Special to Ottawa Construction News

Boone Plumbing & Heating Supply has provided the following statement to Ottawa Construction News.

After an impressive 42-year career, Joe Desjardins has retired as vice-president and general manager of Boone Plumbing & Heating Supply, effective June 28.

Joe began his journey with the company on Jan. 4, 1982 as an HVAC sales representative. Over the years, his dedication, positive attitude, and natural leadership abilities led to numerous promotions, making him a cornerstone of the company’s growth and success. His leadership style, marked by integrity and a people-first approach, has fostered a collaborative and productive work environment.

Joe’s unwavering commitment to excellence and ability to inspire his colleagues have helped Boone Plumbing & Heating Supply navigate industry challenges and changes. As he steps into retirement, he leaves behind a legacy of hard work, dedication, and leadership that will continue to inspire future generations at the company.

His contributions have been invaluable, and his presence will be greatly missed. The company, along with his colleagues and many friends, wishes Joe a well-deserved retirement filled with joy, relaxation, and new adventures.

Joe’s successor, Luc Desrosiers, is exceptionally well-prepared to take the helm.
Having been with Boone since 1985, Luc’s journey from warehouse clerk to various key roles, including manager of the Boone Gatineau branch, showcases his dedication and capability. His promotion to senior sales director in 2012, following his acquisition of an MBA from the University of Ottawa, further solidified his expertise and readiness for leadership. Luc’s extensive industry knowledge and deep-rooted experience make him the ideal candidate to guide Boone into its next phase.

Luc is privileged to collaborate with an outstanding team, which will play a pivotal role in Boone’s growth and success. As the new vice-president and general manager, Luc is dedicated to fostering innovation, spearheading strategic growth initiatives, and guiding the team towards sustained excellence. His leadership is expected to inspire and motivate the team, ensuring that Boone remains a leader in the industry.

A key aspect of Boone’s ongoing success will be their unwavering commitment to offering exceptional customer service. By prioritizing the needs and satisfaction of their customers, Boone can ensure that every interaction reflects their dedication to quality and excellence.
Luc understands the importance of nurturing strong customer relationships and is dedicated to maintaining Boone’s reputation for reliability and superior service. With Luc Desrosiers at the helm, Boone is poised for a bright and prosperous future under a leader who values their employees, customers and suppliers.

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Special to Ottawa Construction News

Did you know the Nuclear Waste Management Organization is currently looking for submissions from qualified suppliers to design, build, and commission a Deep Geological Repository for safely managing Canada’s used nuclear fuel?

The NWMO is on a 175-year journey to build this first of its kind in Canada facility and is now seeking qualifications from suppliers in the fields of Design/Engineering, Construction, Mining, Shafts, Headframes, Hoisting and Nuclear Management.

Here’s your chance to be a part of history by securing a future where Canada’s used nuclear fuel is safely managed.

For more information and to submit your interest, visit Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) :: Bid Details (biddingo.com).

Sponsored feature

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By Jeffrey Street
Special to Ottawa Construction News

A recent Canadian Survey on Business Conditions revealed that 33.8% of employers in the construction sector felt that recruiting and retaining qualified workers was an obstacle to their success — the highest proportion among those canvassed.

To attract workers, construction can make a case that it offers better-paying, more secure jobs and career opportunities, provided people have some basic skills needed to get started. At the same time, employers need to be mindful of what they can do to keep their workers engaged and motivated. That’s where training as a business strategy enters the picture.

“In an industry already short on workers before the pandemic, employers are seeking help on many fronts, including preparing people to enter the workforce and keeping them there,” says Samira Afrand, project manager at the Eastern Ontario College Consortium/Consortium des Collèges de l’Est de l’Ontario (EOCC-CCEO), a coalition of five Eastern Ontario colleges that came together to support the training needs of key growth sectors in the area. “We want them to know that there are free programs available, such as the EOCC-CCEO, that are tailor-made to address the challenges they’re facing right now.”

The consortium offers innovative, sector-based training to help businesses onboard new talent and upskill and retain existing employees. Recognizing that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to training, it works with employers to offer customized solutions in a full range of workforce development areas, including onboarding videos, mandatory health and safety training — such as first aid, machine and equipment safety, and Covid-related health and safety courses — construction project management, supervisory training, construction technologies, stress management, general labourer training and more.

The program is not only free for eligible employers but also designed to avoid common perceived pitfalls of funded training, such as heavy paperwork, lengthy application processes and inflexible scheduling.

“We know that formal training can seem like a luxury at a time like this, especially for smaller businesses, and so we work closely with employers to coordinate on their terms and create solutions that work for them,” says Afrand. “Based on feedback from our construction advisory committee and local business owners, for example, we launched our construction eLearning portal — which includes over a hundred construction health and safety courses and this brings more flexibility and control to learners and supports training during off hours.”

Funded by the province’s SkillsAdvance Ontario pilot project, the EOCC-CCEO is one of a number of new initiatives by the government to provide free training opportunities and address rising concern about skills shortages in Canada. While there’s no easy solution to the pipeline problem in construction and other industries, experts are unanimous that employer investment in workforce training and development is critical to moving forward.

In the midst of an ongoing labour shortage, employers have an opportunity to build a team that can take them into the future with better resilience, competitiveness and profitability.
To learn more about this unique program, contact the EOCC at in**@**cc.ca, call 1-844-853-0326 or visit

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Designing green buildings for over 20 years, sustainable design is fundamental to Ottawa-based firm CSV Architects. Designing environmentally friendly and healthy buildings for the not-for-profit and affordable housing sector is just one of the ways they put their expertise to good use. The addition to the Kings Daughters and Sons Apartments (KDS) – a senior’s residence which provides a high quality of life on a modest budget, is a prime example of this.

“Our seniors deserve to live in communities and buildings that are good for them and that can help them,” said Anthony Leaning, Principal at CSV Architects.

Central to the KDS vision was the integration of residential suites with health-related support services. In order to address the specific needs of the senior residents and to facilitate aging-in-place, a generous ground floor space was included in the design where a range of care and nursing services will be accommodated to provide additional supports for seniors. All of which would make use of environmentally friendly building materials and features for maximum energy efficiency.

Cover feature: CSV Architects revitalized aging interior into modern, contemporary work space

To achieve this, CSV set ambitious targets for sustainable design and energy performance. With a full-time, in-house energy modeller who provides real-time, energy as-sist throughout each phase of a project, CSV was confident they would meet their goals. What CSV proposed was a space so efficient, it would use 25 per cent less energy, which would land them a LEED ® Platinum for Homes certification through Canada Green Building Council – an incredibly difficult green building standard to achieve.

“We knew that we had a reason-able chance to meet our targets given our prior experience with LEED® certification, the Passive House standard, and other energy efficient affordable housing projects in the past,” said Leaning.

The company believes that exemplary LEED® performance can be attained at minimal or no additional cost.

CSV accessed funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s National Housing Co-investment Fund which requires a combination of affordability, accessibility, and a minimum 25 per cent reduced energy use over Code.

“We had confidence that this was achievable, and indeed we met this threshold in the building design,” Leaning said.

The project also utilized the Enbridge Savings by Design incentive program which provides early energy modelling and a project team workshop. CSV has participated in this program for a number of projects and recognizes that the mini-mum thresholds for the incentives are met with little difficulty.

At the KDS project, the design included:

• Exterior envelope which basically meets the minimum Code com-pliant assembly for insulation value.
• Windows are standard double glazed with the most appropriate low-e coating for the climate and orientation, considering winter and summer performance.
• Air-tightness system which achieved close to Passive House levels using standard materials, best practice detailing and installation – with the performance verified during construction using blower door testing before the cladding was installed, and at completion.
• The HVAC system used available conventional equipment in a design that complies with Code requirements for heat recovery, and minimum direct ventilation rates.
• Living rooms and bedrooms were supplied with ASHRAE compliant fresh air while return air was exhausted from bathrooms and kitchen area.

Recirculating range hoods and heat recovery on exhaust air were used. Heating was provided using a two-pipe fan coil system, with terminals in each suite that rejected heat for cooling back into the two-pipe loop.

A commissioning agent was retained at the start of the project and provided a high level of quality control on the results at a very modest cost.

