ICBA celebrates 50 years of serving open shop construction this year, and we are looking back every week at some of the significant moments, milestones, and people who helped ICBA become Canada’s largest construction association.
Today, we wind the clock back to recognize the contribution of one of our founders, Ken Funk.
The interviews and other original research on which the ICBA50 series is based were conducted by writer Kevin Hanson. We appreciate Kevin’s work capturing the people, events, and milestones that shaped ICBA’s first half-century.
As a construction association, we are often asked why our name includes “Businesses”. Isn’t the “Independent Contractors” descriptive enough?
Ken Funk, giving a speech in the late 1970s
But ICBA, from its very founding, has a rich history of both construction and members from other industries, who embrace our open shop and free enterprise values. Many of these were family-owned and operated ventures, perhaps best embodied by Ken Funk, one of our founders.
Ken’s company, Golden Valley Processors, was a food company. But when unions tried to dictate to Ken how his family business would construct its expanded facility: “My father instilled in me the value of freedom and opportunity and hard work and, you know, the values and principles. And nobody was going to tell me what I was going to do in a democracy in a free country.”
On the foundation of such deeply held values, Funk found other open shop pioneers and strong personal bonds were quickly forged.
Even when Funk finished his time on the ICBA Board of Directors in the early 1980s, those friendships with builders remained strong. His company was being targeted by a union certification drive, making for what he described as “the worst time of my business career bar none.” It culminated in a Labour Relations Board hearing in Vancouver – a new and stressful experience for him. On arriving in the hearing room, he unexpectedly found Ewald Rempel in the front row, there to lend moral support. “He knew we were vulnerable, he knew we were a non-union company and family,” said Funk. “And I think it was just – that’s just the kind of man he was. That spoke volumes to me, volumes.”
Funk was key in the early growth of ICBA, often flying with other board members to far-flung parts of B.C.
“We used to try to get a meeting every place we could. ‘We’re going to meet in Creston this month, we’re going to meet in Cranbrook that month, we’re going to meet in Kelowna that month,’” said Elmer Verigin. “We had this group of directors – you know, Ken Funk, Ed Rempel, Bill Kerkhoff – and they would get there… There was a time in Creston when the planes couldn’t fly in. These guys flew into the municipal airport in Trail, got a car somewhere, and drove over a mountain into Creston. They were an hour late but they got there.”
Ken Funk, late 1970s
It was a major commitment, and involved sacrifices that impacted businesses and families. “I was away a lot,” Verigin says. “[My wife] Marilyn can vouch for that. But we were dedicated. We wanted to win. Everybody thought that we were going to lose, especially from the union contractor’s point of view.”
Membership growth was slower than hoped in the early days, and was a grassroots effort. “We just didn’t have the infrastructure to do it any other way. We didn’t have the money for sure,” said Funk.
One of the barriers to membership growth – and sometimes the reason for membership loss – was the hesitancy many contractors felt about being targeted as a result of joining ICBA. “It was a challenge,” said Funk. “The thing of it is that, you know, there were people in the industry who were non-union who, you know, probably didn’t want to rock the boat, didn’t want to draw attention to themselves.”
Ken Funk was never one of those people who shied away from doing what was right. He stood tall for open shop and free enterprise, and was recognized as an ICBA Life Member for his contributions. On March 21, 2025, Ken attended our ICBA Gala, celebrating 50 years since helping found our association in 1975.
