February 8, 2010

Canadian Construction Association summit zeroes in on industry concerns

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Toronto

When the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) decided to host a summit on the future of the non-residential sector, identifying key industry concerns was front and centre on the agenda.

“We started out by thinking about what’s keeping our members up at night,” said CCA chair Brad Greene, CEO of Project Management Services Inc. of St. John’s.

“That was the theme.”

As it turned out, some common concerns emerged at the facilitated day-long summit, held at a Toronto hotel recently and attended by about 110 officials from across the country.

Top of mind were labour supply and the changing face of the workforce, the increasingly complex regulatory landscape, public-private partnerships, changing technology and the need for a sustained infrastructure investment program.

“I think everybody more or less agreed that the government’s stimulus program is basically sustaining the industry,” Greene said.

“A number of participants felt this was worrying.”

The CCA contends that the federal government must find new ways to fund critical infrastructure investment beyond the lifespan of current programs.

At the summit, participants focused on issues that expected to have an impact on firms over the next five to 10 years.

They also focussed on services that could be provided by the CCA and its 60 integrated and 11 affiliated associations.

Greene said the consensus was that these organizations could do more to help particularly small and medium-sized firms cope with rapidly evolving environmental, safety and other regulations.

“I think there generally was agreement that associations have to concentrate more on providing advice to guide firms through the increasingly regulated business environment,” he said.

“There also was a strong emphasis placed on associations providing or facilitating training.”

A case in point, Greene said, is establishment of Building Information Modeling (BIM) training centres in both London, Ont. and Edmonton, Alta.

“This was seen as the type of service that associations, whether local, regional or provincial, should be providing to their members,” Greene said.

The next step involves preparation of a document summarizing issues raised at the summit and suggestions that were tabled.

Results are to be discussed at the CCA’s upcoming national conference in March.

Greene said this data also is expected to prove useful when the CCA updates its strategic plan this fall.

The association was pleased at the turnout at the summit, Greene said, adding that participants were widely representative of every province, as well as the Northwest Territories.

“We got a good cross-section of not only chief operating officers, but also chief elected officers, the volunteer contractors and suppliers that head their boards of directors. It was a very full room and a lot of opinions were expressed and information disseminated.”

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