Author: Jordan Bateman

By Chris Gardner, President, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association
(This op/ed first appeared in The Province on August 4, 2017, and is now free for anyone to publish.)

Bureaucrats aren’t known for their horror writing skills. But Delta’s report on what would happen to the Massey Tunnel if there was an earthquake should send chills down the spine of every driver in the Lower Mainland.

Imagine an ordinary weekday morning, with traffic on Highway 99 backed up, as usual, in both directions. Hundreds of vehicles are slowly trickling through the tunnel when the ground begins to shake – a 6.7 earthquake.

The tunnel, described in the report as, “a brittle structure in highly unstable/liquefiable soils,” buckles. The ground under it turns to mush. Power is lost almost immediately, plunging the structure into darkness.

Cars and trucks slam on their brakes, causing major accidents in every lane. The tunnel rocks upward, breaks free and starts moving downstream, pushed by the Fraser River.

Muddy river water gushes into the dark tunnel, trapping motorists. At this moment, an emergency pump is supposed to whir into action and “should” keep the water level low enough for people to escape during the following hour. “Should” isn’t a great bet.

One can only imagine the terror in what would likely be the final moments for many of these people. It’s a risk that motorists using the Massey Tunnel take every day.

If this was not scary enough, where is the other place you wouldn’t want to be in a car when the “big one” hits? The 80-year-old Pattullo Bridge, already on the verge of falling into the Fraser.

How did one of the largest cities in a G7 economy, a city considered one of the most desirable places to live in the world, end up with two major pieces of failing infrastructure? Two reasons: old-fashioned government neglect, and a relatively new, but increasingly fashionable, movement finding favor among activists: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone. 

To their credit, the previous BC Liberal government tried to address Massey. The tunnel is not safe, it’s not effective at moving people and it’s become one of the biggest traffic chokepoints in the country. Yet the Metro Vancouver mayors are fighting its replacement tooth and nail.

All the mayors have voted against Massey – except for Delta’s Lois Jackson, who has spent the most time studying and considering it. Jackson knows that, after 145 technical and scientific reports examining all of the options, a new bridge is the safest and most cost-effective. The environmental assessments are complete, more than 3,000 people attended 110 public meetings, and construction is about to start. So, what’s the problem?

The provincial government has changed hands, and the NDP-Green alliance is looking to kill the project under the guise of “working with” the Metro Vancouver mayors.

Yes, they want to work with those same Metro Vancouver mayors who can’t even manage their own TransLink infrastructure properly. The mayors have responsibility for two major bridges: the new Golden Ears and the old Pattullo. It’s failing at half its portfolio, yet the NDP give their opinion precedence.

In the mayors’ world, failure at TransLink is always someone else’s fault: ‘out-of-touch’ Ottawa, ‘anti-urban’ Victoria, chintzy taxpayers for not excitedly handing over more money to wasteful TransLink, or ‘selfish’ drivers who should just get out of their cars and take transit.

We need to build more infrastructure – not less. Metro Vancouver is growing. We need to invest in transit, in new roads and new bridges to ensure that we can move people and goods in, around, and through the region. It’s not about choosing one project over another, it’s about revitalizing our aging infrastructure and building a strategic mix of new assets so that businesses located in the region can compete and families living in the region can get around safely and efficiently.

As the NDP prepares to cancel the Massey Tunnel replacement, keep in mind two facts: the Geological Survey of Canada records more than 2,500 earthquakes in western Canada and off the B.C. coast every year. Metro Vancouver has at least a 30% chance of a major earthquake in the next 50 years.

Let’s pray our elected officials are not really prepared to roll the dice with people’s lives.

Providing exceptional customer service also leads to customer retention. Companies not only need to advertise, but must have strategies to retain business.  Ask yourself: how do I or my employees serve our customers? Are all customers the same?  If you want to improve this side of your business, ICBA’s brand-new Providing Exceptional Customer Service course is for you and your employees!

In this seminar, you’ll learn how to:

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Not a member? Not a problem! We offer courses to members and non-members, though you’ll save on registration if you become a member with us.
If you’re interested in a private course, we would be pleased to bring the trainer directly to your office. Email our training team at training@icba.ca for more details on how we can bring this course or any of our other workshops directly to you.

ICBA continues to support projects to #Get2Yes and #Stick2Yes by filing an application to intervene in the Squamish Nation’s B.C. Supreme Court case against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The issue being raised by Squamish Nation is that the Province relied on the federal government’s assessment of Trans Mountain’s proposal and its consultation and negotiations with Indigenous communities impacted by the project. In the opinion of Squamish Nation, the Province cannot cede its obligations in this regard to the federal government. The Province took this position given the federal government’s responsibility for reviewing and approving interprovincial pipelines. In recent years, Ottawa and Victoria agreed that in such cases, having one environmental review and consultation process was simpler and more efficient for all parties: proponents, Indigenous communities and other stakeholders.

