Prince George, B.C. –  Although in  operation for 40 years,  it is only now that the Independent Contractors and Business Association has opened an office  in Northern B.C.

“We need to be where the action is” says Gord Stewart, Senior Vice President with the ICBA ( in photo at right). 

And since most  resource development is happening  in the North, well,  the ICBA  felt it was time to  spread its wings and move to where it can service its members.

Now  it has an office in Prince George, (# 203-2666 Queensway) headed up by Mike Davis who  is well known in the community and the region for his work with the 2015 Canada  Winter Games Society,  the Prince George Airport and the City of Prince George.

In addition to supporting  apprenticeships and offering  training and services to members, Stewart says the ICBA  considers itself a ‘public policy ‘ group  “We take positions that we think are important” says Stewart “we’re  very strong in those positions and we make sure  people know about those positions, so for sure, we are a public policy group as well.”

The ICBA was originally formed to help  non-union, small  contractors  gain the right to bid on  projects.  Stewart says they accomplished that goal long ago, and now the focus  has shifted  “What is  the really important thing for members in the province,  is really to work  hard on getting projects to ‘yes’.   Forestry, mining,  we’re downstream from that. If they don’t build things,   then we don’t  build their facilities and we also don’t build houses and  plants and shopping malls and that sort of thing.”

The construction industry tends to be a “trailing” industry says Stewart,  that  as the economy slows, contractors are still  completing jobs that  got underway during  better financial times,  so it takes a while longer for  an economic downturn to trickle down  to  contractors “The construction industry isn’t  bad right now, but our members are saying it doesn’t look good going out into the future.  The big challenge for us,  is  getting British Columbians talking about why we need to get resource development to happen.”

Stewart says  union, and non-union  contractors  should be on the same side when it comes to  promoting projects that will see everyone  working “They want to get  projects to ‘yes’ as well, so we’re looking forward to  reaching out to those guys (unionized workers) and say let’s work together  and get all these things going, ’cause we need it.”

Stewart  says  his  association has been hearing that it is  taking too long for projects to  get approval and get underway, “What we think we can do is get British  Columbians talking.  If  we can build some grass roots support  that’s visible to politicians,  I think that  can help with the whole process.”

The first step on that  mission is the launch of a social media  campaign which includes a  petition  asking  people to  support moving forward with the Kinder Morgan  Trans Mountain pipeline  project.  While not all responses on that  issue are  positive, Stewart  says  it’s good  to  have the conversation.

“Getting these projects to ‘yes’ really matters” says Stewart “We’re not going to have an economy if we don’t.”

You can learn more about the ICBA by  visiting  its website