C&C #28: Build Like It's Wartime

Canada lost 42,000 jobs in August. Or did it? Monthly job numbers bounce like a pickup on a logging road. Meanwhile, ICBA filed its pre-budget submission with Ottawa this morning: 15 recommendations, starting with the number that explains the last decade — in 2014 a Canadian company invested 87 cents per worker for every U.S. dollar. By 2024, 54 cents. We stopped building capacity before Trump showed up.

Episode 28 of ICBA Coffee & Construction — the news that matters to the people who build British Columbia and Alberta, with ICBA's Jordan Bateman. On today's show:

☕ THE BIG ONE: ICBA's letter to Finance Minister Champagne. Cut federal project reviews to UNDER A YEAR for everyone, not just Bill C-5 favourites. Cut 149,000 federal regulatory requirements by 10% by end of 2027. Overhaul a tax system ranked 22nd of 38 in the OECD. Fix the ports before this fall's ILWU round — 24 days of shutdowns cost $19.2 billion in cargo and delayed 79% of ICBA members' projects. And open Ottawa's $331-million training fund to the 85% of B.C. and 88% of Alberta construction workers who aren't in a building-trades union.

📉 August jobs: Canada -42,000 against a forecast of +15,000. B.C. up to 6.5%, Alberta down to 6.8%, Kelowna at 9%. Why one month is noise and the quarter is the number that matters.

🌉 Shovels in on the North Coast Transmission Line in Prince George — roughly $6 BILLION for Phases 1 and 2, $3.9 billion from Ottawa and Victoria, 1,400 workers at peak, Phase 1 done mid-2030. Co-ownership deals with five First Nations still to be signed by year-end.

🛢️ Trans Mountain files a $3.97-billion expansion with the CER — 11 pump stations, 30 km of pipe, another 210,000 barrels a day by late 2028. The line ran 94% FULL in Q2, and nearly two-thirds of tankers since 2024 went to Asia. Plus Danielle Smith on why the U.S.–Venezuela oil deal makes the West Coast pipeline case stronger, with the national-interest decision due October 1.

💸 B.C. overstated its gas royalties by $1.46 BILLION over five years — about $300 million a year — because someone treated Canadian dollars as U.S. dollars in a spreadsheet. Treaty 8 First Nations flagged it in July.

🎙️ No show Monday — it's Labour Day. Back Wednesday. And a thank-you to the 265,000 people who build for a living.

📊 Get the ICBA Economics briefing — the most helpful email you'll get all week: https://icba.ca/economics

ICBA Coffee & Construction drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe, hit the bell, and send this one to somebody who builds for a living. ICBA is Canada's largest construction association — the voice of B.C. and Alberta's open-shop builders: https://icba.ca