SURREY – The blockade of the R.W. Bruhn Bridge Highway 1 project by the Splatsin First Nation is a direct and deeply troubling consequence of the B.C. Government’s Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) framework – a failed, discriminatory policy that excludes the vast majority of B.C.’s construction workforce, contractors, and Indigenous-owned businesses.
“The irony is staggering: a government that claims to champion reconciliation has created a policy that shuts Indigenous contractors out of meaningful opportunities on taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects,” said Chris Gardner, President and CEO of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA). “The Splatsin protest should be a wake-up call for the NDP – reconciliation cannot happen when your hiring system prioritizes political allies over fairness and inclusion.”
Under the CBA policy, hiring must flow through the government-designated union hall run by a newly-created and costly crown corporation, BC Infrastructure Benefits, sidelining non-union and independent Indigenous contractors as well as unions not selected by NDP government – which, combined, make up more than 85% of the province’s construction workforce.
This isn’t the first time the NDP have cut out Indigenous contractors. In 2023, Jon-Co Contracting, a company owned and operated by Cowichan Tribes member Jon Coleman, was excluded from building a hospital in his own community.
Actions by the Splatsin and Coleman underscore another failure of the NDP’s CBA scheme. “These CBAs were sold to the public as a way to ensure there would be more opportunities for people on taxpayer-funded projects – and yet here is another example of an expensive, bureaucratic program failing not only the men and women in construction but also taxpayers,” said Gardner. “Every CBA project is behind schedule and over budget. The NDP’s CBA framework is a barrier to Indigenous economic participation, a burden on taxpayers, and a political giveaway to a handful of favoured unions.”
ICBA calls on the B.C. Government to immediately scrap the CBA model and return to open, transparent, fair and inclusive procurement practices – ones that opens doors and opportunities for all contractors, not just the politically connected few, and saves taxpayers money in the process.
