The Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, launched an engagement paper on Canada’s first national infrastructure assessment.

Building the Canada We Want in 2050 sets out the purpose and benefits of undertaking a national infrastructure assessment and seeks input from the public, Indigenous Peoples, provinces, territories, municipalities, and stakeholders on three main priorities:

• assessing Canada’s infrastructure needs and establishing a long-term vision,
• improving coordination among infrastructure owners and funders, and
• determining the best ways to fund and finance infrastructure.

MCA Canada is inviting members to submit any feedback to the association by emailing Ken Lancastle.

MCA Canada is pleased to offer two webinars for our members in the coming weeks.

March 25: Analyzing Project-Specific Loss of Productivity

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, contractors are faced with the challenge and need to qualify their bids to address ongoing pandemic impacts and supply chain issues.

This webinar will explore different methodologies to analyze loss of labour productivity, and how contractors can ensure those costs are understood and addressed.

April 7: Where Do We Go From Here? – Labour Market Forecast Presented by BuildForce Canada

Each year, BuildForce Canada releases a series of labour market information reports on Canada’s construction industry, outlining the needs of the sector across the country and the trends impacting the industry.

BuildForce Canada’s economist Bob Collins will share some of the recent findings from this year’s reports, including where gaps exist in the mechanical contracting sector, an economic and investment outlook, and an assessment of labour availability for trades and occupations over a 10-year period.

We need to attract more workers to a career in the trades. With the current aging workforce, we are on the precipice of not having enough jobs filled. Looking to the younger generation is one way to solve our current dilemma. But to do this, the stigma that surrounds the trades needs to be eliminated.

“Unfortunately, there is still that stigma. In order to break it, I think it’s about communication and education,” says Julie Zulich, Co-CEO/president of TESC Contracting Group and committee chair of MCAC Women in Mechanical Construction. “Not everybody is built for academia and some would rather be working with their hands. I think promoting that in a positive light and getting rid of that public perception that construction is not a professional career is key.”

A career in the trades provides a challenging opportunity for those that love to work with their hands and stay on their toes.

Check out the first episode of Trades Talk – Attracting Youth to the Trades, and watch for more episodes as they’re released.

 Source: HistoryNet.com 

1657: France and England form an alliance against Spain.
1743: Handel's Messiah is performed for the first time in London.
1752: Canada’s first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, is printed by John Bushell.
1775: American revolutionary hero Patrick Henry, while addressing the House of Burgesses, declares "give me liberty, or give me death!"
1857: Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.
1858: Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patents the cable street car, which runs on overhead cables.
1880: John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing mill. This mill allows flour production to increase by 70 per cent.
1903: The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent.
1909: British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole.
1921: Arthur G. Hamilton sets a new parachute record, safely jumping 24,400 feet.
1927: Captain Hawthorne Gray sets a new balloon record soaring to 28,510 feet.
1933: The Reichstag gives Adolf Hitler the power to rule by decree.
1967: Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. calls the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement.
1970: Mafia boss Carlo Gambino is arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.
1972: The United States calls a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris.