Up to the challenge

The largest provincial infrastructure and construction business community in Canada - the?Ontario General Contractor's Association?- came together in-person for the first time in two years to showcase the strength of the industry and its importance to jobs and the economy.?The big ideas that stand-out for me about the state of the industry focus on new people, everlasting commitment to health and safety, and new ways of doing business.

The symposium of industry leaders confirmed there are a massive number of projects and unprecedented amount of investment happening in Ontario. The companies that build in Ontario and their trades and supply chain partners are up to the challenge. Here's why.

1. People - The industry is changing. There is a generational shift. While there is concern about the supply of skilled trades, there are younger people from more diverse backgrounds coming in. The misperceptions, stigmas, biases and barriers to skilled trades as a career are being turned on their head (in part?thanks?for organizations like Skills Ontario that I am proud to serve as a board member). Also, the mindset of sector leaders is more determined to have meaningful involvement and inclusion of women and other diverse populations. The people in the industry are slowly starting to look more like the society we live in. The best thing is that the top industry leaders know this has to change more and faster. As well, to further expand the capacity for a new generation of talent, the focus is on making skilled trades a respected, high-paying and life-long career path for young people. The sooner that kids and teenagers - and their parents - know about this in their learning years the more talent that can be attracted to work in infrastructure.?

2. Health and safety - It goes without saying that building things can be dangerous. And the industry also has safety built into its DNA.?Health and safety is more than a safety moment.?The physical safety of anyone on a job site is paramount. The additional focus on health in its broadest sense - from keeping people as protected as possible during the pandemic to recognizing the mental health of team members - is central to success. The perception of the hard-nose work-ethic of people in the industry is now balanced with an appreciation that good companies care about their people. Health and safety is a practice and a value, but it is also a value proposition for the best companies.

3. New ways of doing business - The collaboration, integration, alliance, progressive models of doing projects are everywhere. The new ways of doing things, both with private and public sector project owners, are intended to make the development of projects very competitive but more collaborative. Basically this allows early advanced work on the design and construction plan for a project before final price and contract. The drivers for this are variable from better engagement between client and potential developer, ideally lower pursuit costs and shorter timelines during the development phase, and less adversarial relationships without compromising on accountability. This can also deal with smarter risk-sharing not imbalanced risk-transfer. In a time when inflation costs are a real project risk to all involved, and generally something beyond the control of any company at a project level, it changes the dynamic to consider more than just up-front and locked-in price, rather to focus on long-term co-benefits.?

If you put these all together, the sector is going through a generational skills, talent and labour shift, emerging from a pandemic while keeping its uncompromising commitment to health and safety, and the ways of developing projects and winning business are being reinvented not staying stuck in the status quo. There's no doubt the industry is up to the challenge of building the billions of dollars of infrastructure that Ontario needs.?

I am also reflecting on some other evolutions and emerging dynamics that the industry (and their client, government and labour partners) will have to deal with. The stretched public sector budgets, climate pressures and sustainability practices in the private sector, and the push for all things green innovation and low-carbon economy are all part of the industry of tomorrow. More on that to come.