THE Electrical Trades Union has questioned the level of benefit the Toowoomba community will gain during the construction stage of a CBD substation upgrade.
Member for Toowoomba North Trevor Watts said 85,000 hours of work would be required during the upgrade of the Victoria St substation.
It is planned to be relocated and converted to an undercover power plant.
However, the union's south-west Queensland organiser Dan McGaw said not a minute of that work would be done by local Ergon Energy workers.
He said it would be contracted out.
"There is no reason why the work should be given to contractors," Mr McGaw said.
"Our guys are being sent away for work when this is the perfect opportunity for our guys to stay in town.
"We should be investing these hours into local jobs, not people out of town."
He said contractors Tenix were set to undertake the principal line work while latter stages had not yet been awarded.
"None of that money is going to be spent in town."
Mr Watts said he always preferred work of this sort be done locally and would be happy for local Ergon workers to do the work if they had the capacity and the ability to complete the project.
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