ICBA | November 13, 2025
SURREY & CALGARY – As the federal government unveils its next batch of major projects today, the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) in B.C. and Alberta has signed on to a coalition letter urging Prime Minister Mark Carneyto commit to open and fair procurement – rejecting building-trades-union-only monopolies and exclude the vast majority of men and women working in construction in Canada.
“Canadians need more infrastructure and major projects built faster and at lower cost – not fewer bidders and higher prices,” said Chris Gardner, ICBA President and CEO. “Every construction company and worker in this country deserves a fair opportunity to bid and to work on these nation-building projects that their tax dollars are helping fund.”
“Alberta’s experience is clear: when everyone can bid, costs go down and timelines improve,” added Mike Martens, President, ICBA Alberta. “Open competition based on safety, quality, experience, and price delivers the best value for taxpayers.”
The letter highlights B.C.’s CBA regime as a cautionary tale: years of delays on public sector projects, more than $1.7 billion in cost overruns, fewer bidders and workers, and the effective exclusion of the 85% of B.C.’s skilled tradespeople who aren’t members of a small subset of politically-favoured unions.
It also notes that more than 70% of Canada’s construction workers are employed by companies working with labour models that are not traditional building trades unions, and that give workers greater choice, flexibility, training and more involvement in their career advancement. Closed labour models have a long history of pushing projects over budget and behind schedule, undermining fairness in the workplace, slowing innovation, excluding Indigenous-owned firms, and harming economic reconciliation.
The open letter is co-signed by construction, Indigenous, labour, and business organizations representing more than a million workers nationwide.
Read the coalition letter to Prime Minister Carney HERE.