01 -44 RENEW MAY-JUNE25 PT - Flipbook - Page 38
PEOPLE & EVENTS
EVENTS
QUEBEC CITY
(L to R)
Sarah BockstaelAnderson and
John Bockstael,
Bockstael
Construction,
present the Calgary
Construction
Association’s
Bill Black and
Shane Beazley
with the CCA
Partner Association
Award.
38
HE CANADIAN CONSTRUCTION ASSOCIATION (CCA) held its 2025
Annual Conference in Québec City at the historic Château Frontenac. During the four-day event, the
CCA held its Annual General Meeting and National
Advisory Council meetings.
Freelance political journalist Chantal Hébert
kicked things o昀昀 with an insightful keynote address exploring the evolving Canadian political scene.
With a new Liberal Party leader expected to be at the
helm, Hébert examined the challenges and opportunities
facing Canada’s new leadership, including potential shifts
in policy direction and the upcoming federal election, likely
to be called as soon as Parliament returns.
Hébert discussed how this election could reshape the
political landscape, and on the impact of Donald Trump’s
tari昀昀s, she stated: “There are no wars that make no
casualties.”
One of the many panels during the event focused on
cutting-edge approaches to designing disaster-resilient
infrastructure and the role of the construction industry in
emergency response.
“Change and mitigate before the response,” said Ken McMullen, chief of emergency services for the City of Red Deer
and president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, in
explaining how in Europe the emphasis is on prevention,
with 90 per cent of every dollar is spent on prevention, “the
exact opposite of what happens here in North America.”
T
RENEW CANADA – MAY/JUNE 2025
Jason Lum, a city councillor with the City of
Chilliwack, cautioned the audience about municipalities
putting “all their eggs in one basket” when it comes to
protecting their communities. “We must be more agile in
how we plan and how we build,” he said.
Melanie Pigeon, senior director, Expertise, Engineering
and Standardization with Hydro-Quebec discussed how
the increase in electricity demand in her province will
see capacity tripled, with 60 new substations and 5,000
kilometres of new transmission lines built to transfer
the required power from northern Quebec to the powerconsuming southern region.
Another panel discussed Canada’s ambition to
diversify its trade partnerships, which will demand
world-class infrastructure and logistics, and the role
Canada’s construction sector can play in building trade
enabling infrastructure that supports global market
access.
The threat and reality of U.S. tari昀昀s will mean more
scrutiny of foreign capital, including from the U.S., said
Dr. Neil Campbell, partner with McMillan LLP. “They
may no longer be looked on as a good source of capital as
they once were in the past.”
A lot of discussion has been centred on reducing interprovincial trade barriers as a way to blunt the e昀昀ects of U.S.
tari昀昀s, but according to Campbell, “because of the size of
our market, diversi昀椀cation is the real way to 昀椀ght tari昀昀s.”
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