The designer Wim Hovens once said: “Good design is in all the things you notice. Great design is in all the things you don’t.”
How often does the average person think about plumbing – that complex series of pipes, fittings, valves, and so on that service our homes, schools, businesses, hospitals, and industrial sites? Suffice to say it’s not very often.
That’s because plumbing is at its finest when it’s invisible. Hidden away in walls, ceilings, and underground, great plumbing systems quietly go about their business, day in, day out, providing safe drinking water, protecting public health, supporting economic prosperity, and enabling a high quality of life.
In this sense, plumbing is a victim of its own success. The essential work of Plumbers can go unnoticed and unappreciated precisely because it is such an integral part of our daily lives, precisely because these complex systems are designed, installed, and maintained so exceptionally well.
B.C. is home to over 11,500 Plumbers across the residential, industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors. Together with the rest of the mechanical contracting industry, they contribute $10B annually to provincial GDP, and many tens of billions more through the economic and industrial activity their work enables.
Plumbers are involved in new construction, retrofit, and service work. They install and maintain everything from the advanced hydronics systems that keep our data centres operating around the clock to the sophisticated pressure-zoning systems that pump water up dozens of floors in our high-rise towers.
Today, World Plumbing Day, offers an opportunity to elevate and celebrate the wide-ranging contributions of Plumbers and their trade to our communities, our industries, and our economies. Because plumbing isn’t just a job. It’s a connective force that helps our province grow, adapt, and thrive – and here are just some of the ways it does so:
Plumbing Connects Health & Prosperity
Plumbers install and service multiple systems that enable access to clean water and safe sanitation, protect against waterborne diseases, and deliver medical gases and other life-saving treatments in our hospitals.
These systems and the healthy populations they support provide the bedrock for economic development, with the UN estimating that every dollar invested in water and sanitation systems yields quadruple that in economic benefit.
In B.C., Plumbers are central to building and maintaining the infrastructure that powers our provincial economy, from data centres and wastewater treatment plants to LNG facilities and transportation hubs.
Plumbing Connects Talent & Opportunity
The plumbing trade offers a range of exciting, rewarding, well-paid career paths. These roles combine technical skill, problem-solving, creative thinking and continuous learning with endless potential for lateral and upward mobility.
Through apprenticeship programs, plumbing creates accessible career opportunities for people from a variety of backgrounds – whether they’re entering the workforce for the first time or looking to reskill mid-career.
As the province works to scale, modernize, and decarbonize its public and private infrastructure, demand for Apprentice and Journeyperson Plumbers will continue to grow. Recruiting and training the next generation of Plumbers is foundational to the future prosperity of all British Columbians.
Plumbing Connects People & Communities
Plumbers, along with the other 10 mechanical trades, are the heart and lungs of our built environment – keeping water, energy, and people flowing.
Plumbers install and maintain the modern hydronics that create comfortable spaces for us to live, work, play, and gather in. If they have their Gasfitting license, which many in B.C. do, they install the natural gas and propane lines that make shared meals possible, whether at home or in our favourite cafes, restaurants, and bars. When we’re on the move, it’s Plumbers who provide the sophisticated, multi-layered systems that help keep our bus stations, ferry terminals, and airports operating safely and reliably.
Plumbing Connects Challenges & Solutions
Plumbers are on the front lines of some of the most complex problems facing British Columbia today. They’re leading the way with innovative solutions in areas like climate resiliency, seismic safety, disease prevention, and sustainable resource management.
For example, as B.C. communities experience an increasing number of adverse weather events, Plumbers are responding by helping to design, install, and maintain flood-resilient drainage and stormwater management systems.
When it comes to protecting the environment, they’re implementing water-reuse and heat-recovery technologies, paired with smart controls, to reduce resource and energy consumption without compromising on performance.
Often, these solutions are not only more effective and environmentally friendly, but also more affordable for consumers and taxpayers.
Plumbing Connects B.C.
In these ways and many more, plumbing connects B.C. We may not always see or hear the work of Plumbers (that’s by design) but its impacts are impossible to ignore – whether personal, social, political, or economic.
On World Plumbing Day, we recognize the significant contributions Plumbers make to B.C. and the lives of all British Columbians. Plumbers touch every person, building, business, and industry in every community throughout the province.
And tomorrow, when World Plumbing Day is over for another year and the spotlight has disappeared, Plumbers and their expertly designed systems will still be there, ticking away, day after day, quietly sustaining our health, our wealth, and our way of life.
Thank you, Plumbers, for everything you do.
About
The Mechanical Contractors Association of B.C. (MCABC) is the dedicated representative of the mechanical contracting industry in British Columbia – the industry with the largest share of skilled trades workers in the construction sector. As the connection to industry excellence for our diverse membership, we deliver education and professional development programs that enable high standards of practice and business success. Through advocacy and strong industry partnerships, we influence policy and regulatory development at all levels of government, advancing the interests of our industry and improving its ability to meet B.C.’s growing infrastructure demand.
Media Contact
Conor Brendan Dunne
Manager, Communications & Stakeholder Engagement
cdunne@mcabc.org
(604) 205-5058
