Month: June 2022

Each week, ICBA’s Jordan Bateman reflects on what we’ve learned as we participate in ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program. This program is free for all ICBA members – check out icba.ca/wellness for details.

The team at ICBA is now into our final month of our Workplace Wellness program, and we’re looking at Diversity and Inclusion – creating a dynamic workforce where differences are appreciated and valued.

In construction, safety is the single most important thing. Accepting people of other genders, backgrounds, religions, beliefs, educations, abilities, and ethnicities improves site safety. Here’s how:

• Getting, and accepting, input from different people offers different perspectives on how to work safely
• It encourages more people to speak up about unsafe behavior
• It creates a caring culture, and it helps us to challenge traditional or “macho” ways of behaving that can have a negative impact on safety

As our reading puts it, “When we accept and include other people’s differences, rather than expecting them to change and become like us, we can improve safety for everyone and create an environment where more people feel comfortable speaking up when they see a safety issue that might affect them or someone else.”

Seems reasonable to me!

ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program is helping more than 75 companies and 7,000+ construction professionals better understand mental health. The program is free for ICBA members — see icba.ca/wellness.

Each week, ICBA’s Jordan Bateman reflects on what we’ve learned as we participate in ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program. This program is free for all ICBA members – check out icba.ca/wellness for details.

The team at ICBA is now into our final month of our Workplace Wellness program, and we’re looking at Diversity and Inclusion – creating a dynamic workforce where differences are appreciated and valued.

I think our Wellness program is at its very best when it offers practical tips or next steps that any of us can implement to make our mental health, our lives, our relationships, and our workplaces better.

This week, there were four super-practical steps to being more inclusive at work:

• Take the chance to connect with a new member of the team in a positive way – it could be as simple as asking for, or offering, a recommendation for lunch
• Call out behaviour that is intended to exclude someone/a group – be an ally for others
• Consider the words you use and whether you are being unintentionally exclusive – for example saying “you guys” when you talk to a group which includes women or people who do not define as male.
• If someone has a good idea or raises an important issue but is ignored or not properly considered, support them and try to encourage others to reconsider – it will show the person they are supported and included

None of those are very hard to do, yet they could make a world of difference for a co-worker feeling lonely or misunderstood.

ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program is helping more than 75 companies and 7,000+ construction professionals better understand mental health. The program is free for ICBA members — see icba.ca/wellness.

Thanks CKPG-TV for covering our ICBA Wellness work — and bringing much-needed attention to BC’s mental health crisis. This week, our team is in Fort St. John with Corey Hirsch, talking to 100s of construction workers about mental health.

And thanks Glass on Web for covering our ICBA Wellness session with the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance summer conference earlier this month. As our president Chris Gardner said: “COVID compounded issues like mental health and substance use… Everyone had the challenge of coping with it.”

The Summer 2022 edition of The Construction Monitor looks at the BC NDP Government’s new compulsory trades laws. See the full Monitor HERE.

It’s yet another example of the B.C. NDP’s penchant for policies that date back to before the turn-of-the- millennium.

Recent legislation has reimposed “compulsory trades”, beginning with 10 initial trades. This means all workers will have to either be a licensed tradesperson or registered apprentice to do any of the work within the scope of these trades. Government is also introducing “supervision ratios”, limiting the number of apprentices an employer can hire relative to the qualified journeypeople on the job site.

Both of these measures will restrict entry into trades training just when we need to be ramping it up. Training delivery is out-of-date and we are suffering from a chronic under-investment in new training spaces.

Do we really need government dictating to contractors the number of apprentices who can work side-by-side with ticketed tradespeople? Meanwhile, the training delivered to those who can find positions will be much more restrictive due to compulsory designations, which will erase cross- functional or more specialized learning and experience.

All this will come with a vast new enforcement regime – meaning we will be hiring inspectors rather than instructors. Any offsetting benefits are hard to see, since licensing, permitting, inspections and other regulatory oversight already provides safety and quality assurances for construction workers and end users.

Like most of the construction sector, ICBA wasn’t asked for input when these retrograde policies were designed. But like all of B.C., we’ll now have to live with their negative impact on skills training and work-place productivity, and ultimately the negative impact on housing availability and affordability.

The Summer 2022 edition of The Construction Monitor looks at the BC NDP Government’s new compulsory trades laws. See the full Monitor HERE.

Each week, ICBA’s Jordan Bateman reflects on what we’ve learned as we participate in ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program. This program is free for all ICBA members – check out icba.ca/wellness for details.

As we enter our second calendar year of ICBA Wellness offerings, I’m pleased to report that we have a few more themes to go, and Wellness Wednesday will continue on for the foreseeable future.

But I did want to reflect on a full year of the program, and what’s it meant to our construction industry.

There is no miracle cure for the mental health crisis that faces society, or the suicide, addiction and overdose numbers that have come along with it. This is not easy, simple work – these are complex, deeply personal issues that we have to work through.

ICBA Wellness’ first and foremost goal is to get the conversation on mental health started. We spend a lot of time talking about how to cut through the stigma around mental wellness. And we have been successful in construction – more workers, employers, and workplaces are addressing these issues than ever before. We have equipped thousands of people to understand how they can be healthier mentally, physically, financially, emotionally, and relationally.

Here’s to continuing to push against the stigma and helping as many construction professionals as we can!

ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program is helping more than 75 companies and 7,000+ construction professionals better understand mental health. The program is free for ICBA members — see icba.ca/wellness.

SURREY – A month-long strike has reduced the Lower Mainland’s concrete supply by approximately 40% and needs to be resolved as quickly as possible to avoid chaos in the construction industry, says the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA).

ICBA is calling on BC Labour Minister Harry Bains to use his authority under the BC Labour Relations Code to immediately appoint a special mediator to help bring the Teamsters and International Union of Operating Engineers job action at Rempel Bros. Concrete, Ocean Concrete, and Allied Ready Mix Concrete, to a resolution quickly.

“The impact of this labour dispute goes far beyond three companies and two building trades unions,” said Chris Gardner, ICBA President. “The lack of concrete supply is causing damage industry-wide and will soon be felt everywhere – projects being delayed and shut down; historic construction cost escalation; workers being laid off; and increased prices for taxpayers and home buyers. It is not an understatement to say that we haven’t seen this kind of supply shock in the industry for decades.”

The two sides have met dozens of times since the beginning of the year, and The Journal of Commerce reports they have more meetings planned for June 20-22. ICBA wants the Minister to immediately put a special mediator into those meetings.

“It’s time to do whatever it takes to close a deal,” said Gardner. “Losing this much supply will increase costs for taxpayers and home buyers at a time when supply chains, inflation, red tape, and special government procurement deals are already driving up prices. Whether it’s the Pattullo Bridge, Lions Gate Hospital, projects being built by YVR and BC Hydro, or housing projects of all kinds, the impact is far-reaching, and government cannot sit on the sidelines. This is hurting everyone.”

Media reports quote the union representative as saying negotiations have “reached an impasse.”

“As we try to recover from the impacts of the global pandemic and battle inflation and rising interest rates, while managing a chronic shortage of people in the workforce, we cannot afford an impasse. Minister Bains needs to show leadership and act now – doing nothing is not an option,” said Gardner.