ICBA ADVOCACY UPDATE: A Serious Trades Plan with a Serious Flaw

KEY POINTS

• Ottawa's new $6BN trades plan is the most ambitious in years – but a $331MN training stream flows only through building trades union channels, freezing out the 75%+ of construction that’s open shop. That's not fair - we're fighting to fix it.

• Five days after our letter, Kelowna cut DCCs 25% – the third big B.C. government to roll them back in 14 months. We've now written 19 more mayors. It's not the end, it's a start.

• Check out ICBA's EconoBot on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every Bank of Canada rate day – a builder's read on the numbers that matter. Subscribe free.

• Members asked, we acted: our “5 Best Practices” to modernize outdated noise bylaws is going to every city hall in the Lower Mainland.

STANDING UP FOR OPEN SHOP

After a decade of mainly hearing NO from Ottawa, it has been refreshing to hear a Prime Minister say the right things about getting to YES on resources, infrastructure and energy.

Credit where it's due: the feds' new $6-billion, five-year skilled trades plan gets the diagnosis right, and the dollars are big. The $400-a-week training grant, the $5,000 Red Seal completion bonus, and the $10,000 small-business hiring incentive are tools every contractor in our membership can use the day the regulations are written. This is the most ambitious federal trades plan in years.

But here's our concern: about 75% of Canada's construction workforce doesn't belong to a building trades union (85% in B.C., 88% in Alberta), yet a new $331-million training-infrastructure stream still flows only through union channels, which by federal design only funds union-based training. Open-shop contractors, private trainers, and the colleges that do the bulk of the work have yet to hear how resources will flow to them. That must be fixed before the program rules are locked in – along with reforming the apprenticeship tax credit that's been frozen since 2006.

Working through our allies at Merit Canada, we made a pre-budget submission to the House finance committee pushing one simple idea: keep the playing field level between open shop and the building trades unions. This builds on our news release, Chris Gardner's letter to federal ministers, and Jock Finlayson's op-ed.

MOMENTUM TO CUT DCCs

When it comes to cutting Development Cost Charges, the momentum is growing – and we're pushing on.

Five days after ICBA's letter landed at Council, Kelowna approved a 25 per cent DCC reduction for two years. That follows Surrey rolling residential DCCs back to 2023 rates and Metro Vancouver adopting its "Roll Back and Reduce" plan. Three of B.C.'s biggest local governments have cut DCCs in 14 months — the precedent argument is stronger than it has ever been.

So we put it to work. ICBA has written to 19 more B.C. mayors and councils, each asking for a temporary cut of 25 to 50 per cent for at least 24 months. We screened all 161 B.C. municipalities against housing-target performance, starts, permit trends, and condo-pipeline exposure, then tailored every letter to the city's situation. (More on the campaign here.)

TOOLS TO HELP YOU SUCCEED

NEW! ICBA's EconoBot drops into inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday – plus every Bank of Canada decision day – with a sharp morning read on the economic numbers that actually move construction in B.C. and Alberta. Tariffs, housing starts, oil prices, major project decisions, StatsCan releases, all filtered through a builder’s lens. Read the latest issues or subscribe free at icba.ca/economics.

MAKING NOISE ABOUT NOISE

Here's a file that started where the best advocacy does: with our members. In April, two of you came to us frustrated by outdated, inconsistent construction noise bylaws holding up projects and driving up costs.

So we created Time to Modernize Noise Bylaws — 5 Best Practices. It's a practical, common-sense case for clearer, more consistent rules that match how B.C. actually lives in 2026 – sensible Sunday and stat-holiday start times, noise thresholds instead of arbitrary clock rules, and standard emergency exemptions.

We're sending it to every Lower Mainland city hall. If noise bylaws are slowing you down, forward it to your own municipal hall, and let us know.

REGULATORY CORNER

A few notes from various government agencies to be aware of:

• Metro Vancouver will raise their waste tipping fees (again) on July 1. (Metro)
• The B.C. Government is looking for feedback on their Construction Prompt Payment Act discussion paper before July 7. ICBA will respond, but companies are encouraged to submit their own concerns HERE.
• WorkSafeBC is going to two-factor authentication for online accounts. (WorkSafe)
• Occupational Health and Safety regulations around Shotcrete are changing significantly – click HERE to review what WorkSafe wants to do, and offer feedback.

ICYMI

Some ICBA work you may not have seen:

• Chris joined an expert panel to talk about unleashing B.C.’s economy. (Conversations Live)
• Jordan visited the Ship of Fools podcast to talk politics, building, and affordability.
• Recent ICBA op-eds include Jock in the Toronto Sun on the stagnant national economy and in Business in Vancouver on B.C. businesses shuttering; Jordan on WorkSafeBC spending its way to future rate hikes; and Chris in the Journal of Commerce on Mark Carney’s priorities.
• Recent ICBA Economics blogs look household income, AI in construction, construction productivity, and Canada-U.S. trade.
• ICBA launched a web page last month collating the latest on DRIPA, co-governance, and treaty issues in B.C. It includes our recommendations on Indigenous reconciliation which (not surprisingly) are very different from the reckless path David Eby has put B.C. on.
  
  

MOVING THE NEEDLE ON TAYLOR & HCAs

Two positive steps worth flagging:

After ICBA filed an FOI and pulled five years of inspection reports on the 65-year-old Taylor Bridge on Highway 97 — cracked floor stringers, gusset plate corrosion, a coating system the government's own engineers call "failed" — Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth told CJDC-TV the replacement is "not an ongoing study anymore" and is being worked onto the 10-year capital plan, the first real forward signal in years.

On the Heritage Conservation Act, the coalition we joined with UBCM, UDI, AME, and the Mining Association of BC publicly refused to sign the government's NDA on a draft "three-column document," and within a day Forests Minister Parmar signalled he's now willing to push HCA legislation past the fall session.

WE CAN HELP

ICBA continues our work on these and other advocacy files on behalf of our members – if there’s a public policy or red tape issue your company is facing municipally, provincially, or federally, that you could use some help with, reach out to us at jordan@icba.ca.