CCA Updates
Lena Hogarth
Briefing- City Council Approves 2022 Budget
Last week, Calgary City Council adjusted the 2022 One Calgary Service Plans and Budget. The following is a summary of the potential impacts on Calgary’s local construction industry: Downtown Revitalization: City Council approved $55M further downtown revitalization programs, as outlined in the Greater Downtown Plan. This is on top of the $45M already committed to redevelopment grants and will be distributed as rebates to approved programs. To date, five projects have been granted the “go-head” for office conversion and redevelopment. According to reports, this new funding will help six projects take up 790,000 square feet of vacant office space, bringing...
Social Procurement Overview
This week (Nov 23rd) 17 industry folks attended our inaugural Social Procurement Overview session hosted by Sarah Aspinall of BgSD Consulting . Social Procurement is well established in other parts of the world and is gaining momentum so it will continue to be a more common practice. Just like sustainability has evolved to become more common practice since the formative days of LEED in the early 2000’s this is likely to become a common practice and those who understand it first have an advantage. During the session we discussed many of the myths or misconceptions that can often lead to...
UCalgary academic leader inducted into National Academy of Construction
via University of Calgary Dr. Janaka Ruwanpura, vice-provost and associate vice-president of research (international) at the University of Calgary, was recently inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Construction for his outstanding contributions to the construction industry. The citation of his election describes Dr. Ruwanpura as an “esteemed university leader with an international reputation for excellence in project management and best practices research and creator of collaborative degrees and funding models for students.” Ruwanpura, as a longtime professor of civil engineering in the Schulich School of Engineering, is the fourth Canadian and first Calgarian to receive this honour among hundreds of...
Briefing Note: Calgary City Council Declares Climate Emergency – What Does This Mean for Calgary’s Construction Industry?
Summary: On November 15, 2021, Calgary City Council declared a climate emergency. Other cities in Canada that have already declared climate emergencies include Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Specific calls to action of the Notice of Motion include: Updating the city-wide corporate GHGs reduction target to net-zero by 2050; Moving the City to develop strategic business plans and budgets across ALL departments that will invest in and accelerate high priority emission reduction and climate risk reduction opportunities; Advocating for funding from all orders of government to accelerate immediate and near-term actions to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce climate...
Alberta posts highest construction levels in years, but supply chain woes impede projects
via CBC News by Bryan Labby Home-building disruptions trigger higher costs, delays and frustration A framer puts together part of a new home being built in southeast Calgary. The supply chain disruption has affected the price of homes and how long it takes to build them in Calgary. (Bryan Labby/CBC) Pedro Ocana says he’s lost three customers, at least temporarily, as the supply chain disruptions, project timelines and price increases have impacted his custom-home building business in Calgary. The president of Sunset Homes says those customers are waiting until the uncertainty and unpredictability affecting many aspects of the construction industry subside. “They want certainty of...
Amazon cloud computing division to open second Canadian hub in Calgary region
via The Canadian Press Amazon says it plans to open a second cloud-computing server hub in Canada in late 2023 that will result in billions of dollars of investments in the coming years. Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, says the new hub will be based in the Calgary region to provide better service to Western Canada. Its other hub is located in the Montreal area. The company would not say how many Amazon employees will work directly at the new server cluster, but says the project will sustain an estimated annual average of 409 direct jobs by 2037...
City of Calgary COVID-19 Contractor and Volunteer Vaccination Policy Compliance
As anticipated The City of Calgary has just approved and published the COVID-19 Contractor and Volunteer Vaccination Policy. The safety of employees, contractors, volunteers, and citizens is a top priority for The City of Calgary. The policy is intended to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. This will minimize serious illness and severe outcomes related to the spread of COVID-19 while minimizing workplace disruption. You can visit the webpage for more information. Effective December 01, 2021, contractors (including subcontractors), suppliers and volunteers performing work for The City must be fully vaccinated or obtain a...
CCA at the Movies! Draw Winners
Thank you again to Reggin Industries for sponsoring our first CCA at the Movies on October 27th! If you attended hopefully you had a chance to stop by the Reggin table and pick up a complimentary bottle opener and entered the Reggin Business Card Draw! The prizes are a James Bond collectors magazine and James Bond collectors plaque. The luck winners of these Bond prizes are: Katelyn Smith- Office Concepts Richard Heine- Centron John Herasymiuk- Berkshire Contracting Congrats to all three winners! It was a great evening and we hope to see you at the next one!
About Contract Mirroring or Back – To – Back Contracts in The Construction Industry
Arianna Carlotti, Goodfellow & Schuettlaw Call it contract mirroring or back – to – back contracts, at the end of the day the essence is the same: it finds its origin in the subcontracting chain and it boils it down to cascading liability for the work executed or subcontracted. Depending on the kind of project, general contractors hire one or more subcontractors, who, in turn, hire sub-subcontractors to complete parts of the project. The general contractor stays liable to the owner of the project for the full extent of the project, even for the portion of the work subcontracted to...
New CCA Director of Government Relations Role
As Calgary stands at the threshold of our next chapter with a new Mayor and City Council in place, the prospect of a major downtown strategy including an Events Centre, Arts Commons and Green Line LRT, combined with aspirations of economic diversification and a long-awaited post pandemic recovery, we at CCA could not be more inspired. While there are many challenges within this diverse list, there are even more opportunities and, with such a broad range of issues to contend with, there is no doubt that we will have our hands full. We believe that our industry and our members...