Not only can sustainable design be achieved at little additional cost, green design is also good for organizations and companies. Reducing waste is not only good for the environment, it’s economical and can have a direct impact on the bottom line.

“The project demonstrates that superior environmental performance doesn’t have to be expensive,” said Leaning. “What is needed is a commitment to sustain-able design and more care in the design and construction process,” Leaning concluded. “We consider this additional effort to be worth-while and it has contributed to CSV’s reputation in the industry as leaders in sustainable design.”

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By Michael Assal

Special to Ontario Construction News

Addressing climate change due to carbon emissions, now a national as well as international priority to save the planet, we must change how we live in numerous ways. Expanding renewable energy generation capacity to replace fossil fuels and switching to electric vehicles immediately come to mind, however there is one major area of energy consumption representing close to 40 per cent of Canada’s energy consumption and 13 per cent  of our carbon footprint1 that needs more attention – building high-performing energy efficient or “green” buildings that should be considered a “low-hanging fruit” target.

The problem is that implementing change in buildings is slow due to the glacial pace of implementing higher energy performance standards (particularly in North America) via the Building Code. There is an inherent inertia in the construction sector that is by nature slow to innovate and well known to be “late adopters” of new materials or methods. Even more frustrating to advocates of high-performance buildings is the fact that the slow pace of change is compounded by the extended time it takes to design, permit, and build.

Innovation in new construction experience – Passive House Karen’s Place

In 2013 Ottawa Salus Corporation, a non-profit dedicated to providing life changing housing and support services to people living with serious mental illness, invited me to attend a concept design session for their new residence that was in the conceptual stage of development.

My firm’s experience in completing the innovative EcoCite on the Canal, a 26-unit apartment building that was built to LEED Platinum standard in 2009, gave me valuable insights into the kind of planning and builder engagement necessary for successful realization of a high-performance building. EcoCite was unique in that it included fourteen 600 ft deep geothermal wells as part of the heating/cooling strategy in combination with a high-performing envelope.

During the session, a broad discussion about the desired program and sustainability of the building to support Salus’ long-term goals ensued. When I suggested focussing on the building envelope to achieve a higher performance, the director Lisa Ker raised the idea of building to Passive House standard.

See: Salus Clementine nears completion as largest North American Passive House project

I had heard of the term, but admittedly was not properly up to speed on the philosophy and practices. Fortunately, the participating architects, CSV Architects, were, and their description of the envelope performance-centric approach mirrored the advice I had been giving my clients to getting the “best bang for the buck” to make their new buildings more energy efficient and to capture the resulting improved operational cash flow.

We went on to build Salus’ Karen’s Place project in Ottawa that was the first large-scale apartment building to achieve Passive House International certification in Canada and received national recognition from politicians, the press (CBC News Article) and industry awards.

“No, after you!”

The construction industry, particularly in North America, is well known to be slow to adopt new building technology and practices. This is partially explained by the fact that any building component considered for construction must have longevity and perform over many decades, if not centuries.

Another reason is that building codes, which are regionally and jurisdictionally fragmented, evolve gradually. To their credit, the design community generally responds to these changes by introducing new configurations and products.The problem is that there is significant inertia in adopting change because of the professional risk in specifying new products and then relying on the tradespeople to install it correctly. In North America, most tradespeople are “bootstrap” self-educated and have invested in learning how to install products from their preferred manufacturers and are wary of shifting to something new and untested unless they must (because the building code says so) or the benefits are compelling.

Most of the construction industry can be described as conservative and resistant to change. They prefer to stay back and allow early adopters to make their mistakes and follow once a new product or system has been proven in the field. This instinctual aversion to risk is a significant source of inertia against innovation in our industry.

Unless a client developer has specifically requested a particular new product or system be adopted for a project, builders are disinclined to offer anything other than what is specified or “tried and true”. Often clients request that a builder find “value engineering”, or cost saving alternatives AFTER the design has been completed and then only from the construction cost perspective, instead of considering a life-cycle cost analysis that would show that the cheaper method is not the best value.

This points to the glaring fact that builders are not often engaged in the design phase of the project where true value engineering can occur and options evaluated from a constructability and cost perspective BEFORE design has progressed. Most design consultants are admittedly uninformed with cost estimating and assessing implementation risks.

