November 2020

The heavy construction/road building industry is home to some of the hardest working people who have brilliant stories and experiences to share with their colleagues. Networking with like-minded individuals often results in the sharing of business best practices.

As we all know, the majority of the people employed in this industry are men. But there’s growing number of female business owners and executives who deserve a seat at the table as well.

That’s why we’re looking to launch a TEC group comprised of women in the construction industry that are at executive level or are entrepreneurs of their own.

Being a part of a TEC group can be transformational. Learning from peers can leave a lasting impact on your business and on your life.

You don’t have to be a Harvard Business School grad to be a fit for this group. Instead, we’re looking for women with a business sense and a good work ethic.

This group would serve as a forum for women in the industry to talk about common issues and share stories and experiences and challenges they face. Meeting with colleagues will provide them an opportunity to better their business. 

A lot of women are intimately involved in the businesses they own or the ones they work for. We could be pioneers in creating a TEC group that is comprised of women in a non-traditional sector.

We have great leaders in this sector. I think of Mandy Rennehan, the Blue-Collar CEO and incredible guest speaker we had at our annual convention in 2019. Mandy would be an ideal presenter for our TEC group.

Women in this industry tend to sit in the background a lot. It’s not that our voices are being ignored. Rather, it’s because we’re not the face of the company and often not the ones in public, attending meetings and making deals. We assume more of a behind-the-scenes role. This TEC group could change that.

There’s a lot of big projects planned for Saskatchewan over the next several years. That is why this is an ideal time to start this group.

It’s the old forest and the trees thing. When you’re in the middle of something, it can be hard to tell whether you are going forward, backward or just sitting still.

So, when we get a report from an outsider with a broader perspective, it can be helpful. The latest of one of those reports comes from the economics branch at Scotiabank, looking at how Saskatchewan stacks up against the other provinces in terms of growth, contraction and recovery.

There were some things that were not surprises. We will experience a deep recession this year, for example. And our patience in the mining world is finally yielding results as uranium production will resume while potash output has been slowly rising.

Agriculture has been our bright light with China buying more of our goods, despite the restrictions on some products.

And the provincial government’s fiscal prudence earned a special note. We will come out of this with the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the country, freeing up capacity for capital spending that is expected to add $1.2 billion to our GDP next year.

Source: Martin Charlton Communications

In a new endeavour to advance innovation within the industry, the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) and Cognit.ca recently announced the launch of the Construction R&D Portal and the Construction R&D Showcase speaker series. 

The goal of this initiative is to help Canada’s $141 billion construction industry capitalize on the $14 billion of research performed by universities annually.

The Construction R&D Portal will give construction leaders unprecedented visibility into world-class expertise, research, facilities and intellectual property that exist at post-secondary institutions across Canada. The Construction R&D Showcase will link industry executives and researchers with cutting-edge discoveries that can help the industry explore and adopt new innovations.

“One of the key challenges for the industry has been to learn about cutting-edge innovation that is undertaken by academia and the talent behind it. It can be equally difficult for researchers to showcase their research to industry executives or even gain funding for new research,” said Mary Van Buren, president of CCA. “This new single access portal will overcome that challenge by helping our members accelerate innovation by exposing them to the most up to date research available on construction.”

The Construction R&D Portal leverages Cognit.ca’s extensive database of research activities undertaken by Canada’s post-secondary education institutions. The portal will give industry leaders a window into the latest research and discoveries as well as the ability to search Cognit.ca’s database of more than 225,000 research grants, more than 100,000 experts, thousands of pieces of intellectual property, thousands of pieces of research infrastructure and hundreds of research facilities from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Research Facilities Navigator. 

The Construction R&D Portal can be accessed at cca-acc.com/construction-rd-portal/.

The City of Saskatoon announced the completion of a number of projects in the face of COVID-19.

Work has finished on the Sid Buckwold Bridge rehabilitation project and replacement of aging watermains despite the challenge posed by the pandemic, a City of Saskatoon release stated.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we revised our 2020 construction plan to place the safety of our crews and residents at the forefront. That meant postponing projects that required workers to enter homes to replace lead water service connections as we strictly followed all guidelines and public health orders,” City of Saskatoon transportation and construction general manager Terry Schmidt said in a statement.

Read the rest of the article from ConstructConnect.

SHCA president Shantel Lipp was recently featured as the Last Page interview in Industry West magazine.

Read Shantel’s interview.

The Municipalities of Saskatchewan recently announced that the 116th Annual Convention will be held online, Feb. 7–10, 2021.

With the uncertainty of COVID-19, Municipalities of Saskatchewan’s Convention Planning Committee made the decision to transition to a virtual event for 2021 to ensure that representatives from Saskatchewan’s hometowns can still come together in February to network, learn and advocate for the betterment of Saskatchewan’s communities.

The theme of Convention 2021 is Stronger Together. COVID-19 has shown that while municipal leaders can’t physically be together, they can still work together to build stronger communities by sharing information and acting with one voice to ensure Saskatchewan’s hometowns have the resources they need.

While many have probably attended webinars, online workshops and other virtual meetings, Convention 2021 will be much more.

The virtual platform used by Municipalities of Saskatchewan will give attendees the chance to:

• Attend keynote and education sessions in a virtual environment designed to make participants feel like they’re sitting among peers
• Interact with provincial officials
• Connect with other attendees
• Browse the Municipal Marketplace and speak with exhibitors face-to-face
• Access additional educational content – like Netflix, but with content designed for municipal government

Visit www.suma.org for updates and information regarding the virtual convention.