Author: ICBA Blog

Harassment at work is an unfortunate occurrence, but it can be dealt with and prevented. Our new breakfast session in Burnaby on September 13 will offer some valuable knowledge to employers.

The presenter will cover the following issues:

• What is bullying and harassment and what are the risks?
• What should an Employer do when faced with a potential bullying and harassment situation?
• Employer’s duty to investigate
• Workplace training
• Disciplinary responses
• Complaints made for improper reasons
• Creation of policies
• Access to information
• Workplace training
• Proactive steps to help protect the workplace

Participants will be provided with real life examples involving the above topics together with practical business-based solutions.  There will also be time for questions, so bring your pressing concerns. You will also earn 2 Group A Continued Professional Development points from BC Housing.

For more information about this course or any of ICBA’s other training sessions, visit www.icba.ca/training. Or, send our training team a message at training@icba.ca. They’d love to chat with you.

Interested in getting bi-weekly updates on our courses in your area? Subscribe to our newsletter at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter.

In life and in business, few people get what they deserve. Instead, they get what they negotiate. Could you be a better negotiator? Register now for our Negotiation Skills Workshop and you’ll learn some fantastic new tips and tricks to make sure you walk away from the table with what you want.

Here’s what the course covers:

• The most common negotiating mistakes people make and how to avoid them
• Understanding the difference between Collaborative “win-win” and Competitive “hardball” negotiations and how to know what game you are playing
• The characteristics of highly effective negotiators
• Understanding the different sources of negotiating power
• How to strengthen your bargaining position
• How to create an open communication flow that allows you to deeply understand the other party
• The 5-step process to quickly and effectively plan and prepare for your negotiations
• How to determine your “walk-away point”
• How to defend yourself against “hardball’ negotiators
• How to counter the 5 common manipulative strategies being used against you
• How to create win – win outcomes that ensure the other party lives up to their end of the bargain

Our next workshop takes place in Prince George on September 15; register HERE.

You don’t have to be a member of ICBA to take our courses; we look forward to seeing you there!

Does your job involve presenting to coworkers/clients or facilitating meetings? Check out our new Effective Presentations course!

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to structure your presentations to tell a compelling and memorable story;
• How to overcome feeling nervous;
• How to anticipate and address questions and objections from your audience;
• How to work with the crowd through effective facilitation techniques;
• How to use effective presentation aids and materials.

The course includes group discussions and hands-on workshops; by the end of the seminar you’ll be comfortable speaking under pressure, organizing your thoughts quickly into an effective and compelling presentation, managing difficult questions, and ensuring your audience understands, and remembers, your key messages.

Interested in taking this course? The first session is in Kelowna in October; check out our upcoming course calendar for more information and to register at www.icba.ca/training. And while you’re there, make sure you subscribe to our bi-weekly training newsletter at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter!

Looking to offer this course at your office? We can do that too! Contact the training department at training@icba.ca to discuss how ICBA can bring the trainer directly to you for this or any other course we offer.

 

 

Are your proposals successful? Are your reports as effective as they could be? In our competitive world, your proposals need to be compelling, concise and articulate, and your reports need to be focused on exactly what your client needs.

Our new Writing Winning Proposals and Effective Reports course will teach you these skills. The two-part course will help you to develop the confidence and writing skills necessary to write effective proposals and reports.

In the Writing Winning Proposals workshop, you will:

• Learn about different types of proposals, from formal Request for Proposals (RFP) and related requests from vendors, to less formal proposals, estimates, and quotes
• Understand how to differentiate your proposal from others by articulating your competitive advantages
• Apply specific techniques across the planning, drafting, and revising stages for your proposal
• Understand what clients are looking for when they are evaluating your proposal

In the Writing Effective Reports workshop, you will:

• Learn about different types of reports, from formal technical reports to informal short reports
• Understand how to tailor your reports for senior management and other audience groups
• Avoid common mistakes
• Learn to craft a report work plan and structure your key sections and content

Both sessions take place on November 23 in Burnaby; you are able to register for just one of the seminars, or take both in one day. Visit www.icba.ca/training for more information on this or any of our other upcoming courses!

Looking to hear more from our training team? Sign up for our bi-weekly training newsletter at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter.

