No one wants an incident on their site, but when one does happen do you know how to investigate it? WorkSafeBC’s amendment to Bill 9 includes changes to requirements for employer incident investigations, and our training department wants to help you out!

Our upcoming Incident Investigations course on October 27 in Victoria will help participants understand the principles of incident investigations and the methods of ensuring a proper investigation is completed.

Here’s the course outline:

• The regulatory requirements to investigate Accidents/Incidents
• Why are we investigating Accidents/Incidents
• Who makes a good investigator
• How to gather evidence and information
• How to photograph a scene
• How to measure and diagram a scene
• How to conduct interviews
• What is the principle of Root Cause Analysis
• Developing recommendations for prevention
• Completing the Incident Report

Interested? Visit www.icba.ca/training for more information and to register. Don’t forget; you don’t have to be a member of ICBA to register for any of our courses!

Have you subscribed to our training newsletter yet? Subscribe now at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter.

Each fall, the B.C. Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services holds province-wide public consultations on the next provincial budget that is released in February. In this session of the Legislature, the Select Standing Committee has 9 members – 4 BC Liberal MLAs, 4 NDP MLAs, and 1 Green Party MLA.

This is an important opportunity for ICBA to go on record and express its views on issues important to the construction sector and for the economy as a whole. In this year’s submission, we focus on three areas:

• Major project approval challenges;
• Enabling infrastructure for urban and regional British Columbia; and,
• Recent federal tax changes for Small Business Incorporations.

To see our full submission, click HERE.

Every construction project brings some element of risk with it, but you must manage those risks in order to be successful. Our November 17 Managing Risks and Disputes in Construction Projects breakfast session in Burnaby will provide practical advice on how to manage risks, and teach you strategies for dealing with disputes. Plus, you’ll earn 2.5 Group A Continued Professional Development Points from BC Housing!

Here are the topics that will be covered:

• An overview of the most frequently encountered construction claims/disputes;
• Tips for avoiding claims before they happen;
• Tips for keeping the situation from escalating too far;
• Ways to minimize exposure if claims are made;
• A discussion of alternative dispute resolution methods.

You can register for this or any of our other upcoming courses at www.icba.ca/training.

Our training department is already adding courses for 2018; keep up to date by subscribing to our bi-weekly training newsletter at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter.

You don’t have to be a member to take any of our courses, but it will save you some registration fees! For more information about becoming a member, visit www.icba.ca/become-a-member.

By Chris Gardner, President, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association

This op-ed was first published in The Vancouver Sun on Oct. 11, 2017.

It’s another week in Canada when businesses and investors are taking their ideas, their people, and their capital elsewhere.

This week, it was the announcement that TransCanada has scrapped its $15.7 billion Energy East pipeline proposal, after the National Energy Board (NEB) changed the regulatory review process and after it was clear there was no way around the opposition from local and provincial politicians in Quebec.

In a decade, we have gone from a country on the verge of becoming a global energy superpower to a place where, because we have so little access to international markets for our oil, we have to sell it at a discount to the United States. This is a $48 million daily gift to our neighbours, who export their own oil at the full international market price.

Sadly, this is self-inflicted. Canada is now a country where it is simply becoming too difficult to build big infrastructure projects.

Earlier this summer, Desjardins announced it will refuse to finance Canadian energy projects. The oil and gas sector directly employs more than 425,000 Canadians and are the largest source of private sector investment in the country. It’s hard to imagine a leading national financial institution in China, Germany, Singapore or the U.S. abandoning a major sector of their economy – it would be an unacceptable national betrayal. Yet, this announcement conjured a collective yawn from most Canadians as though it is routine and without consequences for our national economy.

As federal and provincial governments across Canada have made regulatory approval and permitting process increasingly complicated, time-consuming and expensive, one could be forgiven for thinking they are doing their level best to shut down our energy economy. Well, their plan is working. Consider that TransCanada just spent $1 billion on due diligence for Energy East and has absolutely nothing to show for it.

The energy sector in our country is slowly being hollowed out – talent, opportunity and family-supporting jobs are slipping away. Over the past three years, there has been an exodus of international investors from Canada’s oil and gas sector. The largest players in the world are leaving and are not coming back.

Too often in Canada, the rules change, the goal posts are moved, and companies seeking to invest billions of dollars, create jobs and provide opportunities for Canadians are unjustly vilified in the process.

In British Columbia, the Site C clean energy project – which has been under construction for two years – is now being forced to undergo yet another review. This, after years of independent reviews and government approvals upheld in no less than 14 court challenges.

Petronas threw in the towel on its $36 billion LNG project to export natural gas from B.C. to markets in Asia hungry for cleaner sources of energy than coal or oil.

