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 life members, Larry Fisher, who will be honoured just outside our Surrey office on April 10, 2025, with the renaming of a street for him.
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.
It’s hard to express how much respect and gratitude ICBA has for the late Larry Fisher.
Larry was an absolute character and icon in our industry, and in the formation of ICBA. One of our earliest supporters and life members, Larry founded Lark Group and built our Surrey office – among many incredible projects (So many great Surrey landmarks were built by Larry and Lark: North Surrey Sport and Ice Complex, Excellent Ice, the City Centre buildings, Bill Reid Memorial, Laurel Place, the FVHRS Heritage Car Barn, Morgan Creek Golf Course, and much more).
When he formed Lark in 1972, he quickly became a strong and outspoken advocate for free enterprise – for the investment, jobs and opportunity that result from open and fair bidding on government tendered projects and on an economy founded on free markets.
Not one to stand on the sidelines, Larry’s passion for getting things done and building B.C., led him to unapologetically support Social Credit and, later, the BC Liberal Party.
It’s impossible to overstate how important Larry and Lark Group have been to open shop construction. Larry was one of the leaders who successfully pushed to open EXPO 86 to non-union construction companies. It was a simple proposition – if companies and their workers had the skill and experience to get the job done, why shouldn’t they have an opportunity to work on taxpayer-funded projects? And he practiced what he preached: Lark sites have a healthy mix of open shop and building trades sub-contractors working on their projects. It was hard work and results that mattered to Larry.
His affection for ICBA never wavered, and he always looked back fondly at his work in the 1980s: “Convictions were so strong that we just believed in what we were doing and if you ran across a concrete wall, you’d step back, go sideways and find a hole in the wall and just keep marching on,” he told ICBA in 2016
When he passed away in 2023, ICBA President Chris Gardner shared this touching tribute:
In 2019, ICBA wanted a long-term solution for its head office, and we were looking at sites in Burnaby (where we had been for more than 20 years) and Surrey, (where, in our early days, we had a single room office in a basement), so I called Larry. Lark Group was building City Centre 3 across from Surrey Memorial Hospital. And, two weeks before the COVID-19 lockdown, we signed an agreement to purchase the 8th floor of the new building. The timing was interesting to say the least, but like Larry, we never looked back.
In the summer of that year, Larry called us with the idea for a photo opportunity that only he could have come up with. After workers poured the 8th floor of our building, he had a desk craned up and placed in the exact location where my new office was to be located. I will always cherish that amazing photo of he and I, in full PPE, proudly standing behind a desk in the open air, with the Lark Group CC1 building looming behind us.
A couple of months ago, as he was fighting cancer, he called me. “Chris, I’m just on hold waiting for the results of my most recent tests, so I thought I would give you a call. I want to talk about what’s happening in Victoria and Ottawa.”
That was Larry – ever driving, persistent, principled, and always fighting for what he believed in.
ICBA VP-Communications Jordan Bateman wrote the piece HERE about an unforgettable personal moment he had with Larry:
Last April, Larry called and informed me that I’d be driving him to a political meet-and-greet downtown. He must have a nicer car than mine, I thought, but who says no to Larry Fisher?
We passed several development sites along the way; Larry knew every company and subtrade working there. He chattered away, talking construction and politics.
Just as we got onto the viaduct, he pulled out his cell phone, and told me it was time to call his mother. I confess I was surprised – Larry was in his 70s. She answered, and Larry put her on speaker, and he introduced me to her as a friend. And then the most remarkable thing happened.
He started singing to her. I wish I could remember the song, but it was something from the 1940s, and he just sang it. She mumbled a bit and then jumped in, singing with him. When they were done, Larry told his mom he loved her, and he would call again tomorrow.
“I get her to sing every day,” he told me, tucking the phone away. “She remembers the old songs and it keeps her mind active.”
Then it was back to conversations about politics and business.
B.C. is a better place for having Larry Fisher help build it. I’m a better person for having known him.
This week, we join other members of the Lark team and Surrey community to remember Larry by renaming a street outside our office, “Larry Fisher Way.” For years, ICBA has ideologically walked the Larry Fisher way – now we can physically walk the Larry Fisher Way too.