BURNABY, B.C.: The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) released its Preliminary Report regarding its Site C Inquiry and the initial findings confirm that construction on the Site C Clean Energy Project should continue.

“There is absolutely nothing in the BCUC Report that would lead anyone to conclude that construction on Site C should not continue,” said Chris Gardner, President of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA).

The findings in the Preliminary Report confirm that Site C is not only on time but is one year ahead of schedule and the project is coming in under budget.

“The BCUC’s review supports the previous work by third-party consultants reviewing the project and the independent Joint Review Panel that studied Site C for 29 months, the project makes sense and is the best way for B.C. to lock-in a source of clean power for the next 100 years,” said Gardner.

Key findings from the BCUC Preliminary Report include:

• The Site C Project is, as of June 30, 2017, on time to start operating in November 2024.
• BC Hydro is managing the project to a more aggressive schedule to put the dam in service in 2023, one year earlier than the 2024 date.
• The BCUC confirmed that BC Hydro has identified cost savings in the Project that increase the amount of available contingency from the $794 million in the budget to a figure of $1.194 billion now.
• The BCUC found that it is not yet in a position to assess the cost impact to ratepayers of continuing, suspending or terminating construction.

According to Gardner, it is not surprising that the BCUC faced challenges getting sufficient information in some areas since they were only given six weeks to prepare their Preliminary Report.

“The compressed calendar and the fact that Site C is 20% complete does raise a question regarding the real value of the government requesting the BCUC to undertake this review,” Gardner said.

ICBA launched its #Get2Yes on Site C campaign with a media event at BC Hydro’s Vancouver headquarters on June 8, using 2,252 Site C pink slips to illustrate how many people work on the Peace River dam site and who are risk of being fired.

Site C was more than a decade in the planning, has undergone extensive environmental assessments and regulatory reviews, and was signed off by both the federal and provincial governments. Both the process and project have been upheld in fourteen different judicial reviews in the BC Supreme Court, the BC Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Canada.

“The one thing that is clear from the BCUC’s Preliminary Report is that the focus should be on completing Site C on-budget and on-time so that B.C. will benefit from this strategic investment in our long-term clean energy future,” Gardner said.

The BCUC Report can be found here: http://www.carpediemprojects.ca/sitecinquiry-test/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DOC_90185_A-13_Preliminary-Report.pdf

How’s your knowledge of tendering law? Let ICBA buy you breakfast while you get an overview!

Tendering as a method of procurement can be fraught with risks as the law changes and adapts, and we want to help you. ICBA’s training department invites you to register now for our October 20 breakfast session in Burnaby, presented by a leading construction lawyer.

Here’s the course outline:

• Introduction to the law of tendering including an overview of:
• The difference between tenders and RFPs and other procurement methods
• The bidder’s obligations to the tendering authority
• The tendering authority’s obligations to the bidder
• Tendering case law update and discussion of recent decisions
• Practical tips and advice on key aspects of tendering

Interested? Register for this or any of our other training courses at www.icba.ca/training. You don’t have to be a member to take any of our courses!

Looking to hear more from our training team? Sign up for our bi-weekly training newsletter at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter.

BURNABY, B.C. – Changes to how small business corporations are taxed proposed by the Federal Government fail the test of fairness and will hurt middle class entrepreneurs and small business owners, the president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) outlined in a submission to government today.

“We should be doing everything we can to promote and support entrepreneurship, not penalizing Canadians who want to start a new venture or who are managing the small businesses that are the lifeblood of our economy,” said ICBA president Chris Gardner. “The family-owned restaurant, the mom-and-pop corner grocery store, the boutique hotel, and the local construction contractor are being unfairly targeted by these new measures.”

The ICBA submission calls on the federal government to withdraw their proposals and instead open meaningful dialogue with small business owners and entrepreneurs on how to make our tax system more effective and ensure that any changes in tax policy do not undermine small business confidence or negatively impact job creation and investment across the country.

“Small business owners appear to be targeted with language such as ‘loopholes’ and ‘backdoor tax breaks’ implying that their tax treatment and behaviour is somehow underhanded,” said Gardner. “ICBA members and small businesses across the country are very concerned with the government’s narrative implying that most small businesses are not paying their fair share of tax – nothing could be further from the truth.”

