C&C #27: WorkSafeBC Wants To Run Your Business

WorkSafeBC has proposed the biggest expansion of its own authority in a generation. A new class of hazard that covers "the design and management of work" — your crew size, your schedule, your workload, your deadlines. A written risk assessment for every one of them. And a standard nobody can define until after a complaint gets filed. Employers got eight weeks to respond, in the middle of construction season. The deadline is October 9.Episode 27 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 BIG ONE: WorkSafeBC's proposed Part 4.1 would make B.C. the only place in Canada where an officer can audit how you schedule your crews. Psychological-injury-only claims are already up 48 PER CENT since 2021 under the rules we have now. Construction accounted for 299 of the 28,593 violence-related claims B.C. accepted in a decade — about 30 a year, one for every 8,000 workers. This lands on 28,173 companies, 92% of which have fewer than 20 people.💸 The Bank of Canada held at 2.25% this morning — a seventh straight hold. Inflation's near 3%, but strip out gasoline and it's 2.2%. Next decision: October 28.👷 Internal trade ministers ratified a 30-DAY service standard on labour mobility applications, with free trade in services targeted by the end of the year.🚧 Alberta designated the Greenview Industrial Gateway a Designated Industrial Zone — 75 square kilometres in the Peace, only the province's second.📊 Get the ICBA Economics briefing — the most helpful email you'll get all week: https://icba.ca/economicsRead more on today's stories:ICBA on the WorkSafeBC proposal: https://icba.ca/bc-blog/worksafebc-wants-to-regulate-how-you-run-your-companyICBA's full submission to WorkSafeBC (PDF): https://icba.ca/hubfs/Advocacy%20items%20etc%20(Jordan)/WSBC_Psychological%20Safety_Sept%201%202026%20FINAL.pdfICBA Coffee & Construction drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe, hit the bell, and send this one to somebody who builds for a living.ICBA is Canada's largest construction association — the voice of B.C. and Alberta's open-shop builders: https://icba.ca#construction #bcpoli #WorkSafeBC #WorkersCompensation #BCbusiness #abpoli #interestrates #Alberta #ICBA