�ȵ����

VICTORIA – A hotly debated Private Member’s bill that would have essentially ended Project Labour Agreements and Community Benefits Agreements was scrapped earlier this week in the B.C. Legislature.

According to the BC Building Trades, the bill, coined “The Public Sector Construction Projects Procurement Act,” was defeated on second reading. 

“Last night (April 20) the BC Legislature voted to protect B.C. workers on B.C. infrastructure projects,” the BCBT reported on X. “Thank you to the thousands of people who spoke up to support B.C. jobs.”

Teamsters 213 also thanked its members for their support in bringing the bill down. 

This news follows months of advocacy efforts for and against the bill, which was first introduced in March by Prince George-Mackenzie Conservative MLA Kiel Giddens. In essence it would have required labour-neutral procurement on all public sector construction projects in B.C. and prohibit “government and crown corporations from issuing calls for construction that require building trades union-only labour or mandate that contractors enter into a specific collective agreement as a condition of bidding.”

The bill garnered support from associations such as the Independent Contractors and �ȵ����es Association and Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), but the BCBT launched a campaign “to protect Community Benefit and Project Labour Agreements.”

All of the organizations also ventured to Victoria to put pressure on the government. The BCBT delivered a 2,600-plus signature petition, whereas the ICBA, PCA and some others spoke outside the legislature strongly urging reform.

Giddens made his stance known on X after the bill’s defeat: “The NDP had a choice this week on my Private Member’s Bill, M233: Open public projects to all qualified workers and contractors, or keep picking winners and losers. They chose exclusion. They voted against fairness, against competition and against better value for taxpayers.”