If a builder is not engaged in the design phase they may consult ad hoc with a limited group of trusted builders and subtrades who may or may not be knowledgeable with, or motivated to use, innovative products and systems. Once a design has advanced into the construction details phase, it is more difficult and costly in terms of time and redesign fees, to revise the design mid-stream to incorporate innovative alternatives.

Architectural professional liability insurance: A brake on innovation?

In our litigious society, if a new product or system does not perform as required, or installation details fail, it can unleash a torrent of expensive litigation whether the designer is at fault or not. In response, the professional liability insurance that architects carry generally discourages risk-taking in design to avoid the risks. This represents another structural aspect of the industry that dampens innovation.

Despite this undertow, some architects and engineers do adopt new technologies and systems, but in these cases, they often include significant caveats and liability pass-throughs to the manufacturers and installers.

HVAC engineering: Slowpokes to change?

One of the more significant laggards in the transition to high-performing buildings are the North American mechanical system designers and equipment manufacturers. High-performing buildings are super-insulated, airtight, and incorporate orientation and external shading strategies to achieve fundamentally lower heating and cooling loads compared to the current minimum standards.

This approach requires that the engineers abandon the prescriptive method of design and embrace a design based on energy modelling requiring a significant shift in thinking/planning for many practitioners. This also requires investment in new skills and software – in turn leading to more inertia.

Even when designers adopt and implement a shift to high-performance design, the resulting heating and cooling load requirements are too low for the available Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment from North American manufacturers that are sized for the typical energy hungry, leaky, and under-insulated buildings.

Designers are then forced to choose from the available equipment resulting in significant overcapacity in the systems leading to imbalances in managing building space conditions and unnecessary energy inefficiency. Fortunately, the European and Japanese HVAC equipment manufacturers are bringing their “low-flow” and high-performance technologies to N. America, however the rate of adoption of these products is slow.

We’re moving slowly……. but picking up speed!

While I have outlined some of the design industry impediments to innovation, many architects and more engineers are adopting new technologies and systems into their designs, albeit often with significant caveats and liability assignments to the manufacturers and installers.  As the experience and related confidence grows, the necessary shift to high-performance building design and component manufacturing will accelerate.

Builders are challenged to answer the “Cost” question

The first questions that comes out of any developer or builder’s mouth when presented with new technology is, “So, how much more will it cost to build to the higher performance standard?” or “What’s the payback period/Return on Investment (ROI)?”. My favourite reply is, “It depends on what you are comparing to and how you measure!” which of course causes consternation of those asking.

The question is of course referring to the direct, or first cost of construction, which is important, although it is only a fraction of the overall cost of ownership, otherwise known as life-cycle cost. For most builders this is the only question that is important because they need to know the cost to construct. Ask them to confirm how much a higher-performing envelope design (i.e., more insulation, high-performing windows, and doors, etc.) would cost and they would be able to calculate the resulting “energy efficiency premium” – yet that is only the first step.

The next important practice would be to calculate the life-cycle cost/benefit for expending the premium and determine the recovery point in time when the ROI is attained.  Unfortunately, most builders are not asked, and would not be able to perform this essential calculation. Only experienced or motivated owners will engage energy modeling and cost consultants to prepare an evaluation to confirm the value of building to a high-performance standard.

Even when such an analysis is performed, there is often wrangling over what length of time to be used. While a building may last 60 years or more, many owners have difficulty accepting a ROI inflection point beyond 3 to 5 years.  This is extremely short-sighted. A more reasonable timeframe of 15 to 20 years is needed to demonstrate the operational benefit for the cost.

Unfortunately, this “short-term investment” paradigm is baked into the current valuation of properties. It is only when developers, builders and owners shift to a longer horizon of ownership mindset that our society and building industry will properly understand and appreciate the value of high-performing buildings.

How much more will it cost? (Energy efficiency or “Green” Premium)

While every project is different, high-performing buildings require that more be spent on the envelope (i.e. thicker wall and roof insulation, triple-paned windows, high-performance insulated doors, better taping and envelope membranes). Some of this cost can be offset by much smaller HVAC equipment which have reduced energy loads that come with higher building envelope performance.

