Industry leaders say the discontinuation of B.C.’s Major Projects Inventory (MPI) will make it more difficult for businesses to plan and forecast, while raising concerns about government transparency.

The province will discontinue updates to MPI, a government database that has tracked large construction and development projects across B.C. and published quarterly reports.

In a statement to Business in Vancouver, a B.C. government employee said the province has ended the MPI reports, which date back to 2004, and will not publish further updates, including fourth quarter 2025 statistics.

“This decision was made as part of the government’s assessment of priorities and resources,” the B.C. Ministry of Jobs and Economic Growth said in a statement to BIV.

Industry leaders said they are disappointed by the province’s decision to discontinue the MPI, which has provided valuable data they have relied on to understand the construction pipeline and industry needs.

“We are disappointed,” said Chris Atchison, president of the BC Construction Association (BCCA).

“The data that we were able to view helped the industry understand the strength of the market, the opportunities that were coming, and it also helps businesses anticipate peaks and troughs in the construction.”

Jeannine Martin, president of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA), said her organization and its members also rely on the MPI statistics for decision-making.

“We make projections often about the future of building in the Lower Mainland and across B.C.,” said Martin.

She said the data provides valuable information for planning staffing needs and making decisions about future employment, investment and training. The inventory also provides insights for companies considering investing in B.C., she added. 

“So without this level of data, it makes it more difficult to project the future needs of the community,” Martin said.

Industry raises broader transparency concerns

Concerns extend beyond the discontinuation of the MPI itself to the level of information the B.C. government is making available to industry, according to business leaders.

“We see that British Columbia does need sustained investment in infrastructure that’s required to support communities [and] economic growth, at a time we need to be telegraphing for a resilient economy,” Atchison said.

“We also need transparency about where those investments are being made, what is actually going to be moving forward … investment and transparency need to go hand in hand.”

The province’s decision to move away from an inventory that the industry has come to depend on sends a concerning signal at a time of uncertainty in the industry, and “unnecessarily” compounds doubts about the resilience of the economy, according to Atchison.

The province’s other available resources, including its major projects webpages, are helpful but do not replace the inventory, he added.

“Industry is consistently asking for certainty on future projects or information so that we have line of sight to plan for the future,” Martin said.

The discontinuation of the MPI comes after the province removed public access to the BC Government Directory, the government’s public-facing directory for finding ministries, agencies, offices and employees, in August, citing privacy and cybersecurity concerns.

A public letter signed by about 26 organizations including the BCCA, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, Canadian Home Builders’ Association of BC and the BC Real Estate Association, was sent to the province in late August calling for public access to the directory to be restored.

“We are … concerned that eliminating the directory appears inconsistent with the province’s broader commitments to open government, accessibility and transparency,” the public letter said, dated Aug. 25.

“Removing a long-standing tool that allows the public to understand the basic organizational structure of government represents a meaningful step in the

opposite direction.”

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