- News1130 http://www.news1130.com/2018/04/12/pipeline-stalemate-investment-business/
- JoC https://canada.constructconnect.com/joc/news/associations/2018/04/trans-mountain-b-c-stakeholders-say-horgan-shaking-confidence-canada
- Richmond News http://www.richmond-news.com/news/horgan-s-pipeline-opposition-sparks-crisis-in-confidence-in-b-c-business-groups-1.23265097
- Tom Fletcher: https://www.thefreepress.ca/business/business-groups-gather-for-trans-mountain-pipeline/ (This will run in a number of the community papers)
- BIV: https://biv.com/article/2018/04/chambers-trudeau-fix-canadas-confidence-crisis
- Roundhouse Radio: https://roundhouseradio.com/2018/04/12/business-groups-demand-federal-government-resolve-pipeline-dispute/
- Business Examiner: http://www.businessexaminer.ca/peace-cariboo-skeena-articles/item/major-business-groups-warn-confidence-in-canada-at-risk
- Yahoo! https://ca.news.yahoo.com/business-leaders-urge-ottawa-end-171553972.html
- Global BC https://globalnews.ca/news/4140779/crisis-b-c-businesses-trudeau-kinder-morgan-pipeline/
- CBC http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-business-leaders-announce-campaign-in-support-of-trans-mountain-pipeline-1.4616388
On April 12, ICBA joined more than 75 other organizations calling on Justin Trudeau, John Horgan and Rachel Notley to break the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project impasse. We want to show #ConfidenceInCanada! Make your voice heard at ConfidenceInCanada.com!
Some of the news coverage of the event:
The full news conference, including the speech by ICBA President Chris Gardner, can be seen here:
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Trudeau Government Can’t Tax-and-Spend its Way to Canadian Prosperity: ICBA (News Release)The 2024 federal budget continues the Trudeau Government’s legacy of excessive spending, bloating bureaucracy, high taxes, and doing nothing to reverse Canada’s withering economic productivity and competitiveness, says the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA), one of Canada’s largest business associations.“The torrid pace of spending by Ottawa and the growth of government is simply breathtaking,” said Chris Gardner, ICBA President and CEO. “The Trudeau Liberals are doubling-down on a very bad idea – that government is the centre of everything and that there is no challenge facing Canada that billions and billions in new spending, ever-higher taxes, and overregulation will not solve.”Housing was a prime political focus of Budget 2024, but ICBA – Canada’s largest construction association – remains highly skeptical that the Trudeau Government’s spending will do much to move the needle on housing affordability. The supply shortage is so acute that government cannot simply spend its way out of it – it must unleash private sector builders.“A federal go-it-alone approach to housing will not work,” said Gardner. “The sheer volume of pre-budget announcements on housing and the billions committed by Ottawa reveals the sense of panic that has gripped the federal government. The policies are disjointed, ill-conceived, confusing, and often conflict with those of not only other levels of government but also of Ottawa itself. None of this is going to deliver any meaningful relief to Canadians being crushed by the weight of the affordability crisis.”The Trudeau Government missed its opportunity to address the inherent systemic problems holding back Canadian prosperity.“Canada faces a trifecta of closely linked economic problems: stagnant productivity, a pattern of weak business investment, and declining global competitiveness. Unfortunately, there is little in Budget 2024 that tackles these problems in a meaningful way,” said Jock Finlayson, ICBA Chief Economist. “Expanding the size and cost of government won’t reverse the negative trends that are weighing on living standards and sapping Canada’s economic vitality.”Running massive, ongoing deficits to try and pay for the government’s wild spending is especially concerning to ICBA and will further hamper economic growth.“What Canada desperately needs is more private sector investment in productive assets such as machinery, equipment, buildings and other structures, advanced process technologies, intellectual property products, and transportation, communications and engineering infrastructure,” said Finlayson. “Budget 2024 suggests the federal government falls short of addressing this enormous challenge.”
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Have our friends at Epscan Industries Ltd. gone batty? Apparently -- they've donated 200 take-home bat🦇 kits to the Fort St. John North Peace Museum. What a fun way to support a great community cause!
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💰 GDP per capita flatlines.💸 Productivity stagnates. 📉 Output per hour has fallen in 11 of the past 14 quarters – an unprecedented development, and one not replicated in the U.S. or most other advanced economies.It's a grim situation for the Canadian economy, and one next week's federal budget must address, says ICBA Chief Economist Jock Finlayson.Read his budget preview blog at www.icbaindependent.ca/2024/04/11/icba-economics-thoughts-on-canadas-productivity-crisis/. (WARNING: the stats may cause heartburn and heartache for those wanting to see Canadian prosperity grow.)
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WELLNESS WEDNESDAY #145: Thank a Construction Worker!April is Construction Month in B.C., and as gratitude is an important part of practicing mental wellness, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our construction professionals across B.C., Alberta and the rest of Canada.Your hard work, dedication, expertise and knowledge are appreciated – thanks for building the homes, roads, hospitals, schools, infrastructure, shops, bridges, and all the other things that make our communities better.And you do it every day, rain or shine (let’s face it – mainly rain in much of B.C.), creating the spaces where our lives unfold. Your efforts contribute a lot to our community’s growth, safety, and well-being.Thanks for everything you do! ----------Each week, ICBA’s Jordan Bateman reflects on what we’ve learned as we participate in ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program. ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program is helping more than 100 companies and more than 10,000 construction professionals better understand mental health. This program is free for all ICBA members – check out icba.ca/wellness for details.
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Are you attending this year's First Nations Major Projects Coalition conference in Toronto April 22-23? Our Chris Gardner will be there, participating in the critical discussions that will frame our nation’s future economy, augmenting the corporate and public sectors with Indigenous leadership and values to achieving our shared climate and energy mandates. ICBA is a proud partner of FNMPC.Don't miss this opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and gain valuable insights from over 1000+ Indigenous, industry, and government experts towards building a more sustainable and equitable future for all. Register now at: www.fnmpc.ca/conference/#FNMPC2024
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ICBA Chief Economist Jock Finlayson looked into B.C.'s head office numbers and found more worrying signs about the provincial economy:"B.C. can ill afford to see its already feeble head office sector shrink. While B.C. is home to 14% of Canada’s population, we host only 12% of the country’s head offices and account for just 7% of nation-wide head office employment."Look slightly east and you see how grim it is in B.C.: "Alberta, with 800,000 fewer people, outperforms B.C. on both metrics, hosting 14% of the country’s headquarters and 12% of all direct Canadian head office jobs." Read Jock's full blog at www.icbaindependent.ca/2024/04/09/icba-economics-the-role-of-the-construction-and-real-estate-ind...
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WELLNESS WEDNESDAY #145: Thank a Construction Worker!
April is Construction Month in B.C., and as gratitude is an important part of practicing mental wellness, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our construction professionals... More at https://www.icbaindependent.ca/2024/04/10/wellness-wednesday-145-thank-a-construction-worker/
You can bet if this was an Eastern Canadian project it would have been completed already, and a few $Billion in federal gov’t grants given to the pipeline company.