News Releases

January 7, 2021 Vancouver, BC — Forty years ago, four men went to work building one of Downtown Vancouver’s most iconic highrises: the Bentall Centre Tower IV. Those men never came home. They were carpenters Gunther Couvreux, Brian Stevenson, Donald Davis and Yrjo...

December 29, 2020 DESPITE THE SHORTAGE OF workers, many of the most motivated candidates experience barriers to employment in the trades. In 2019, the Workplace Alternative Trades Training (WATT) program was created to reduce those barriers as a new pathway to...

December 28, 2020 IN CANADA, FIRST NATIONS' LONG PROUD HISTORY as ironworkers reaches back to the 1880s when men from the Iroquois Confederacy were hired to build the Victoria Bridge across the Saint Lawrence River for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In B.C., First...

December 14, 2020 OTTAWA’S NATIONAL Shipbuilding Strategy is generating jobs and training for skilled maritime workers as the once-threatened industry continues its dramatic recovery. Seaspan Shipyards’ delivery of its third offshore science vessel to the Canadian...

November 30, 2020 THE FIRST EVER ALL-FEMALE COHORT has completed the Heavy Equipment Operator training program, a partnership between the YWCA, and the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 115. “With the booming construction industry in B.C. we’re looking...

November 9, 2020 THE BC BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL offers its sincere congratulations to Andrew Mercier on his election to B.C.’s NDP government. As executive director for the council, Mercier led the Building Trades during an incredibly difficult time for construction...

October 20, 2020 THERE IS SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT about the personal protective equipment worn by health care workers at Kitimat General Hospital. It’s been improved by the ingenuity of local millwright Devin Baer. Now, nurses and other health care professionals...

September 25, 2020 WHEN THE COVID-19 CRISIS HIT the construction industry, the Construction Industry Rehabilitation Plan quickly adapted to its new reality – and even provided additional services to members during an exceptionally difficult time. CIRP executive...

September 16, 2020 RESTORING B.C.’s economy to pre-COVID-19 strength will depend heavily on the construction industry, and the health of construction workers. "This pandemic demonstrates the frailty of our economy when worker health and safety is compromised - workers...