ICBA’s submission to the Department of Finance outlines the story of Dave and Brenda, a hypothetical married couple who own a construction contracting business. It highlights several examples of how the government’s proposed rules will negatively impact their business, dismantle their retirement savings, and make it prohibitively expensive to transfer the business to their son.

“Dave and Brenda have a common story – risking it all to start a small business, working long hours and sacrificing evenings and weekends to keep the company going, creating jobs for people in their community, saving for their retirement, and hoping to pass the business on to their kids,” said Gardner. “It’s hard to understand why the federal government is effectively accusing hundreds of thousands of Canadians of doing something wrong when they are simply playing by the rules, trying to build a business, supporting their communities and working hard to make an honest living.”

For ICBA’s full submission to the federal government’s consultation on tax planning using private corporations, click HERE.

When you sit down at the negotiating table, are you walking away with what you want? Do you ever feel like you’re being taken advantage of?

ICBA can help! Many people fail in their negotiations because they walk away from the table when they could have done much better. Our Negotiation Skills Workshop will teach you a proven, practical approach to win-win negotiations, and how to protect yourself from hardball negotiators.

Here’s what’s covered:

• The most common negotiating mistakes people make and how to avoid them
• Understanding the difference between Collaborative “win-win” and Competitive “hardball” negotiations and how to know what game you are playing
• The characteristics of highly effective negotiators
• Understanding the different sources of negotiating power
• How to strengthen your bargaining position
• How to create an open communication flow that allows you to deeply understand the other party
• The 5-step process to quickly and effectively plan and prepare for your negotiations
• How to determine your “walk-away point”
• How to defend yourself against “hardball’ negotiators
• How to counter the 5 common manipulative strategies being used against you
• How to create win – win outcomes that ensure the other party lives up to their end of the bargain

We get fantastic feedback on this course every time we offer it; to learn more about this course or register for one of our upcoming sessions, visit www.icba.ca/training.

In this Monitor, we highlight the challenges of moving forward with important infrastructure projects. We dig a little deeper into Site C, following the release of the BC Utilities Commission preliminary report.

That report is consistent with the outcome of the independent review panel that studied Site C for 29 months, and concluded it is the best way for B.C. to lock-in a source of clean power for the next 100 years. IBCA representatives spoke in favour of Site C at BCUC public forums in Vancouver, Prince George and Fort St. John.

It was frustrating to see provincial  lawyers in Federal Court in an effort to scuttle the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion just as construction is about to begin. This after a decade of effort, extensive independent review, and federal and provincial approvals (subject to 194 conditions that will be rigorously enforced).

We were also disappointed to see the provincial government decide to review the Massey Tunnel replacement – one of the most dangerous traffic choke points in Canada. Metro Vancouver is growing fast and we need better transit and new roads and bridges. This is not about choosing one project over the other – it’s about the infrastructure investments that will enable businesses to compete and families to get around safely.

Finally, ICBA recently weighed in on the federal government’s proposed changes to small business corporation tax rules – changes that clearly fail the test of fairness. We should be doing every-thing we can to promote and support entrepreneurship, not penalizing the Canadians behind the small businesses that are the lifeblood of our economy.  The family-owned restaurant, the mom-and-pop corner grocer, the boutique hotel, and the local construction contractor are all unfairly targeted by these proposed measures.

Continue reading “Canada is Failing on the Get-to-Yes Challenge”

How’s your time management? Are you a procrastinator? Don’t put it off for another day; register now for our Time Management Workshop on December 13 in Burnaby!

You will gain a new mindset, skillset and toolset that will optimize your personal productivity, and learn how to produce greater results in less time. Improved time management skills mean increased productivity, met deadlines, and a positive impact on all aspects of your business. You’ll also earn 7 Group A CPD Points from BC Housing and 1 Gold Seal Credit!

Here are some of the benefits of attending:

• Participants learn how to gain and keep control of competing priorities, concurrent projects and critical deadlines.
• Participants will learn powerful lessons about themselves, enhancing self-understanding so they can leverage their personal strengths and develop strategies to minimize the impact of their weakness.
• The focus on practicality means that people walk out with ideas and techniques they can apply the next day.

Register now at www.icba.ca/training. You don’t have to be a member to register for our courses, but members do save on registration fees. Learn more about becoming a member at www.icba.ca/become-a-member.