🚀 Female leaders

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Good morning! 🧠 AI can’t take care of itself. The Biden administration is asking leaders from AI companies, hyperscalers, data center operators, and utilities to brainstorm ways to tackle the country's infrastructure needs for AI projects.

⏰ Today’s read: 4 minutes

MARKETS

*Stock data as of last market close; currency, oil and crypto data as of 9:30 PM ET Sept 23rd, 2024.

Economy:  Should you pack your bags for the prairies? Saskatchewan recorded the lowest year-over-year inflation rate among provinces in August at just 1.1%, compared to the national average of 2.0%. The province's economic growth is also highlighted by a substantial rise in building permits and low utility costs, with initiatives such as tax exemptions and affordability programs helping keep the cost of living low. The government credits these measures for fostering a strong economy, marked by low unemployment, affordable utilities, and significant private capital investment.

THE BIG STORY

The women of 40 Under 40 2024

Breaking barriers: The women of 40 Under 40

Directors, project managers, architects, law firm partners and more—we wanted to take a moment and highlight the incredible women who were selected for this year’s Top 40 Under 40 in Canadian Construction. 

This year’s female winners: 

Sarah Reeves, Director, Geocycle Canada, Lafarge Canada

Nadia Todorova, Executive Director, RCCAO

Mallory Zimmerman, Project Director, Novacom

Lyndsey Shaw, Project Manager, Ledcor Construction 

Krista Chisholm, Infrastructure Health & Safety Manager, NorLand

Kayla Murrell, Architect, WZMH Architects

Chelsea A. Wilson, Partner, Dentons

Catherine Gleason-Mercier, Partner, Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel

Room to improve: Women remain significantly underrepresented in the construction industry. As of 2019, women made up only about 13% of the total construction workforce. This is even more pronounced when looking at tradespeople, where women account for a mere 4.7% of the workforce. 

Winning strategies: Seema Lal, president of Canadian Construction Women explained that women tend to be more heavily represented in administrative/project management roles because construction sites often lack accessible female-focussed hygiene options and have a male-dominant culture. Changing this could bump those numbers up. 

Learn more about this year’s female leaders in the link below.

NEED TO KNOW

The week's headlines

🤝 Done deal: B.C., in partnership with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh (MST) Nations, has launched the Attainable Housing Initiative to help middle-income, first-time homebuyers purchase homes below market value. This project, involving the construction of 2,600 homes on Vancouver’s Heather Lands, offers buyers a 99-year leasehold with a 60/40 financing arrangement, where the buyer finances 60% and the province covers the remaining 40%, to be repaid upon resale or after 25 years.

🚃 End of the line: Calgary city council has voted to terminate the Green Line LRT project after the provincial government withdrew its funding, leaving the city with more than $2.1 billion in costs. This includes $1.3 billion already spent and an estimated $850 million to wind down the project. Over 800 staff members will be laid off. 

🎒 Class act: Alberta’s government is investing $8.6 billion to create 200,000 new student spaces across the province over the next seven years. This initiative includes both the construction of new schools and the modernization of existing ones. The province said the work will help address rapid population growth. 

🚧 Road work ahead: The City of Toronto's new traffic management plan targets construction as a major cause of congestion, with 47% of road closures attributed to construction work. The plan emphasizes improved coordination, faster job completion, and tougher enforcement for delays. Proposed measures include increased fees for street occupation, incentivizing to finish projects faster, and reviewing emergency utility work classifications to reduce unnecessary closures. 

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

Museum milestone

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto has been open for 10 years this month. Designed by Maki and Associates and Moriyama Teshima Architects, the Aga Khan Museum is an initiative of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network.

PROJECT UPDATES

Ontario announces improvements to Highway 401

Manitoba backs Canada’s largest arctic char facility

All Stations completed for Finch West LRT

B.C.’s NDP plans to build 300,000 middle class homes

New Fort St. James health facility nears completion

Want more? Check out the latest full edition of Project Pulse in the link below.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

LIST: 📦 12 construction suppliers keeping Canada stocked

READ: ⚡ BC Hydro overwhelmed by clean power bids

AWARDS: 🏆 Nominations are open for the CCA Awards

READ:  🚜 Farmers revolt against Ontario industrial megasites

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Here’s to a great rest of the week!

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