One week ago, tickets went on sale for the 44^th Annual ICBA Gala Dinner, to be held Nov. 5 in Vancouver. Our special guest this year, NFL Hall of Fame QB Troy Aikman, has caused quite a response: more than 70% of our tickets have sold in this first week.

And it even got discussed on TSN 1040’s Sekeres and Price Show yesterday. Listen to that clip below:

Don’t miss out on the biggest celebration of construction in B.C. that will be held this year. We expect tickets to sell out soon, so go to icba.ca/agm and buy your tickets today.

The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) and WorkSafeBC are pleased to announce the 2019 Gord Stewart Construction Workplace Health and Safety Innovation Award is now open for entries from eligible ICBA members and their employees.

About the Award

The Workplace Health and Safety Innovation Award is presented annually to acknowledge individuals and companies for their efforts in the prevention of workplace incidents, injuries and illnesses. By honouring safety leaders and sharing their ideas ICBA and WorkSafeBC hope to encourage new programs, policies, and projects that improve the health and safety of workers.

The award recognizes the employee or team of employees who come up with 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 and will be presented at the ICBA Gala Dinner on Tuesday, November 5, 2019, at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

Eligibility

All employees of ICBA member companies are eligible for the Annual Awards for Innovation in Workplace Health and Safety for Construction.

For an application or more information, click HERE or email sabine@icba.ca.

When John Horgan killed the new Massey crossing, he doomed us to sit in B.C.’s biggest traffic bottleneck for another 10+ years.

Let’s call it what it is: It’s Horgan’s parking lot.

Tell John Horgan to smarten up and do something now on the old, unsafe, undersized Massey Tunnel.

Reading blueprints is an integral part of many construction careers, whether you work in residential or commercial construction. Unfamiliar with how to read blueprints and specifications? We’re here to help.

Our Introduction to Blueprint Reading course is perfect for those who have little or no background in blueprint reading. Here’s what’s covered in this one-day course:

• Blueprint reading basics
• Design process and the role of design professionals
• Building Codes, bylaws and building permits
• Find trade information using blueprints
• Layout basics
• Architectural, civil, electrical and mechanical drawings, and how they fit together
• Architectural & engineering scales
• Floor plans, sections and elevations
• Symbols, notation, abbreviations and material schedules
• Dimension, finishes, details, area calculations, and material take offs
• Understanding specifications
• Commercial and residential blueprints

Our next session is September 13 in Kelowna, September 18 in Burnaby, October 23 in Fort St John, and October 30 in Prince George. You’ll also earn 1 Gold Seal Credit and 8 CPD Points from BC Housing!

We always get great feedback on this course so don’t miss your chance to register! You can sign up for this or any of our other workshops at www.icba.ca/courses.

And while you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for our bi-weekly training newsletter at www.icba.ca/trainingnewsletter.

It is the biggest annual celebration of B.C. construction: The ICBA AGM Gala Dinner is a must-attend event for our industry. Over the past two years, as we hosted NFL legends Peyton Manning and Brett Favre, the ICBA Gala has grown to attract nearly a thousand people to toast the companies and workers who build British Columbia.

On Tuesday evening, November 5, in Vancouver, our 44^th ICBA Gala will be our biggest yet. Continuing our NFL Leadership Series, we will host Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman. Aikman led the 1990s Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl championships, and then went on to a stellar career as FOX’s #1 football analyst. Troy will share stories from both on and off the field and what it takes to build and lead a winning team.

Tickets are now on sale – and will go fast. Last year, tickets for the Favre event were gone within a few weeks. In July, our ICBA Golf Tournament sold out in less than three hours. Don’t miss out on this event – go to www.icba.ca/agm and buy your tickets today.

Have you ever wondered how emotionally intelligent you are, or what your Emotional Quotient (EQ) is? Let our training department help you answer these questions with our half-day workshop September 12 in Burnaby called Emotional Intelligence (EQ) – The Myths and the Mastery!

This workshop is designed for all employees and has proven to be an exceptionally powerful and practical learning experience that will benefit participants in their professional and personal lives. You’ll learn how to build better relationships, learn to stay calm and deal with stress more effectively, deal with difficult people and negative energy, and achieve greater happiness.

Here’s what’s covered:

• What EQ really means in practical, everyday, real world terms
• Why EQ is a far more important success factor than IQ
• The EQ – Happiness Connection
• How to identity your current level of EQ
• The predictable attitudes and behaviors of low EQ people
• Four sure-fire strategies on how to develop truly healthy EQ
• How to deal with unreasonable people with low EQ
• How to achieve the delicate balance of intellect and emotion and make “common sense decisions
• How EQ impacts your ability to build and sustain productive relationships
• How to assert yourself to ensure you get your needs met without appearing like a bully
• How to stay positive around negative people

You can register for this workshop or any of our other courses at www.icba.ca/courses. You don’t have to be a member to take our courses, but if you’re interested in learning more about membership, visit www.icba.ca/become-a-member.

Do you serve on a joint health and safety committee in your workplace? Our Responsibilities of Joint Health and Safety Committees course is here to help you fulfill your training requirements!

Here’s what’s covered in this eight-hour course:

1. Use of WorkSafe OHS Regulation;
2. Joint Health and Safety committee and workers representatives;
3. OHS Program;
4. Safety Inspections;
5. Incident investigations;
6. Refusal of unsafe work;
7. How to work as a committee;
8. Different types of recommendations; and
9. Hazard management.

You’ll also earn 8 CPD Points from BC Housing! Our next session is September 10 in Burnaby and then September 12 in Fort St John. Register for this or any of our other upcoming sessions at www.icba.ca/courses.

We can also offer this course as a private session for you and your team! Email us at training@icba.ca to find out more about how we can tailor any of our workshops to fit your needs.

Earlier this week, ICBA and 45 other employer associations – representing industries from restaurants to construction – pulled out of the NDP’s sham review of WorkSafeBC. See our comments HERE.

The media has picked up on this important story:

• The Vancouver Sun: “The business community has resigned en masse from a review of B.C.’s workers’ compensation system, saying the government-appointed reviewer is regurgitating recommendations made a decade ago for the B.C. Federation of Labour… ‘When you undertake a review in this area, it has got to be done ensuring it’s a fair independent review that is going to strike an appropriate balance,’ said Chris Gardner, president of [ICBA], one of the 46 groups that quit the process. ‘The concern is Janet Patterson is biased in how she approaches this review and the focus will be on fairly significant and dramatic wholesale changes in WorkSafeBC.'”
• The Orca: “Patterson then took 23 of her 24 recommendations from her 2009 report and added them into the current review. Any semblance of fairness or an unbiased review vanished, and thus the 46 industry associations pulled out… Essentially, the NDP tabbed a player to referee a game they’re playing in – who then changed the rules at halftime.”
• Black Press: “‘We were willing to participate in a balanced an impartial process to review the system,’ Richard Truscott, B.C. and Alberta vice president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement Wednesday. ‘However, the writing has been on the wall from the very beginning that the review lacked objectivity.’
• Business In Vancouver: “Signatories to the letter published Thursday – which include the BC Chamber of Commerce, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and Mining Association of BC – say they were ‘quite taken aback and dismayed’ by what they see as an expansion of the review’s original scope.”
• Journal of Commerce: “‘We just want a fair and independent process,’ said Doug Alley, managing director of the Employers’ Forum.