Construction Industry Covid-19 Response- By Bill Black
After nearly 40 years in the industry and having seen so much become somewhat confrontational over the last decade, I have never been prouder to work with some of our industry’s best leaders in what has to be one of the most significant examples of collaboration I have ever experienced.
In the weeks leading up to March 15th all in the Construction Industry were tracking how COVID was spreading. They knew that it was only a matter of time before it would impact us in Calgary. With major events cancelling the week or two prior and other developments elsewhere they saw the pattern progressing and then when the province announced school closures on the Sunday – we were “live”.
The Calgary Construction Association (CCA) immediately reached out to a number of local industry leaders and early on March 18th, a group of over 25 local construction leaders assembled via Zoom to discuss the overall situation as an industry. There were senior leadership and business owners on the call that spanned a range of large to smaller sized organizations including general contractors, trades and suppliers.
With construction projects being closed down throughout cities in the US and with other provinces raising similar questions associated with site safety concerns related to COVID, they knew that this would be a key factor in the industry being