ICBA is not challenging the constitutional obligations that the federal or provincial governments have vis-à-vis Indigenous communities and ICBA recognizes that in some cases, the obligations of the Crown to Indigenous communities may in fact prevent some projects from moving forward. ICBA is simply asserting that project reviews and consultations take place in a timely manner so that infrastructure and resource development projects can be approved in a fashion that allows Canada and BC to get projects built and its resources to market efficiently. ICBA’s concern is that duplicative and overlapping reviews will result in confusion and conflicting proceedings that could paralyze major projects and cost our economy jobs and investment. In this case, since the federal government has jurisdiction over the Trans Mountain pipeline project, we believe it is appropriate that the federal government lead the review and consultation process.

The Application was filed by our attorney, Peter Gall, Q.C. and we are being joined in the application by the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), the Canadian Iron, Steel and Industrial Workers’ Union (CISIWU), and the Canada West Construction Union (CWCU). Click HERE to read ICBA’s application to intervene.

ICBA CAST! Terrace’s Lucy Sager joins Chris Gardner and Jordan Bateman to talk about the impact of the loss of Pacific Northwest LNG on northwest B.C., along with regular features #ComeOn and social media questions. And we debut our first-ever BC Liberal leadership race power rankings. Will Chris and Jordan agree on who is most likely to win the race to Christy Clark?

Change is constant in business, no matter the industry, and when it comes to changes in an organization, it can be stressful for employees and supervisors alike.

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Our first session will take place on October 11 in Burnaby; for more information and to register for this or any of our other upcoming courses, please visit icba.ca/training.

Our training team is also always here to help if you have any questions about this or any other course; email them at training@icba.ca and they will be happy to assist you.

Don’t forget, members of ICBA save on registration fees! If you’re not already a member, check out icba.ca/become-a-member.

ICBA Communications Director Jordan Bateman talked BC Liberal leadership race, Trans Mountain pipeline, LNG, and more with Jim Goddard on his show this week:

BURNABY, B.C. – The message in the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) submission to the B.C. Utilities Commission’s (BCUC) Site C review panel is very simple: Finish the job building Site C.

“The Site C dam has been the subject of a robust, nearly three-year, independent review and its business case is solid – we cannot produce this kind of high-quality, reasonably-priced, clean energy anywhere,” said ICBA President Chris Gardner. “For the next century, Site C will act as the foundation for the solar, wind and other clean sources of energy that comes on stream, ensuring B.C. can meet its climate goals and power its economy with renewable energy.”

In response to the BCUC’s terms of reference, the ICBA submission made five key points:

• Site C is on time and on budget
• Ratepayers cannot be expected to spend billions of dollars and get nothing in return – the result of cancelling or postponing the project
• Site C provides the best value and an all-important backbone for other renewable energy sources as we transition from fossil fuels to the clean renewable energy provided by Site C
• Energy demand will continue to grow in B.C., as more people move here and the economy expands
• Site C, the subject of more than 150 legally binding environmental and technical conditions, will be one of the most sustainable energy projects ever built in any country

“Claims by Site C opponents that electricity demand is flat are false. They forget that the once-in-a-generation recession of 2008/09 artificially held down the demand for energy for two years,” said ICBA Communications Director Jordan Bateman. “That recession crippled our economy, but unless we’re going to have a major recession every single decade, energy demand will grow substantially over the next 50 years as it has for the past 50 years.  We need Site C to meet the demand of a growing population, more electric vehicles, an expanding economy and to help meet our commitments under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.”

ICBA, the voice of B.C.’s construction industry, has been fighting hard to keep Site C workers on the job. Today, more than 2,400 men and women are working on Site C.

“The stakes of the outcome of the BCUC review are significant,” said Gardner. “It affects real people and real families who are counting on the jobs at Site C to pay the bills. To shut it down now would hurt BC Hydro’s finances, cost B.C. taxpayers dearly, cripple the Peace River economy, and send a chilling message to investors looking to build a business and create opportunities – B.C. is not open for business.”

In recent weeks, ICBA has fought for Site C through its pink slip campaign and a poster campaign in Fort St. John, that generated nearly 4,000 emails supporting Site C through www.get2yes.icba.ca.

Click HERE for the full ICBA submission to the BCUC and here for a list of cities in B.C. where Site C workers live.