The B.C. construction industry is continuing its efforts to let officials know how freedom of information law changes are impacting the sector.
The BC Construction Association (BCCA) and the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) both joined with many other stakeholders to share their concern over the province’s recent changes to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). The groups went before the Legislative Assembly’s Special Committee to Review FIPPA to lay out why the changes matter to builders. After the public consultation, the committee is expected to produce a report and any recommendations by June.
In his presentation, BCCA president Chris Atchison explained B.C.’s recent budget will see a record $24.7 billion spent on infrastructure. While that should be exciting for the province’s thousands of contractors, interest in bidding has been waning.
He cited a recent case where the City of Prince George awarded a contract for $760,000 to replace a public washroom at Carrie Jane Gray Park. It went to the only bidder and for $260,000 above the city’s budget.
“Public projects should be the construction projects the industry wants to build,” said Atchison. “It used to be that way. Fair payment terms, strong procurement processes, with fast, shovel in the ground timelines, getting on with construction and getting crews to work. But the number of contractors bidding on public projects is extremely small relative to what it should be, and it’s getting smaller.”
The law implements a $25 fee to access FOI applications. The bill also exempts several high level officials from FOI requests, does not address recommendations made by all-party special committees and continues to allow the legislature to be exempt of FIPPA laws.
Atchison said the association has long advocated for procurement that is open and transparent. He explained the industry needs basic information like solicitation documents, an approximate value of construction, including the size and scope of the project, the bid evaluation criteria, if there are contractors on a pre-qualification bid and unofficial results with bidder names and amounts.
“Simply put, a bidding contractor needs to know if they were successful or not,” said Atchison. “If not, they can move on to pursue other work to keep their employees working and their business running. When there is a lack of timely and transparent information, the risk and cost of bidding is greatly increased, which is bad for contractors. But it’s also bad for owners because their projects will stop attracting bidders, which can then impact their budget and the project timelines.”
Rather than following industry best practices or even the province’s own procurement disclosure guidelines, many owners are making their own rules.
“They think that by hiding information, they are managing risk,” said Atchison in his presentation. “But instead, they are putting public owners at risk, putting projects at risk, and putting taxpayer dollars at risk.”
He said the result is that many quality contractors are not interested in bidding.
“This is happening across every level of government, from ministries through municipalities, Crowns and other agencies,” he added.
The committee also heard from Jordan Bateman, vice-president of communications for the ICBA.
Bateman trained as a journalist at Langera College and has spent years using freedom of information requests to uncover government records for the ICBA and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“Our message to this committee is clear,” said Bateman in his presentation. “B.C. freedom-of-information laws need to be reoriented around one principle: that this information belongs to taxpayers, not to the government. This should be the lens through which FOI is viewed. That government should be forced to justify why something is not being made public, not the public forced to justify why we should have access to it. There should be stiff penalties for any official who delays FOI releases.”
He argued that government should proactively release information rather than spending time and money making it difficult to access.
“As those of us who work in advocacy know, vigilance is paramount when dealing with government,” said Bateman. “No victory nor any defeat is ever final when it comes to democracy. A strong, effective Freedom of Information Act, where citizens have a legal mechanism to obtain information from their government is a key part of maintaining that vigilance.”
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