The following piece was written in 2025 by David F. Loewen.
During the 1970s and 1980s, British Columbia’s construction industry was marked by some of the most turbulent labour unrest in Canada. Open-shop contractors had been excluded, under provincial legislation, from bidding on government contracts. That inequity would be corrected, thanks in large part to the involvement of Ewald and Ed Rempel.
Dietrich and Margaret (Fast) Rempel, along with their
two sons, George and Ewald, emigrated from Russia to Canada in 1926. They settled briefly in Manitou, Manitoba, where two more children joined their family. In 1934, the Rempel family moved to Abbotsford on the West Coast. Four more children joined the family in BC, including Edward, their sixth child. Here they were engaged in berry farming.
Ewald attended Huntingdon Elementary School and Philip Sheffield High School in Abbotsford. He did not finish his formal education, deciding in favour of joining his parents in their berry farming endeavour. Ed was born in Abbotsford and attended Philip Sheffield High School. Following marriage in 1957, he moved to Fort St. John, where he became involved in the Oil & Gas business.
Not long after joining his parents on the berry farm, Ewald launched into the gravel trucking business. In November 1967, Ed and Clarence established their concrete business (they were so dedicated they were even out Christmas Eve pouring concrete!). Three weeks later, Ewald sold his gravel truck and joined the two brothers in forming Rempel Bros. Concrete. Sadly, Clarence’s involvement was short-lived, as he died of a heart attack in 1975.
Over the next twenty-one years, the company grew rapidly. Rempel Bros. Concrete initiated several innovations that provided the company with an economic advantage. The company pioneered the “tandem-tandem” concrete mixers in Canada, which provided trucks with the largest legal carrying capacity in Western Canada (they were already used south of the border), and was one of the first in western Canada to implement computerized concrete batching. Rempel Concrete was positioned to take advantage of the construction boom on the horizon.
Ewald Rempel
Of approximately 100,000 certified trades people in the province in the 1970s, roughly two-thirds were non-unionized (Sorenson). Construction of a school in Trail, B.C. was the event that galvanized independent businesses across the province into forming the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA), when the open-shop contractors were disallowed from bidding on the project. Its appeal in rural BC was pronounced.
Not long after, open-shop contractor Kerkhoff Construction of Chilliwack won the bid to build the Kamloops courthouse, but was unable to secure concrete when local unionized truck drivers refused to deliver concrete to the building site. Kerkhoff turned to Rempel Bros. Concrete which sent trucks and drivers to deliver locally sourced concrete. Similar actions were repeated many more times across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. As a result, Rempel Bros. Concrete became key to the growth of open-shop construction in B.C., as it supplied open-shop builders with cement, a fact that many builders and developers today, small and large, will attest to. Several times, unions tried to organize Rempel Bros. Concrete, but the family had built a loyal and well-cared-for employee group, and every effort failed.
At one point, Rempel Bros. Concrete was the largest open-shop concrete company in the province, thanks to the Rempels’ persistence in bidding, advocacy for open shop, and belief in treating their employees fairly. Ed Rempel’s role in advocating for independent contractors resulted in harassment and it tested some personal relationships. “At night, they would come up and down our driveway, flashing their lights. We would see the cars out there. Sometimes they would get out of the cars and there would be six big guys in our driveway, at our home” (Myrtle-Anne Rempel). On one occasion, their sixteen-year-old daughter was followed in her car from school and had to detour from the empty residence to a nearby Rempel Bros. plant before the trailing vehicle sped off. The tension in the mid-1970s was pronounced while Ewald, Ed, and Myrtle-Anne Rempel played roles in helping ICBA become established.
Ed Rempel
A False Creek condo development in Vancouver became the flashpoint of tension between the unions and independent contractors, with as many as one thousand picketers on site. News coverage recounted nasty confrontations, including Ewald Rempel and non-union workers being pelted with feces and an attempt to run over Ewald Rempel, resulting with him on the hood of a vehicle. Ultimately, court intervention brought a tentative peace to the construction scene – until Expo ’86.
When the bidding on the Expo site construction began, unionized and open-shop contractors resumed the “battle.” Premier Bennett threatened to cancel Expo if the two sectors could not agree. During the pivotal negotiations over who would build the Expo ’86 projects – open shop or building trades unions – Ed Rempel played a key role. It was so controversial and heated at the time that when Ed met with Expo boss, Jimmy Pattison, he was asked to get off the elevator two floors below and then take the stairs. ICBA, prompted by people like Ed Rempel, assured Pattison that they could build Expo. A resolution was reached which marked the first time in B.C. history that unionized and open-shop companies worked together amicably on a site. As a footnote to this story, Ewald Rempel and Jimmy Pattison developed a personal friendship. Ewald and Ethel Rempel were invited as guests to the dinner honouring Prince Charles and Princess Diana at the opening of Expo ’86.
Today, those with knowledge of ICBA’s history will tell you that Ed and Ewald Rempel championed the right of all trades people to participate in the building of this province, regardless of union status. Today, the open-shop sector constitutes 85 percent of the construction industry (Sorenson). And yet, recent provincial legislation continues to exclude open-shop contractors from bidding on significant government infrastructure projects.
At its peak, Rempel Bros. Concrete had a fleet of eighty-eight mixer trucks and eight plants throughout the Valley and Lower Mainland. In addition, it had portable operations at Tumbler Ridge, Trail, Port Hardy, and Hedley, with over 250 employees. The company had diversified to include steel, piledriving, concrete products supplies, and sand and gravel. In 1988, Rempel Bros. Concrete was sold; some of the other companies were retained.
Beyond business, both brothers were deeply invested in their church and community. Ewald (1926-1993) served on the board of Habitat for Humanity and contributed his organizational abilities to the construction of the Fraser Valley Child Development Centre (then referred to as the “Lego building”). He is described by many as a role model for younger entrepreneurs, for whom he often generously provided start-up loans. He served on the board of the Church of the Nazarene for most of fifty years, and on both the finance and building committees. In addition, he served on the Regional Conference finance committee and generously donated to the national missions board for overseas work. He taught adult Sunday school and sang in the church choir. Ewald is remembered for his fierce loyalty, natural generosity, and gentle spirit.
Ed (1936-2018) served numerous organizations, which include: BC Institute of Technology (BCIT) board of governors; Matsqui-Abbotsford Police Association board of governors; Amalgamated Construction Association of Canada, president; B.C. Concrete Association, president; Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA), president and co-founder; Economic Development Advisory Committee for the City of Abbotsford, member; BC Tax Assessment Board, member; United Way, board member; Youth for Christ organization, board member; Robert Schuller Ministries, board member; Sevenoaks Alliance Church finance committee, member. Ed was passionate about his family and enjoyed outdoor activities. He sang in the Sevenoaks Church choir for many years. He and Myrtle-Anne were both involved with Campus Crusade. Ed was a visionary with a deep spiritual faith, whose motto was, “Always take the high road”.
Sources:
- “Remembering Ed Rempel.” The Independent (Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of BC newsletter).
- Rempel, Ethel. “Ewald Rempel’s Abbotsford Legacy Story.” 2017.
- Rempel, Ethel. Telephone conversation, 8 Jul. 2020.
- Rempel, Myrtle-Anne. Brushstrokes of Life: An Autobiography. Meadville, PA: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc., 2018.
- Rempel, Myrtle-Anne. Email exchange, 26 Jun. 2020.
- Sorenson, Jean. “ICBA marks 40 years of open shop advocacy in B.C.” Journal of Commerce, 24 Apr. 2015.
