On October 1, every engineering bill in British Columbia gets seven per cent more expensive. Every architect's invoice. Every accountant's. Even the legislature's own finance committee says don't do it. In a first for the show, Jordan Bateman sits down with a guest from outside ICBA: Gavin Dew, MLA for Kelowna-Mission and the Conservative critic for Economic Development — a small-business owner who's read a payroll from both sides of the desk.

Episode 21 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 OCTOBER 1 TAX: Budget 2026 expands the 7% PST to engineering, architecture, accounting and geoscience services — a tax on the paperwork before a shovel ever hits the ground. Dew has called it a stealth tax since spring; now the finance committee has recommended repeal. Can it be stopped in time?

🖥️ The data centre boom is one province over. Alberta is running town halls for tens of billions in proposals while B.C. is barely in the conversation.

📉 The fall file: B.C. added 2,300 jobs in the past year. Alberta added 91,000. What the jobs critic hammers when the House comes back — and what employers watching should do about it.

📊 Get the ICBA Economics briefing — the most helpful email you'll get all week: https://icba.ca/economics