The energy efficiency or “green” cost premium for a Passive House standard was at 9% to 12% four to five years ago due to the limited availability and high cost of high-efficiency HVAC equipment, inefficient envelope assemblies and learning curve costs of the installers.  Fortunately, the premium has come down to around 5% to 8% today. Due to higher building standards, HVAC technology is gradually shifting to high-performance in conjunction with the adoption of super-insulated envelope assemblies by progressive developers and builders.  Further innovation and efficiencies will certainly contribute to reducing this “premium” until a point in time is reached when these innovations/efficiencies push building standards to require all buildings to achieve a high-performance.

First Cost vs. Life-cycle cost – Consumers need to ask the right question!!

Building developers, both commercial and residential, pay the most attention to the construction cost, or “first cost” of a building.  To date, only the motivated and experienced developers will consider the long-term costs, or “life-cycle cost”, of a building depending on their perspective of ownership.  If they intend to build and immediately sell the home or building, then the cost of operating the building over its lifetime is rarely considered.  Adding insulation or higher performing windows, doors or HVAC only increases the cost to the building in their calculation because they will not immediately reap the benefit of lower operating costs.

It is notable that most high-volume residential housing developers are unable to, not good at, or simply uninterested in selling the improvements to consumers that they cannot see versus the “bling” of premium finishes, appliances, etc.  Conversely, home buyers have not been demanding that the housing be high performing even though it would be in their long-term interest.

Nevertheless, this situation may be finally changing with the industry’s and general public’s growing awareness of the impact of energy consumption by buildings on the environment as well as the implementation of carbon taxes on energy (particularly carbon-based fuels), and the accelerating adoption of other clean technologies.  A very salient example is the shift from internal combustion motor vehicles to electric vehicles where many consumers are accepting a higher initial cost with the knowledge that they will have a lower carbon footprint and benefit in the long-term from lower cost of ownership (e.g. less fuel, maintenance, longevity, etc.).

Unfortunately, in the residential market most consumers can only buy what developers decide to build and this is often motivated by the short-term profit for the developer rather than the long-term ownership cost to the consumer/home-owner.

The multi-year gradual implementation of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (or Carbon Tax) that started in 2019 has already begun affecting the building operating cost calculus for consumers and building owners. Although the full impact has been delayed by a politically motivated temporary rebate for residential consumers in some provinces to ease the transition.

As the rebates expire and the tax increases over the coming years, the embedded and operating carbon costs will become a more salient factor in the decision about whether to build to a high-performance standard or not.  This will be reflected in the life-cost analysis that I predict will eventually become a part of the design process to demonstrate not only building code conformance, but net present value of cost of ownership of the building over 20 to 25 years.

Opportunities – Stricter Building Code, infrastructure funding to pay for the “Green Premium”.

While progress in the shift to higher-performing buildings has been slow to date, the good news is that it is accelerating.  One of the most important drivers of change that cannot be avoided by developers, designers and their builders is the higher performance required by the evolving standards of the building codes.

Previously, designers had only to use prescriptive or boiler-plate assemblies or elements that were typically “cut and pasted” from one project to the next, contributing to the slow pace of innovation in high performance building design and new products.Recent changes require that not only the building design achieve a higher energy efficiency using more insulated and air-tight envelope assemblies, doors and windows, the code now requires that designers employ energy modeling software to verify the building’s theoretical performance as part of the building permit submission.

Designers must now evaluate each building’s holistic energy performance considering location, orientation, envelope, and occupancy to calibrate the design to achieve the specified minimum or better. I foresee the time interval between raising the energy efficiency bar in our building codes shortening as societal urgency to address climate change intensifies.  This will put pressure on the construction industry to respond with innovative solutions, but there will still need to be some “greasing of the wheels” to reduce the inherent lag in delivery.

Fortunately, we do not have to reinvent the wheel because the shift has been underway in other jurisdictions similar to ours climate-wise. In 2010 our European friends implemented European Union Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) to promote the improvement of the energy performance of buildings.

We can leverage their experience, as well as support similarly focused organizations such as The Canadian Green Building Council (www.cagbc.org ). CaGBC has been working since 2003 to “Lead and accelerate the transformation to high-performing, healthy green buildings, homes and communities throughout Canada” by promoting governmental policies and creating a Canadian framework to promote and support the achievement of Net-zero carbon projects.

