank Canada 490.0 8,255 59,358 13. Ritchie Bros Auctioneers* 65.9 1,162 56,713 14. Fortress Paper 34.8 653 53,292 15. Eldorado Gold* 206.1 4,448 46,335 16. Canfor Corp 161.3 4,690 34,392 17. B2Gold Corp.* 29.5 973 30,319 18. Telus Corp 1,034.0 34,800 29,713 19. Wall Financial 14.3 506 28,261 20. China Gold Int’l Resources 26.2 1,018 25,737

21. Terra Nova Royalty* 30.3 1,196 25,334 22. Amerigo Resources* 15.4 617 24,959 23. Canaccord Financial 38.5 1,670 23,054 24. West Fraser Timber Co. 166.2 7,300 22,767 25. First Majestic Silver 36.1 1,641 21,999 26. MDA Ltd 40.7 2,200 18,500 27. Minefinders Corp.* 6.1 350 17,429 28. Pan American Silver 112.6 7,138 15,775 29. Ainsworth Lumber Co. 9.4 625 15,040 30. Coast Wholesale Appliances 3.7 275 13,455

31. Western Forest Products 27.7 2,089 13,260 32. Sun-Rype Products 4.6 424 10,849 33. Glentel Inc. 24.3 2,240 10,848 34. Fortuna Silver* 13.0 1,300 10,000 35. Glacier Media 20.6 2,148 9,590 36. Premium Brands Holdings 16.3 1,800 9,056 37. GVIC Communications 19.1 2,148 8,892 38. Endeavour Silver 7.1 800 8,879 39. CanWel Building Materials Grp 5.8 862 6,729 40. Eastern Platinum* 9.8 1,500 6,533 2010 Profits (Losses) Number of Profits (Losses) per ($ millions) employees employee

41. Coastal Contacts 3.1 546 5,678 42. Peer 1 Network Enterprises 2.2 388 5,670 43. Village Farms International* 5.6 1,200 4,667 44. Energold Drilling 1.5 500 3,000 45. Vecima Networks 0.8 903 886 46. CIBT Education Group 0.6 680 882 47. Canlan Ice Sports 0.7 950 737 48. GLG Life Tech (2.9) 1,411 (2,055) 49. International Forest Products (3.9) 1,500 (2,600) 50. Great Canadian Gaming (22.1) 4,500 (4,911)

51. Paragon Pharmacies (2.6) 415 (6,265) 52. Finning International (78.4) 11,900 (6,588) 53. Avcorp Industries (7.6) 560 (13,571) 54. (14.5) 880 (16,477) 55. First Quantum Minerals* (123.4) 6,904 (17,874) 56. Absolute Software (8.2) 350 (23,429) 57. Conifex Timber (10.8) 380 (28,421) 58. Lions Gate Entertainment* ($19.5) 497 (39,235) 59. Aura Minerals (57.0) 1,307 (43,611) 60. Northgate Minerals (71.7) 950 (75,474)

61. Ballard Power Systems (34.9) 340 (102,647) 62. Ivanhoe Mines* (211.5) 1,347 (157,016) 63. SouthGobi Resources* (116.2) 544 (213,603) 64. Catalyst Paper (396.9) 1,803 (220,133)

* Revenues stated in US dollars. ** BC Hydro’s 2010/11 annual report calculated the number of employees by full-time equivalents.

(SOURCES: “The Top 1000 -- Canada’s largest corporations,” Report on Business magazine, July/August 2011, pp. 58-72; and BC Hydro and Power Authority annual report, “Financial and Operating Statistics,” pp. 84-87.)