And the new provincial government in B.C. launched a last-minute challenge to the $7.4 billion Trans Mountain Pipeline project, asking the court to overturn all the National Energy Board and federal cabinet approvals. This, after a decade of effort, a 29-month independent review by the NEB, and federal and provincial government approvals.

It’s easy to say it was never in the cards for Canada to become an energy super power and some do. But it does not help when every conceivable roadblock is placed in the path of companies that have the vision, capital and courage to try.

The past few weeks have been dominated by conversation over changes to the small business taxes. Shockingly, some say we have too many small businesses in Canada and that not enough of them grow into larger enterprises. That’s a matter of opinion, but surely the answer is not to penalize Canadians who want to start a new venture or who are managing small businesses that are the lifeblood of our economy and to label them tax cheats.

Unfortunately, we are losing sight of what it takes to attract investment, create opportunities and compete internationally. And, by this measure, Canada’s loss is the gain of its competitors – countries focused on fostering growth, attracting investment, and getting their natural resources to markets. The brash and bold character that built our great country is in danger of being read about only in the pages of history textbooks.

The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association and WorkSafeBC are pleased to invite all ICBA member companies and employees involved in the construction industry sector to participate in the 2017 Award for Construction Workplace Health and Safety Innovation.

Download Application Form HERE

This annual award recognizes all types of health and safety innovations, including, planning for safety at the design stage of projects, engineering controls that replace personal protective equipment, as well as innovative tools and other programs such or techniques that help prevent workplace incidents, injuries and illness.

For the purpose of these awards, innovation is defined as “a new, forward-thinking or new-to-B.C. idea implemented to create a safer, healthier work environment, which is unique in nature and stands apart from what is routine in the industry.”

Innovation Award

Workplace Health and Safety Innovation Award: Recognition of an innovative program, policy, tool or project that demonstrates a proven accomplishment in the area of health and safety for the construction industry sector. There is a $5,000 prize for the best submission.

Please refer to the criteria listed on the attached application form to see how your project will be judged. Judges may contact applicants for more information regarding the project.

Eligibility

All employees of ICBA member companies are eligible for the Annual Awards for Innovation in Workplace Health and Safety for Construction. The innovations must be in compliance with the British Columbia Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, Workers Compensation Act, Standards, and Building Code. Safety supply companies are excluded.

Application Process

Any person may nominate an individual who has contributed to a workplace health and safety innovation.

Applications must be made in writing to ICBA and include:

• A completed application form (information must be provided for all criteria listed on the application form)
• Each criterion must be addressed individually and in the same order as listed on the application form
• Download Application Form HERE

Application Deadline

Applications must be submitted before the close of business on November 1, 2017. Applications received after this date will not be eligible.

Submissions

• Submissions become the property of ICBA and will not be returned
• The decisions of the judges are final and binding
• ICBA reserves the right to publish submission details, in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPP) Act, and may request finalists to appear for publicity reasons, including attendance at an awards ceremony
• ICBA’s staff and panel of judges must be allowed to visit the workplace to verify the entry
• Finalists are to appear for publicity reasons, including attendance at an awards ceremony

If you require more information about joining the association, for help with your entry preparation, or if you are unable to enter online, please contact Sabine at 604-298-7795 or email sabine@icba.ca.

Download Application Form HERE

Kids aren’t the only ones heading back to school this fall; you can head back to class too at one of our upcoming training sessions and fulfill any professional development requirements you might have.

Our training team is gearing up for a busy fall, with courses taking place nearly every day throughout September and October. Name a course you’re interested in; we probably have it. If not – email us at training@icba.ca with your suggestions.

Looking for safety courses? We have Occupational First Aid Level 1 and Fall Protection coming up, or check out our online Construction Safety Training System (CSTS-09), Confined Spaces Awareness, or National Construction Safety Awareness Training.

Going for your Gold Seal Certification in 2017/2018? Make sure to take the online and classroom Construction Industry Ethics courses; they’re mandatory as of January 1 this year.

Need management training? We have courses in Effective Management Skills, and Leading and Managing Organizational Change on our calendar, as well as Negotiation Skills, Time Management, and Incident Investigations.

We’ve brought our Arc Flash Safety Workshop back; we’ve also added Introduction to Electrical Quality Management Systems (QA/QC) to our course list.

Our full course list can be found at www.icba.ca/training, or feel free to email our training department at training@icba.ca for more information on any of our courses. We also offer courses online; visit www.icba.ca/training/online-courses for more.

You don’t have to be a member to take our courses, but it will save you money on your registration fees! If you’re interested in becoming a member of ICBA, visit www.icba.ca/become-a-member for more information.