Flush toilets to soon arrive at large construction sites across B.C.

Flush toilets will soon be required for large job sites in British Columbia.

Instead of chemical toilets, construction sites with 25 or more workers will have to start providing flush toilets, hand-washing facilities and clean washrooms next month, according to a Thursday press release from the province.

The upcoming change came almost a year after Premier David Eby announced a plan to do so. 

It also fulfils a long-standing demand from workers and labour advocates. Prior to Eby's announcement, B.C. Building Trades, which represents 45,000 workers across the province, launched the Get Flushed campaign, which featured workers who called porta-potties filthy and degrading.

"This regulation addresses one of the most egregious and long-standing indignities that construction workers have had to face in their daily lives," Brynn Bourke, executive director of the B.C. Building Trades, said Thursday.

It could also help increase equity in the industry, according to Tiffany Madden, an electrician who is a member of IBEW 213 and serves on the board of Build TogetHER B.C., which promotes women in the skilled construction trades.

"This is something that is huge," Madden said. 

"It's going to allow a lot more women to feel comfortable coming to job sites. Being able to go to the washroom, in dignity, wash their hands, clean themselves up, go back to work."

The British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA), which represents 10,000 employers in the province's industrial, commercial, institutional and residential multi-unit construction industry, also supports the change, while raising some questions how it will be implemented. 

"There needs to be a sense of reasonableness," said BCCA president Chris Atchison.

"What is underway on one job site is way different from what we can plan for in a project that starts six weeks from now where the expectations will be rolled out and simplified and consistent for everybody."

Ken McCormack, CEO of the Construction Labour Relations Association of B.C., which represents unionized construction companies, said it's important to have the requirement enforced for all employers who fit the regulation so that the new sanitary features don't become a cost factor during job bids.

"Flush toilets is something that our members would certainly support with conditions, of course, being that the requirements are reasonable and the requirement is a level playing field for all construction employers," McCormack said. 

B.C. Labour Minister Harry Bains says he's confident things will roll out smoothly.

He said workplaces won't be penalized immediately. Instead, inspectors will inform employers about the new obligations. He believes the changes will save time and money in the long run.

"There's a cost already for not having them," Bains said. "Workers are going, trying to find washroom facilities, spending so much time."

B.C. is not the only province to move away from porta-potties. In 2015, Quebec started requiring construction sites with 25 workers or more to install heated washrooms with running water.