👷‍♀️ Room for growth

Together with

Good morning! 🧸 What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever found on site? Crews in New Brunswick recently uncovered a cache of antique Victorian doll parts while conducting a building assessment on a 141-year-old house. Spooked by the dolls’ cracked porcelain faces and speculating they were placed there as a tradition for good luck, workers promptly put them back.

⏰ Today’s read: 5 minutes

MARKETS

*Stock data as of last market close; currency, oil and crypto data as of 11:20PM ET March 4th, 2024.

Economy: Mining experts say underperforming commodity prices of critical minerals are creating a challenging environment for junior mining companies to get projects underway. According to data from TMX Group and PDAC, the share of money going to mineral exploration from the overall amount of money raised by the mining industry equity has been decreasing for three years in a row.

THE BIG STORY

Celebrating women in construction

It’s Women in Construction Week, a time to highlight and promote the role of women in the construction industry. The good news is that it’s a demographic that is on the rise, but there is still much more work to be done. 

Room to grow Here’s where we stand. In Canada, women make up just under 13% of the construction industry workforce. That number is only 4.7% when looking at women in the trades. In the U.S., women make up 11% of employees in the industry and less than 4% are in the trades.

More than money: According to a recent survey of more than 700 women working in construction, salary is a great way to get them in the door, but for long-term retention, they want more.

• Sponsorship not mentorship - Women in the survey said they don’t need more mentorship, they need access to the same opportunities and support (what they defined as ‘sponsorship’) that they see their male counterparts receive, including high-profile tasks, intros to key stakeholders, inclusion in high-level meetings and more. 

• Work-life balance -  When asked what is most important to them when considering taking a job, women across sectors and roles overwhelmingly ranked work-life balance as most important. But 45% or respondents said they were uncomfortable or hesitant to ask an employer for schedule adjustments to tend to their family. 

• Opportunities to advance: Survey respondents who were new to construction ranked salary as their top priority but those beyond one year of experience overwhelmingly ranked career advancement as their top priority when choosing an employer. 88% of respondents stated they are in or would like to be a leader during their career.

Ears open: There is little mystery now as to what women want from the construction sector. They are telling us. While great strides have been made to increase female participation, let’s see how much further we can go. The study’s authors encouraged employers looking to hire more women to embrace sponsorship, prioritize work-life balance and demonstrate opportunities for advancement. 

Reply to this email: Women in construction, let us know your thoughts on how the industry can better attract underrepresented groups.

TOGETHER WITH STORMTEC WATER MANAGEMENT

Making waves: Stormtec celebrates 20 years

Reputation is everything in construction. For service provider Stormtec Water Management, reputation has connected it with the nation’s largest contractors, secured it work on multi-billion dollar mega projects, grown its workforce to more than 90 and carried it to its 20th anniversary. Click on the link below to read our story about Stormtec’s major milestone and how it got there.

NEED TO KNOW

The week's headlines

💰 Finance Minister Chystia Freeland announced the federal budget will be released April 16. She noted that it will focus on building more homes faster, making life more affordable and creating more good jobs. Freeland's fall economic statement previously projected a budget deficit of $38.4 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.

🤠 Alberta’s budget is out. Officials are adding incentives to attract more workers, increasing funding for training providers, building 10 new schools and boosting support for the Red Deer Hospital project. However some were critical that it did not provide more for infrastructure. 

🏗️ Saskatchewan has its eyes on modular construction. Housing Minister Jill Green told reporters that modular building is a growing, cost-effective way to get units built faster. The province noted that the approach is still new for its industry so investment in its supply chain is still needed. 

⚓ Aecon and Pomerleau have partnered up for the Contrecœur Terminal Expansion project in-water works under a Progressive Design-Build approach. The overall port expansion project will add 1.15 million containers per year. The total project budget is roughly $1.4 billion.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

Harnessing heat

Nothing goes to waste at the 34-acre Zibi development in Ottawa. The Zibi district energy system uses industrial waste heat from a local paper plant to heat 615,000 square feet of residential and office space. The system uses a network of water pipes to harness the heating for warming the buildings and hot water; it also offers cooling in the summer using water from the Ottawa River. Once fully built out over the coming decade, it will be home to more than 5,000.

PROJECT UPDATES

• 46-storey rental housing and hotel tower proposal suspended

• Atria breaks ground on Town Centre Place

• Lake Lousie Drive work could begin this spring

• Trans Mountain’s latest cost estimate is up

• Alberta budget funds 10 new school projects

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

PHOTOS: 📏 Plans revealed for 2 km-high skyscraper

READ: 🗽 Canadian pension fund sells NYC tower for $1

PHOTOS: 👀 Take a 360-degree photo tour of this Alberta cancer centre 

READ: 🌍 Cadillac Fairview launches decarbonization initiative

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Here’s to a great rest of the week!