"365 Chances to Make a Difference"

A new year has begun and that means that we now have a blank canvas in front of us. This new "clean slate” offers each of us 365 separate and distinct opportunities to grow, change and advance, both professionally and personally. Some of us may continue advancing from our goals and aspirations of last year, but for most it is a chance at making a change. The changes you make may be minute, but can also carry significant impact.

Regardless of the change, when you focus on a potential goal or outcome, divide it out to its overall component parts and then lay out a plan on how to implement on a daily basis. Then anything is possible and, more importantly, achievable.

What I have just noted is not a new concept, especially for the ICI Construction sector, since this is how we approach and calculate how to achieve the completion of every project.

Let’s look at what matters to people in the ICI Construction sector and see if this analysis holds true.

Firstly, I want to begin by actually carrying over one of the most important topics that we closed out 2022 with as the starting point for 2023. Health and safety and ensuring that each and every worker gets home safely at the end of each day.

Our chosen vocation may be viewed as potentially hazardous, but as long as our workers are educated, informed and properly trained, it is no more hazardous than other careers. Knowing about potential hazards, highlighting them and either eliminating them or providing ways to work around said hazards are the key to ensuring worker safety. This is not anything that is new to our sector, since we can proudly note that we have the best safety rating, as reported by the WSIB, than any sector in construction and actually safer than Schedule 1 employers.

What does that mean?

It means that our worksites may be safer than some hospitals for the potential hazards that we face. But remember that everything is relative, and if it only takes a split second for a worker to be hurt or even worse. Our continued focus on health and safety is not an option but a must.

As I know all of our contractors will do, please remember to continually reinforce all aspects of health and safety with your workers each and every day. We are now back from some seasonal holidays and perhaps a reminder about looking out for each other is important to place everyone firm back to the task at hand.

Secondly, remember that construction does not happen in isolation, but is at its best when we continually foster and build our relationships with other industry stakeholders towards the targeted common goal. This means that companies will need to reset alignments within their own ranks to ensure that everyone is on the same page towards the completion of a project. This also carries true with our expanded supply chain, since without the necessary products being delivered to site, our skilled labour cannot carry out the installation and build aspect that is construction.

OGCA contractors recognize and appreciate the longstanding relationships that they have with their suppliers and other industry supporters like the surety, legal and engineering components that provide secondary or tertiary support to every project. The key to fostering these relationships is communication. Just as our suppliers communicated about the difficulties that they have experienced, and hopefully have completely sorted out, over the supply chain these last two years, so must we all realize that there are still lingering aftereffects that need our mutual work.

As reported by BuildForce Canada, the supply chain issues that manifested in 2022 may unfortunately continue throughout 2023. Understandably, this will depend on the individual product, but as we all know, construction needs clarity and foresight in when something will be delivered to schedule the necessary implementation or installation. A simple solution is constant and daily communication of the industry stakeholders and suppliers, if there is going to be a potential issue, please communicate this early enough for all parties to establish an adequate work around. As I noted, construction does not happen in isolation.

The final point I will table for this article is on labour force shortages. Some people see the start of a new year as the opportunity for them to change. Change jobs, companies or industries. This is not new to construction since there is always some motion within the sector between companies, but the real benefit is when we are successful in attracting new workers from other industries that may have not, at first, thought of construction as a potential avenue for advancement.

The OGCA will continue to focus our efforts on attracting more people to construction as a viable career destination. Through the Pathways to ICI program, our overreaching goal is to communicate to and prepare potential new graduates and new comers to Canada that construction should be their first choice. We want to elevate construction as a destination instead of a job. This goal is truly something that the OGCA team works on daily since it is so impactful for our industry and something that our members have communicated must be done for the longevity of our industry.

As you know, I could address a plethora of potential topics that can allow for each of us 365 separate and distinct opportunities to grow, change and advance, but I will leave these three as the main focuses for now.

I wish each of you a very Happy New Year and I hope that 2023 offers you all much health, good communication and unbounding opportunities!

Should any member have any questions about the topic raised in this article, or if you require any assistance from the OGCA, please contact me directly at giovanni@ogca.ca or via phone at 905.671.3969.