The 30-Second Rundown:
- Despite David Eby’s views to the contrary, B.C. residents overwhelmingly support pipelines.
- The NDP Government is bringing in prompt payment laws. But, so far, it hasn’t legislated government agencies be included.
- The Cowichan Tribes land claim decision from the BC Supreme Court clouds private property rights, and the NDP’s Heritage Act rewrite will slow permits and add costs.
- The NDP Government and City Halls keep strangling residential building projects with higher taxes and more red tape, while ignoring there’s a sharp downturn and layoffs in homebuilding.
- A motion at the Engineers and Geoscientists AGM would urge engineers to stop specifying gas-fired equipment; we’ve made our concerns known and encourage a vote against the plan.
B.C. Supports Oil and Gas
David Eby likes to claim that British Columbians oppose pipelines. But polling shows he is flat-out wrong: Nanos found that nearly 75% of B.C. residents support building a national energy corridor that includes an oil and gas pipeline from Alberta, even after being told there could be environmental or Indigenous land-claim concerns.
In an op-ed for the Calgary Herald, ICBA’s Chris Gardner and ICBA Alberta’s Mike Martens explain why B.C. residents support pipelines – they know it’s vital for the Canadian economy, for independence form the United States, and to create prosperity and jobs: “The pipeline would support about 20,000 to 25,000 person-years of employment. Once in service, it could generate more than $111 billion over three decades for the treasuries of Alberta, B.C. and Canada [to fund] health care, schools, roads and municipal services.”
Indigenous Rights and Title
Two major Indigenous-related files are causing deep concern in the construction and the broader business community, and ICBA is working on both.
A recent BC Supreme Court decision to grant Aboriginal title to the Cowichan Tribes over a large piece of land in Richmond, puts private property rights both there, and across the province, into question. Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie drew national headlines this weekend for his letter to landowners warning them of the potential fallout.
As the lead lawyer for the Cowichan told CKNW: “I fully anticipate any property sales would be with the consent of the Cowichan Nation and it would be with some accommodation from the Crown (government) to the Cowichan Nation.” For more, check out this piece from Vaughn Palmer in the Vancouver Sun.
The decision is being appealed by various governments and Indigenous groups, and ICBA is looking at options on how we can intervene on behalf of our members and in defence of property rights. Stay tuned.
ICBA has led the charge in fighting the NDP’s proposed changes to the Heritage Conservation Act (HCA), which we (along with other experts and municipal governments) believe will add massive complexity, delays, and costs to a permitting system that is already struggling.
The biggest concern: a provision that now mandates that “intangible heritage” be considered prior to letting a project proceed. The NDP want builders to review non-physical concepts like stories or traditions. This is impractical, unworkable and would lead to endless conflict and litigation.
ICBA opposes the HCA changes. The NDP have delayed a decision until later this year, but have given no hint that they are willing to make any changes to their proposed law.
Please consider taking ICBA’s letter and forwarding it to EngageHCA@gov.bc.ca with a brief note stating you support our views on this issue. The deadline is Nov. 14.
Homebuilding Downturn
We are gravely concerned by the downturn in residential construction, as projects are shelved throughout the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley and beyond. Behind the scenes, ICBA has been working with several groups of homebuilders, coordinating letters and campaigns to bring solutions to the NDP Government.
These have fallen on deaf ears, as the NDP maintains the view (as outlined in their most recent budget update) that housing starts, and residential construction employment, are holding steady. This rings false to the many homebuilders and subcontractors laying off workers as projects stall.
City Halls share the blame for our housing mess – for example, Burnaby just gutted its Small-Scale Multi-Housing framework to placate a handful of NIMBYs. As we laid out in our letter to Burnaby council, the program had seen more than 400 applications approved. We suggested a few tweaks to make it even better for both neighbours and builders, but instead Burnaby essentially changed the rules to make it near impossible to pencil future builds.
ICBA is working on a campaign to get municipal candidates better informed on housing and construction economics ahead of next October’s local government elections.
Prompt Payment
Two weeks ago, we alerted you that the NDP’s new Construction Prompt Payment Act did NOT include provincial or municipal levels of government or any regional districts, school boards, Crown corporations, agencies, and subsidiaries.
Since its introduction, we have been busy making the case that government be included. We have done various news media interviews (see these in The Province and the Journal of Commerce, for example), made calls, and brought up the issue with both government officials and the Opposition. The NDP have said they will address this when they write regulations after the law is passed – but ICBA believes it should be included in the law itself.
Standing Up for Energy Options
Engineers & Geoscientists BC is weighing an AGM motion asking EGBC to establish obligations for its members to stop specifying gas-fired equipment in new and existing buildings. Our members asked us to flag the risks:
- Affordability: Higher capex/opex, especially for retrofits and in cold weather.
- Reliability: Adds peak load to a constrained grid; weakens resiliency for critical facilities and housing.
- Practice: One-size expectation undermines engineering judgment and can conflict with codes/owner specs/contracts.
- Transition: Sidelines lower-carbon gas pathways (RNG/hydrogen blends).
Action: If you’re an EGBC member, please read our analysis and vote against the motion. If you’re not, please share this with engineers or geoscientists you work with.
ICYMI
More good reading on big ICBA issues:
- ICBA Chief Economist Jock Finlayson says Canada needs to better leverage its workforce (Calgary Sun)
- The decline of the B.C. forestry industry – a longtime economic driver and ICBA ally – is because of NDP policies, not American ones (Truck Logger Magazine)
- An economic panel at our ICBA Construction Innovation Summit looks at how the U.S. is “leaving us in the dust” on innovation, science, and technology (Journal of Commerce)
- Inflation and salary increase trendlines are closer than we think (ICBA Economics)
ICBA continues our work on several advocacy files on behalf of our members… if there’s a government issue your company is facing and could use some help with, reach out to jordan@icba.ca.
