🔋 Talent Thursdays: Power hungry

Together with

Good morning!  ✈️ Airbus Canada just received a massive order of 150 A220 jets that will require them to eventually crank out 13 per year. Here’s what it takes to build one of these flying behemoths: over 4,000 tradespeople, carbon-fiber composites for the wings, clean-room environments, robotic riveting systems and 3 million individual parts.

📈 BY THE NUMBERS

A new report from RBC highlights that Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) can deliver homes 50% faster and 40% cheaper than traditional builds, offering a solution to a 37.3% decline in construction productivity since 2001.

TOGETHER WITH PROCORE

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👷‍♀️ PEOPLE MOVES

Jean-François Bolduc, P.Eng., MBA, has been appointed President of Groupe Colas Québec Inc.

Irfan Shariff has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer at Hungerford Properties. 

Yasir Ali has joined Horizon Contracting Group as Vice President of Operations after more than 7 years at Turner Construction.

Patrick Beauger has transitioned into a new role as VP, Strategic Business Development for Veolia North America where he will lead the identification and execution of large, complex cross-business unit deals across North America.

Taylor Dee has departed from QM Environmental after nearly 8 years with the company, He says he will be announcing his next career move in the coming weeks. 

Jeffrey Malo has been promoted to Director, Preconstruction - Northern Ontario at EllisDon.

Joshua Pereira has been promoted to Operations Manager for Manitoba at Flynn Group of Companies, where he will lead the Construction Division.

Laura Weston has joined EllisDon as Director, Labour Relations and Legal Counsel.

Owen Thrasher is joining Bird Construction to work on Bruce Power's Major Component Replacement program in Kincardine, Ontario.

Danika Agarwal is now Brand + Proposal Coordinator at ETRO Construction. After three months in the role, she has been contributing to meaningful projects including work on BC Place in preparation for the upcoming FIFA games.

Kathleen Boyd, P.Eng has joined Pomerleau as a leader focused on bidding complex, large-scale civil and infrastructure projects, after seven years at KPMG Canada.

Allnorth has strengthened its Pulp & Paper team with the addition of industry subject matter experts, Ryno Eksteen and Jacques du Plessis.

Seven MCABC members elected to the association’s NextGen Board of Directors: Scott Kenward (Trotter & Morton) as Past Chair, Mic Cagnoni (Phase Mechanical Systems), Tayler Hinger (Victaulic), Pierre Huneault (ProWest Sales), Will Schwarz (UA Piping Industry College of BC), Shelby Sullivan (Sullivan Mechanical), and Eddie Vaughan (Vaughan Ventures)

Desa Duric has been appointed Vice President, Operations, Facilities Services at EllisDon.

Rhianon Chow has been promoted to Project Development Lead - Buildings at Turner Construction Canada.

Mike Carter-Conneen is now Sr. Director of External Affairs for CarbonCure Technologies.

Shawn D'Souza has been promoted to Senior Human Resources Business Partner at Ledcor.

Ana Costa has started a new position as Member Services Coordinator at BC Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association.

EVENTS

Next week, CALIBRATED comes to Vancouver

May 13th at the Vancouver Club — a one-day leadership experience for women across construction, and industrial sectors. Executive presence. Biological performance. Systemic leadership. A room full of people who understand what it means to lead in this industry.

If you haven't registered yet — you're in luck. A final release of tickets is officially available.

🗞 HEADLINES

🚘 Pumping the brakes: Honda is reportedly suspending its $15-billion electric vehicle and battery plant project in Ontario indefinitely, a move driven by cooling market demand and "unjustified" U.S. tariffs that have disrupted the North American automotive sector.

⚛️ Foundational: At the Darlington New Nuclear Project in Ontario, construction crews reached a historic milestone by installing a 2.1-million-pound basemat module with millimeter precision, marking the first new nuclear reactor foundation in the province in over 30 years. 

🚧 Contract over: The Yukon government and Graham Infrastructure LP have mutually terminated their contract for the Nisutlin Bay Bridge replacement project, shifting the territory’s largest capital undertaking into a remediation phase to address technical hurdles. 

💻 Data centre team: Bell Canada has commenced early site works on its 300-megawatt "Bell AI Fabric" data centre near Regina, finalizing a project team led by Saskatchewan-based firms to develop what will be Canada’s largest purpose-built AI facility. 

🤝 Indigenous partnership: Bird Construction and Marten Falls First Nation have formed Piinahzii Limited Partnership, a majority Indigenous-owned joint venture focused on delivering community-led infrastructure projects within the nation’s traditional territory. 

🧠 INSIGHTS AND LEADERSHIP

Resources for professional development

• Tech neck? Try this Formula 1 driver workout

• Almost everything you need to know about angle grinders

• Defining yourself by your career is a problem

• Here’s how Sam Altman takes notes

• Work with your hands? Read these 5 books

💬 QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I think we are a long way away from a robot installing duct work or a toilet in a residential building. If any industry is going to be the last impacted by AI, construction would be one of them. You need boots on the ground to do the work.” Heather Cruickshanks, chair of the Institute of Skilled trades at NSCC.

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Here’s to a great rest of the week!

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