Better financing rates to reflect lower cost of ownership.

When one compares the operating cost of a building home or building built to a higher-performance standard (i.e. Passive House, Net-Zero) with standard construction, there is currently up to 80% to 90% reduction in energy consumption. This represents a clear cash flow advantage and supports the business case to build to high-performance standards and should be recognized by lenders and the real estate industry with reduced interest rates (less expense = lower risk) and higher property valuations, respectively.

Energy costs to heat and cool our buildings are currently artificially low for many reasons, however with the introduction of carbon taxes, these costs will inexorably rise as the full “environmental pricing” is factored into our cost of ownership. The disparity in operating costs will expand and finally give more impetus to build high-performance buildings.

“Honey, let’s brainwash the kids!!”

Those of us of a particular vintage who have benefitted from carefree, cheap energy consumption for most of our lives are now realizing that there is an expensive price to pay for this “free lunch” after all: correcting anthropogenic climate change.  Some societies and jurisdictions have recognized the human impact on our environment earlier than others.  The European Union, in particular Germany, has been at the vanguard of addressing climate change for decades and has manifested in their energy generation policies and ever stringent building codes to achieve high performance and reduce their national carbon footprint.

One important aspect is education. Not only do adult consumers need to be educated and informed for today’s decisions, but the future generations also need to understand that the links between their actions and what generates the most carbon emissions. We need our youth to be informed about the benefits of choosing current options that reduce their carbon footprints and empower them to demand better options as future consumers.

One personal poignant example of such “brainwashing” of children through education is a long-time popular children’s television show “die Sendung mit der Maus” (The Show with the Mouse) that combines “how it works” segments with classic style cartoons. In 2015 an episode was broadcast that featured the construction of a prefabricated house built to Passive House International standards, highlighting the differences between it and a more conventional house. (

Without overwhelming the young audience, the episode talked about numerous technical aspects of the construction as well as the underlying building science and design principles applied in building the passive house. This video very much impressed me, and I wish it were in English so I could use it to help explain to youth here in Canada what Passive House construction means. Producing and broadcasting similar videos here in Canada and other North American countries should be part of a national strategy to engage our youth (and their parents and grandparents) into acting on climate change by demanding energy efficient buildings.

This requires a concerted governmental and industry campaign to educate consumers and provide them with standardized tools to aid in their decision making.  Such an example is the Energy Performance Certificate, adopted/implemented in the United Kingdom, that assesses and rates the energy performance of a building. In some European jurisdictions such as Germany, they have gone so far as to require all advertisements of property for rent or sale include third-party assessments of energy performance and if the property falls below the minimum level, the owner must upgrade before being allowed to rent or sell it.

This regime has resulted in an acceleration in the adoption of a high-performance standard of construction by developers, builders, and suppliers who must respond to this market signal.  The interesting irony is that by doing so, the buildings will be cheaper to run over the life of the building, and provide a higher comfort level, all the while reducing the carbon footprint.

Michael Assal is president of Taplen Commercial Construction, an Ottawa general contractor. He is a member of the Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC), representing the Canadian Construction Association since 2012.

References:

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Special to Ottawa Construction News

Roy Nandram, president of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA) and president and project manager at residential and commercial contractor RND Construction, distributed this letter to GOHBA members in April.

When I assumed the (GOHBA) presidency 13 months ago, I would never have anticipated that the world, our country, our industry, and our businesses would be crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the last few weeks, I have been glued to the news channels and social media, following the developments around the world and here at home. The latest info from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, is that the virus will be around for another 6 to 18 months, perhaps in smaller and smaller waves, until a vaccine is developed.

So we likely still have a long road to go, but we will make that journey together. And that starts with your membership in the Association. It’s times like these, the difficult times, where the value of the Association is most apparent.

Here at home GOHBA has been working with city staff to ensure that planning, permits and inspections stay open and available, while other cities and towns in Ontario have seen their building departments shut down. City staff have been responsive to our needs and should be recognized for doing all they are doing to accommodate our building process on all fronts – especially our CBO (Chief Building Official) Frank Bidin and his team.

