The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association published what looks like propaganda in the June 19, 2021 Edmonton Journal
under headline "Open Letter to Rebuild our Economy Alberta and BC Need Each other."
A claim made therein does not match with information on the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association website.
From "Become an ICBA Member" on ICBA website:
"For more than 45 years, the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) has been the voice of BC’s construction industry and the oldest open shop organization in Canada. Representing the interests of more than 3,000 members and clients,"
so if it has 3000 members, how can "ICBA's members make up nearly 85 percent of the 250,000 men and women in BC's construction sector and over 3000 of its companies" as the article says.
Perhaps the arrticle means to say that its members employ that many (many perhaps only seasonally)?
Or was it a typo and the writer meant to say "ICBA's members make up nearly .85 percent of the 250,000 men and women in BC's construction sector and over 3000 of its companies"
Actually the figure is 1.2 percent
or was it a mathematical mistake and he or she wanted to say "ICBA's members make up 1.2 percent of the 250,000 men and women in BC's construction sector and over 3000 of its companies"?
The article reveals sloppy thinking too when it says "it is hard to think of any other two provinces in Canada that have more connections and a shared outlook than Alberta and BC."
Well actually not hard at all --
Alberta and BC have relatively few roads that connect them (due to the mountains you might have noticed that form much of the boundary between the two provinces),
very little similarities in politics --- currently that is not a single Conservative in the BC Legislature. in Alberta, Conservatives hold a majority of the seats (having taken 72 percent of the seats with 55 percent of the vote. In the last BC election, BC voters voted 40 percent Liberal, 40 percent NDP and 17 percent Green, leaving a bare 3 percent of the votes for all other parties.
etc.
Despite what the article says, it is not hard to find "two provinces in Canada that have more connections and a shared outlook than Alberta and BC."
Alberta and Saskatchewan are a more apt pairing.
Currently those two provinces, alone of the provinces of Canada, have no Liberal MPs, despite 288,000 voters cast in Alberta in favour of Liberal candidates and 66,000 in Saskatchewan cast in favour of Liberal candidates. This poor democratic result is caused by the current First Past The Post system and the lack of any provision for proportional representation.
Alberta and Saskatchewan share many more land connections than BC and Alberta as well.
The two also have active oil and gas sectors unlike BC.
However the ICBA and others of the Alberta oil and gas sector are more often looking westwards than eastwards to open a port for export of Prairie oil and gas. So geographically BC is the obvious choice over the ice-bound Hudson's Bay or the faraway East Coat for that kind of thing.
But the case for BC-Alberta shard infrastructure is not based on anything other than that - oh. and on faulty math apparently.
Here's to a future where Canada's oil and gas will be used in a labor-intensive and sustainable fashion to provide jobs and long-term security for Canadians.
Thanks for reading.
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