C&C #21: Gavin Dew on PST and Data Centres

On October 1, every engineering bill in British Columbia gets seven per cent more expensive. Every architect's invoice. Every accountant's. Even the legislature's own finance committee says don't do it. In a first for the show, Jordan Bateman sits down with a guest from outside ICBA: Gavin Dew, MLA for Kelowna-Mission and the Conservative critic for Economic Development — a small-business owner who's read a payroll from both sides of the desk.

Episode 21 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 OCTOBER 1 TAX: Budget 2026 expands the 7% PST to engineering, architecture, accounting and geoscience services — a tax on the paperwork before a shovel ever hits the ground. Dew has called it a bad tax since spring; now the finance committee has recommended repeal. Can it be stopped in time?

🖥️ The data centre boom is one province over. Alberta is running town halls for tens of billions in proposals while B.C. — with cheap, clean hydro — is barely in the conversation. The AI critic on what a yes would take.

📉 The fall file: B.C. added 2,300 jobs in the past year. Alberta added 91,000. What the critic hammers when the House comes back — and what employers watching should do about it.

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