OHBA (Ontario Home Builders’ Association)  has been working around the clock with the Premier’s office, the Minister’s office, and many more to ensure that our industry remains open. ICI have not had the success we have. And, thanks to the efforts of OHBA staff, the provincial governments continues to modify things in response to builder’s concerns and find reasonable solutions to carry on as much of our business as possible.

CHBA (Canadian Home Builders’ Association) has also been working diligently at the federal level to ensure that the wage supplement programs are more aligned with the realities of how the residential construction industry operates. And the federal government is likely to take a large role as we ease out of dealing exclusively with the pandemic and think about economic recovery.

We don’t think about it often but an average of 500 to 600 families a month move into a new home in Ottawa. In addition, there are thousands of renovation projects across the city in various states of completion. All of these renovations improve and/or expand the livable space of someone’s home. So there are a lot of people across the city who are relying on GOHBA members to deliver the housing they will use to shelter their families during this difficult time.

So with that said we should start now to prepare our businesses for survival during this crisis and after the crisis. As I said before, we’re in this together. Please be respectful of your colleagues and their situation. Some have had to make the hard choice to shut down but expect to be back up running soon– please don’t obstruct their business planning by soliciting their employees at this vulnerable time.  Let’s treat each other with professional respect and courtesy.

At the same time, it’s important to do all you can for your laid off employees, as they are in a very difficult situation as well. This is what my company is doing for laid off employees – we are paying their benefits until they are recalled and we are also offering loans of up to $2,000 per employee to supplement their EI payments. This will be reviewed again at the end of June. I am encouraging you to do the same if you can afford it. I’d also encourage you to communicate with your laid off employees on a regular basis on your latest plans and intentions. Make sure they understand that you see them as an essential part of business moving forward.

We’ve also been asked to provide lists of members that are still in operation, but have not for a few reasons. Based on this rapidly changing situation, it would be difficult to produce an accurate list. We are also sensitive to advertising only members that remain open. So instead I encourage you to use the membership directory if you need to make new contacts for your construction needs. Be a Member, Do Business with a Member is more vital than ever during these challenging times.

I believe that Quebec partially reopening its residential construction industry is a good sign for us here in Ontario. It gives credence to our provincial government’s stance that the residential construction industry is an essential workplace that needs to continue to operate with the proper safety protocols. With that in mind let’s make sure that we continue to keep our jobsites safe for everyone, not just because it’ll help keep our businesses operating but because it’s the right thing to do. And let’s support each other publicly and on social media for the good job they are doing.

OHBA has also been hosting weekly calls for members to talk about what’s happening at the provincial level I also know that OHBA is also working with the provincial government on the steps needed to kick start our economic recovery. The government knows that we spend more on renovations than on new homes, so I am confident that renovators  will be a focus of not only the provincial government, but of the federal government as well – energy efficient renovations, for example, have always been a very successful part of past stimulus packages.

GOHBA is committed to providing you with more information and resources during this time to ensure you’re ready to kick things back up when the time comes. So in addition to the webinars we’ve had and the ones that are planned, I encourage you to continue to communicate with us, send in your requests and questions, and please reach out if you require assistance in operating while we’re under these restrictions. The Association has been sending out frequent updates on all things COVID-19-related. We want to send these to as many people in your company as possible, so please provide us with your contacts to ensure your employees & co-workers are staying in the loop.

As you likely know we’ve had to cancel all our events through the Summer, but we do hope to hold our Fall Golf Tournament on Sept. 10 and hold a rescheduled Innovation Trade Show on October 1.Shortly we’ll be launching submissions for the Housing Design Awards, and I hope it’ll be a very important show that will signal that the industry is prospering. I encourage you to get your submissions in so that you can use being a finalist or a winner in your advertising.

So to wrap up I want to thank the GOHBA staff for all of their efforts during this difficult time, as well as all of the volunteers whose contributions improve our industry and our businesses.

Roy Nandram

The post A letter to GOHBA members: Responding to the COVID-19 crisis appeared first on Ottawa Construction News.

By Bill Caswell

Special to Ottawa Construction News

Books, universities and consultants, ad nauseum, tell us what to do to run our businesses. Most executives know a lot about business, quite a lot. So, no one needs an ivory-towered intellectual to re-state what we already have a good handle on. But there are essential features of running a business that are not common knowledge, items that are every bit as much a key to success as those we mastered long ago.

