The Landscape of Canadian Construction

November 8, 2012

The landscape of Canadian Construction

A message from Mark Casaletto, V.P. and General Manager, Reed Construction Data Canada

Mark Casaletto

Mark Casaletto
V.P. and General Manager,
Reed Construction Data, Canada

Whether in these pages or on worksites nationwide, any snapshot of the Canadian leaders in construction will show three distinct qualities that make a company stand out: a strong company culture, the willingness to innovate and being as good as your word.

The landscape of Canadian construction over the past year demonstrates that whether it is a megaproject in the oilsands of Alberta, transit infrastructure in Ontario or an energy project in Newfoundland, strong leadership and thorough planning are essential to meet the demands of the domestic construction boom.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) anticipates that Canadian infrastructure building activity will grow at more than two and a half times the rate of the previous five years. Canada will emerge from this decade as the fifth-largest construction market in the world. PwC concluded that new builds are expected to attract increased private investment and that Canada has established itself, on the world stage, as a very successful pipeline for privately financed infrastructure investments.

Who will rise among the Canadian construction stakeholders to help meet this demand and showcase the ingenuity, expertise and skills inherent to Canada’s construction industry?

To answer that question, just as construction needs to adapt to factors like changing labour supply and economic pressures, we have adapted in order to best highlight leading Canadian construction companies in this year’s The Leaders.

We decided to reach out to the industry and have you tell us who you see as worthy of “leader” status in Canadian construction. A nomination campaign we launched in March 2012 generated interesting dialogue and debate in the industry about what makes a company a “leader.” In this year’s issue, one of the companies who generated a tremendous amount of feedback from owners, financiers, subtrades and project partners during the campaign, was ultimately profiled.

Also, in this year’s issue, we’ve gone beyond the usually anticipated profiles of leading national, west and east construction companies and paid a visit to two companies who’ve donned our cover as leaders before. In ever-changing construction and economic landscapes, we wanted to know how these past leaders have fared since we last spoke to them. We hope you’ll enjoy these profiles under the titles of Leaders Revisited.

What is in store for Canadian construction? Peter Hall of Export Development Canada recently noted that over the next 10 years, there are 600 major projects on the Canadian books, representing spending of $650 billion and the creation of 800,000 net new jobs. Hall believes Canada is on the “leading edge of a building binge.” The companies featured in the 2012 edition of The Leaders are already at the leading edge in the industry. They have consistently delivered for their clients while building innovative teams and workflows, adapting to new technology and project models and establishing company cultures that build excellence. We tip our hats to these leaders with continued excitement for what lies ahead in Canadian construction in this, our sixth edition, of The Leaders.

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