Trudeau government may have paid $33 million to BC hotel that fired 143 workers to be run as quarantine hotel

How much was tossing aside 143 hard-working employees during the height of a declared pandemic worth to a 4-star hotel? Potentially $33 million according to the Unite Here Local 40 union.

As reported by Richmond News, the union for the former full-time employees of Pacific Gateway Hotel in Richmond BC, says the hotel “may have pocketed more than $33.6 million in federal government quarantine hand-outs” despite abruptly laying off over 140 of its full-time workers.

Remember when Prime Minister Trudeau made citizens concerned about the government detaining people against their will in COVID camps feel insane just before he did exactly that but called them quarantine hotels?

Ahhh, the land of the free. https://t.co/PfGHKi3d9J pic.twitter.com/cHtX8eZSkG

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) February 7, 2023

In February 2021, I investigated the Pacific Gateway Hotel owned by PHI Hotel Group, to show the public it had been operating as a secret COVID quarantine detainment facility for people arriving in Richmond by air through the Vancouver International Airport. I also confirmed at the time that it was operating as such, whilst most of the hotel's previous employees were no longer working.

Drea Humphrey investigates the Pacific Gateway Hotel in Richmond, British Columbia after receiving a tip that it's being used as a COVID quarantine site.

FULL REPORT from @DreaHumphrey: https://t.co/nvi9DGxdjx pic.twitter.com/AVpbft2eFg

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) February 21, 2021

According to the union, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) contracted the hotel to enforce a quarantine mandate for 2,204 travellers over a span of 21 months and could have paid around 52,000 taxpayer dollars per day to do so. Red Cross workers were hired to work in the hotel during the contracted months instead of the hotel's laid-off staff. The hotel eventually lost the government contract in early 2022 due to its “treatment of unionized workers.”

The union’s estimation for the amount of PHAC payouts to the hotel was calculated based on recent information revealed by Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner that stated, “PHAC had spent more than $450,000, per person, to house just 15 people at the Westin Calgary, which has the same owners as the Pacific Gateway – the PHI Hotel Group.”

In July 2021, the self-declared feminist and fighter of systemic racism, Prime Minister Trudeau, ignored a group of women of colour who had been tossed aside by the hotel, when they desperately tried to get his attention during a visit to Coquitlam, BC.

Flashback to when hardworking women’s labour rights concerns were ignored by feminist Prime Minister Trudeau.

Full report coming soon on how the Pacific Gateway Hotel that canned them may have earned $33million to run a federal quarantine hotel https://t.co/CK34ZmxetW pic.twitter.com/woTJYNWOb0

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) February 7, 2023

“We want to meet Trudeau in Coquitlam but he don’t give us any chance but that’s not fair, we wait long time for him. So we want to talk to him,” one of the ladies who claimed to have worked for Pacific Gateway Hotel for 27 years told Rebel News.

Another woman in the group of terminated workers disappointed by getting a cold shoulder from Trudeau, said she had worked at the hotel for 40 years. When asked if the ladies received any sort of severance after losing their jobs she replied “very little, very little.”

The City of Richmond however did not ignore the discarded workers' plights. In June 2022, Richmond City Council voted to boycott the hotel, vowing to not give them any business until the hotel is able to come to an agreement with the Unite Here union.

“How do they justify terminating the bulk of their workforce, while getting all these millions from the government? There was absolutely no reason they couldn’t agree to bring these workers back,” Unite Here Local 40’s media personnel Michelle Travis, told Richmond News.

According to Travis, many more questions remain, such as why this hotel was chosen and how much money in total the hotel received including in the form of worker subsidies.

If you appreciate that Rebel News brought you this update and had our boots on the ground across Canada to show you first-hand just how wasteful and horribly inhumane these government COVID jails were, you can donate here to support the costs of our independent journalism.