I refer to these thoughts as the three tool kits. Since most companies control only one of the three tool kits, many enterprises fail to achieve what they believe they could.

The first tool kit for business success has constituents that we already know about; so, let’s not waste too much time on them. The second tool kit contains surprises for most businesspeople – hence, they will be the focus of this paper. The third tool kit is plain, simple, luck. Let’s delve into all three:

1. Things that most of us know

Here is just a listing of the obvious, so that we can move quickly onto the lesser known.  Most of us realize that to be successful we have to:

• Work hard
• Be clever
• Be willing to take calculated risks
• Never give up
• Create a product or service that meets the needs of enough people
• Be strategic about pricing
• Have a good means to reach out to our prospects
• Know how to pick the right people for our employ
• Know how to keep staff engaged
• Plan ahead
• Establish a clear mission for the company
• Introduce an organized discipline mechanism (ISO, Six Sigma, Lean, CCCC, etc.)

2. Things that many businesspeople do not know

While a brief paper cannot hope to reveal all the details of the unknown, at least it can note the items that should be addressed by enterprises.

• Chaos theory – It instructs us how to proceed to, and succeed with, the unknown
• How to reduce people conflict – We must have working tools to minimize conflict because of the fact that all people will have conflicts.
• Emotions work against business success – Defusing emotions leads the fastest way to solutions, and business is nothing more than finding solutions.
• Solve problems in a way that gets down to root causes – Problems that occur every day are the sand-in-the-gears that must be systematically removed. First, we must have the courage to identify tense problems. Then, to eradicate them, once and for all, we need to get to root causes of problems. For that, we attack with both a timely and a constant effort. Only by continuous problem solving can the enterprise’s gears operate smoothly, i.e. be sand free.
• Companies evolve to grow and die – You should know which of 10 stages your company is at. Can you chart a path to arrive at the next positive level and ensure a strategy that avoids falling back down the evolutionary trail?
• You can (and should) increase profits indirectly – While accountants attempt to trim expenses to boost profits, two simple considerations can double or even triple your profits: (a) an unending drive to solve problems and (b) a constant effort at increasing co-operation.
• How to increase co-operation and teamwork? – Since humans are built to co-operate, what are the demons that prevent people within your enterprise from co-operating consistently?
• How to fully delegate – What is needed for you to take the risk to trust someone else to assume one of your complicated tasks? Only by delegating can you grow your position, and thus, your company. Failure to delegate restricts growth.
• How to avoid conflictive structures – Some structures are damaging from the outset.
• Why businesses fail – All failures stem from one simple cause: lack of listening. How do you listen to, and read, the jungle drums of your enterprise and your environment? You can set up a dozen listening mechanisms that work. Which are they?
• Reacting to hard business times – When your business economy declines, you need follow only two rules: (a) Continue to ensure the quality of your goods. (b) Focus on finding ways to sell more. (Wasting time cutting costs is like lining up the deck chairs on the Titanic.)
• There is a formula to ensure planned actions actually occur, without which tasks will remain unfulfilled – If you do not have three factors in place, actions will, out of necessity, fail to be completed.
• Ensure there is suitable follow-up – Follow-up tools keep important issues from hanging out in the wind.
• Maintain sufficient communications throughout the organization – If we don’t communicate well, large and small failures become more frequent than the enterprise can afford.
• Merging new enterprises into the old is about nurturing the new member to continue on its path, not forcing it onto your existing, established path.

3. What else do we need?

The third tool kit centres on luck, defined as being in the right place at the right time. Its importance can be huge, although our ability to control it, is not possible. Do not rest with the naïve assumption that by being aggressive or opportunistic we can control our luck.

How to pick up this hidden knowledge

You can reach out to various books and studies to learn about the importance of the hidden constituents of the second tool kit. (As it happens, one answer lies in the CCCC, seven-day, live, Practical MBA with graduate certification, which takes place in May 2021.)

Good luck in your studies, irrespective of how you go about them.

Bill Caswell leads the Caswell Corporate Coaching Company (CCCC) in Ottawa, www.caswellccc.com or email bi**@********cc.com.

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