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 turn back the clock to the late 1990s, with ICBA president Philip Hochstein at the height of his powers.
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.
In May 1998, Philip Hochstein walked into a Victoria hotel meeting room wearing a Mickey Mouse tie and carrying a submission that pulled no punches. The NDP government had appointed former premier Dave Barrett to head a commission into the province’s leaky condo crisis – an issue affecting tens of thousands of homeowners. ICBA’s response was blistering, questioning the “fairness, impartiality and competence” of the commission, and hinting that partisan politics were driving the whole affair.
But it wasn’t the submission that made headlines – it was the tie.
“His tie said it all,” wrote Les Leyne in the Victoria Times Colonist, interpreting it as a shot at Barrett’s appointment as an “independent” commissioner. For Hochstein, it wasn’t necessarily that calculated. The tie had been a recent gift from one of his daughters. “I think my lack of choice of ties had more to do with it,” he laughs. Still, intentional or not, the Mickey Mouse symbolism lined up perfectly with ICBA’s advocacy tone in the 1990s – fearless, direct, and unrelenting in its criticism of the NDP government.
Philip Hochstein
The relationship between ICBA and the NDP was always going to be combative. Asked to participate in this history, former Premier Glen Clark said, “You always held strong views and I always knew your position. And that position was often at odds with mine. So it didn’t influence my actions in any way.”
With that kind of ideological divide – and deep tension between ICBA contractors and the NDP-allied Building Trades – it’s hard to imagine the association ever being invited inside the policy tent. But as Hochstein makes clear, he wasn’t trying to get in.
“I don’t know how many people said that to me,” he recalls, meaning those who urged him to be more cooperative. “And my answer to that is, well, you got the Forest Practices Code. Inside the tent worked pretty well for you, eh?” ICBA’s board backed his hard-nosed approach every step of the way.
That unflinching posture built ICBA’s credibility and reach. “I understood that within government, certainly at the bureaucratic level, they worried about what we would say,” Hochstein explains. “And look, when you’re the only one willing to shit on the government, you get a lot of press. It helped build our reputation with Gordon Campbell because we were the only group willing to say ‘that’s wrong.’”
Marcia Smith, who worked alongside ICBA through the Coalition of B.C. Businesses in the 1990s, said the group’s clarity and consistency gave it influence: “They have a voice that’s different than other industry associations.” ICBA’s membership was united, unafraid to be “unabashedly partisan,” and willing to push back. Even if policy wins were rare, ICBA had impact. Former ICBA Chair John Knappett believes that pressure forced the NDP to temper its approach: “We were organized enough and strong enough that we were able to provide an effective opposition. And because of that, the NDP’s actions were relatively muted from what they probably would have liked to have done.”
Hochstein’s command of the issues, his media savvy, and his relentlessness made him a powerful advocate.
“What annoys Hochstein’s opponents is his quick and intricate understanding of issues, as well as his ability to attract press,” Business in Vancouver wrote in a 1996 profile.
Inside the industry, his standing was rock solid. “He always spoke the truth no matter the consequences,” said former ICBA Chair Don White. “When Phil was going to open his mouth, everybody shut up. That’s how profound he was and how respected he was – by the opposition, the government in power, and by members of the various associations.”
Dave Robertson, then-president of the B.C. Construction Association, said Hochstein ensured ICBA’s perspective was heard loud and clear: “He made sure that the ICBA perspective was out in front of the media and the province at every opportunity. He was a well-known media personality, probably the first to turn to on any construction-related issue.”
Even those who often disagreed with him, like former Premier Mike Harcourt, respected the clarity: “I’d characterize Phil as being a very forceful communicator and he expressed his opinions frankly and pungently. And so I was clear on what his and the ICBA’s position was. I never had any doubt about that. But we didn’t do it disagreeably.”
Suromitra Sanatani, who worked closely with Hochstein through the Coalition of B.C. Businesses, said ICBA’s impact came from a clear focus on good policy—not just ideology or anti-unionism. “The combination of understanding the realities of your members and having a bigger picture was key, I think, to this interest in shaping public policy,” she said.
Looking back, the 1990s were brutal for open shop contractors. The Labour Code was increasingly stacked against them. Unions were emboldened. Government was hostile. But strangely, those same pressures helped make ICBA what it is today.
The organization grew in stature and credibility. Members leaned heavily on ICBA for help navigating the political and regulatory chaos. Many new firms joined the open shop movement – and many of those became members or enrolled in the growing ICBA benefits plan. That revenue stream, along with stronger membership, gave ICBA financial stability for the first time.
“The NDP era was really the making of the organization,” Hochstein reflects. “Worst of times, best of times.”
And solidarity only deepened. “It was that sort of mentality with all the guys,” said Joel Nauss. “None of us said, ‘Oh shit I don’t want to do this, I’m going to go sign with the union, I don’t want to be part of ICBA anymore.’ There was none of that.”
They stayed the course – and changed the course of construction in B.C.
