WHISTLER, B.C. – It’s a good thing the British Columbia Trucking Association (BCTA) is already moving into new headquarters. The association will add another 240 companies to its membership roster on July 1, when the Northern B.C. Truckers Association joins the fold.

Once completed, the deal will mean that the BCTA – the largest trucking lobby group in the province – will represent 800 fleets, says BCTA president Paul Landry. “It was 250 only six years ago.”

The Northern B.C. Truckers Association follows the B.C. Division of the Canadian Feed Association and the B.C. Ready-Mixed Concrete Association, which joined the BCTA in 1999.

The BCTA’s new 14,000-square-foot home will be in the Port Kells area at 200A Street and 93A Avenue as of June 26. The project will cost $1.6 million, while the group will be left with a $650,000 mortgage.

Core membership at the BCTA has also grown five per cent to 472 since June 1999, while the membership on the associated trades’ side of the group rose to 213 from 208.

“We just issued the cheque this morning,” Bob Rowe, business manager of the Northern B.C. Truckers Association, said on June 12.

“This will kind of, in my opinion, educate the southern part of the province on what we do in Licence District 21.”

While no longer an official licence district (the reference relates to the days of regulated trucking), the region around Dawson Creek is still 750 miles away from Vancouver, he says. “We’re kind of left out in the field sometimes.”

The group hopes to re-coup the membership costs in a membership blitz of its own. n