September 8 , 2009

ICBA Commentary: Building Permits July 2009

The Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) offered the following commentary on today's Statistics Canada release of the building permits survey for July 2009.

“These numbers show that by a long shot, the construction industry isn’t out of the woods yet,” said Philip Hochstein, President of the ICBA. “As we finish building the backlog of projects from 2008 and 2009, there’s not a lot coming forward in 2010, so next year will be very challenging year for BC contractors.”

Hochstein added this slowdown offers the perfect opportunity to examine and fix regulatory impediments to investment, which will help spur more construction and job growth. “In the throne speech, the BC Government pledged to review the regulatory environment at all levels, so we look forward to no new regulatory imposed costs and a streamlining of existing regulations like complicated zoning requirements and duplication in multi-jurisdiction regulatory processes. We need to get our house in order now to ready the province for future economic growth.”

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