On October 1, every engineering bill in British Columbia gets seven per cent more expensive. Every architect's invoice. Every accountant's. Even the legislature's own finance committee says don't do it. In a first for the show, Jordan Bateman sits down with a guest from outside ICBA: Gavin Dew, MLA for Kelowna-Mission and the Conservative critic for Economic Development — a small-business owner who's read a payroll from both sides of the desk.
Episode 21 of ICBA Coffee & Construction — the news that matters to the people who build British Columbia and Alberta, with ICBA's Jordan Bateman. On today's show:
☕ THE OCTOBER 1 TAX: Budget 2026 expands the 7% PST to engineering, architecture, accounting and geoscience services — a tax on the paperwork before a shovel ever hits the ground. Dew has called it a stealth tax since spring; now the finance committee has recommended repeal. Can it be stopped in time?
🖥️ The data centre boom is one province over. Alberta is running town halls for tens of billions in proposals while B.C. is barely in the conversation.
📉 The fall file: B.C. added 2,300 jobs in the past year. Alberta added 91,000. What the jobs critic hammers when the House comes back — and what employers watching should do about it.
📊 Get the ICBA Economics briefing — the most helpful email you'll get all week: https://icba.ca/economics
What is ICBA Coffee & Construction?
The news that matters to the people who build British Columbia and Alberta.
ICBA Coffee & Construction is a fast, no-spin briefing for construction and resource business owners — the projects, the politics, and the policy decisions that hit your job site and your bottom line. Hosted by Jordan Bateman of ICBA, Canada's largest construction association, from a free-enterprise point of view.
Inflation, pipelines, megaproject overruns, housing, labour, red tape — we cut through the headlines and tell you what it actually means for your business. Sharp, useful, and under ten minutes.
New episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Subscribe, and send it to one person who builds for a living.
Learn more at icba.ca. For the economics behind the headlines, subscribe to ICBA's twice-weekly EconoBot briefing at icba.ca/economics.