Podcast: Common Sense, the Pattullo Bridge, and BC's Infrastructure Mess

ICBA Vice President, Communications & Advocacy Jordan Bateman joined Stephen Malkowich on his Ship of Fools podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on BC politics, infrastructure, the federal Conservative meltdown, and where common sense has gone in public policy.

A few of the threads they pulled on:

Why the old Pattullo Bridge should be celebrated as a hero of BC infrastructure. It served the region for 85 years. The NDP replaced it with a bridge of the same size — instead of building six lanes, an active transportation lane, and planning for the next 85 years. The same story is playing out on Highway 1, where hundreds of millions are being spent only to add a single HOV lane.

The Massey Tunnel saga. The province had a Massey Bridge contract in hand for under $3 billion with environmental approvals. It was cancelled because it wasn't the NDP's idea. BC is now looking at $8.5–9 billion for a tunnel — if the approvals come through at all.

WAC Bennett's standard. When a cabinet minister told Bennett he was getting full value for taxpayer dollars, Bennett told him full value wasn't good enough — that the trust between government and taxpayers demanded 110 cents of value for every dollar. As Bateman put it: imagine that mindset today.

Community Benefit Agreements. Handing 15% of the construction workforce a monopoly on public projects has driven up costs by 25–30%, slowed builds like the Pattullo, and shut out the 85% of workers who pay the same taxes as everyone else.

And the missing "yeah but" person. Every room making big decisions needs one — someone whose job is to stop the train and ask whether the proposal in front of the group actually makes sense. Government has run out of them.

The conversation also covered the BC Conservative leadership race, the loss of community newspapers as a vetting layer in municipal politics, the obligation owed to taxpayers, and why — despite all of it — Bateman remains an optimist that this province can be turned around.