May 2013 Business in Edmonton

May 2013 $3.50 businessinedmonton.com

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF NORTHERN AB AND NWT

HONOURS THREE EDMONTON BUSINESSMEN FOR INSPIRING GREATNESS Harold Roozen, Allan Olson and Frank Spinelli are Junior Achievement Inductees.

The Mammoth Move

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

IKE and Brian Gifford Find Creative Ways to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

An enormous transport of 207 prefabricated modules from South Korea to the Alberta oil sands highlights the logistical innovations…and potential pitfalls…of mega-moves.

Tourism Edmonton Lots to rave about

Celebrating Excellence Awards

ZAHRA AL-HARAZI FOUNDRY COMMUNICATIONS, CALGARY | CEO, CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND GO-GETTER.

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Thursday, June 27 | 6pm | The Sutton Place Hotel Contact us for tickets

780-638-1777 Join us in celebrating Business in Edmonton’s Leaders of Tomorrow.

We will be honouring 20 individuals for their business acumen, contribution to community and to their industry. These are the people that are making Edmonton a great city to live and work in.

Business in Edmonton will feature your Leaders of Tomorrow in our July 2013 issue.

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Introducing the new Rocky Mountain Equipment DEPENDABLE IS WHAT WE DO.

SECTION CONTENTS TITLE

MAY 2013 | VOL. 02 #05

View our elect ronic issue of this mon th’s mag azin e onlin e at www .busi nessi nedm onto n.com

Features

Regulars Each and every month

Edmonton celebrates achievers, gets online and takes out the trash. All these stores and more are in this issue of Business in Edmonton magazine.

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Cover

ECONOMIC FACTORS

BY JASON BRISBOIS

The Essence of Edmonton

12

OFF THE TOP Fresh News across all sectors.

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF NORTHERN AB AND NWT HONOURS THREE EDMONTON BUSINESSMEN FOR INSPIRING GREATNESS BY MARK KANDBORG Harold Roozen, Allan Olson and Frank Spinelli are Junior Achievement Inductees.

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DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Company Profiles 53 EDMONTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

BY MARK KANDBORG

Celebrating their 100th Anniversary

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A. CLARK ROOFING & SIDING

Features 24

BY MARK KANDBORG

Celebrating their 25th Anniversary.

THE MAMMOTH MOVE

BY CAMIE LEARD

An enormous transport of 207 prefabricated modules from South Korea to the Alberta oil sands highlights the logistical innovations…and potential pitfalls…of mega-moves.

53

31 Celebrating Excellence Awards 6

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

Entrepreneurs.

They turn us on.

To new ideas, new ways of thinking and new possibilities.

That’s why we proudly celebrate their achievements — and you can too. Join us for our electrifying 20th anniversary celebration on October 17 in Calgary and meet the Prairies finalists and winners! To learn more, contact Louise Hyland at 403 206 5372 or louise.hyland@ca.ey.com.

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Features

PUBLISHER BUSINESS IN EDMONTON INC.

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Brent Trimming

brent@businessinedmonton.com

continued

Edmonton celebrates achievers, gets online and takes out the trash. All these stores and more are in this issue of Business in Edmonton magazine.

EDITOR Mark Kandborg

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Nerissa McNaughton

COPY EDITORS

OUR BOUNTIFUL ALBERTA FORESTS

Nerissa McNaughton Nikki Mullett

BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

ART DIRECTOR Jessi Evetts

jessi@businessinedmonton.com

What have our forests been up to lately? The AFPA gives us the inside scoop on Alberta’s forests and forest industry.

CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS Cher Compton

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ADMINISTRATION Nancy Bielecki Sarah Schenx info@businessinedmonton.com

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Jason Brisbois

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS Mark Kandborg Camie Leard

Benjamin Freeland Nerissa McNaughton

PHOTOGRAPHY Cover photos courtesy of Junior Achievement of Norhtern Alberta

ADVERTISING SALES Evelyn Dehner Bobbi Joan O’Neil Carla Wright Renee Neil Ron Goldberger

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41 TOURISM EDMONTON - LOTS TO RAVE ABOUT

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The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the contents of any advertisement, and all representations of warranties made in such advertising are those of the advertiser and not of the publisher. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, in all or in part, without the written permission of the publisher. Canadian publications mail sales product agreement No. 42455512 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to circulation dept. #1660, 10020 - 101 A Ave. NW, Edmonton, AB T5J 3G2

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| BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

You can market your business on dozens of social media sites, but do you need them and if so, how do you choose? A rogue marketer and a non-profit organization show you how to survive in a digital world.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Business in Edmonton is delivered to 27,000 business addresses every month including all registered business owners in Edmonton and surrounding areas including St Albert, Sherwood Park, Leduc/Nisku, Spruce Grove and Stony Plain.

| BY BEN FREELAND

51 IKE AND BRIAN GIFFORD FIND CREATIVE WAYS TO REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE

| BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

A non-profit organization and an inventor get creative in finding ways to live green.

63 GOLF

| BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

Stony Plain Golf Course: A Challenging Course in a Peaceful Setting

67 E DMONTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

COMING SOON TO EDMONTON!

Cirque du Soleil, and Amaluna are trademarks owned by Cirque du Soleil and used under license.

Photos: Laurence Labat Costumes: Mérédith Caron © 2012 Cirque du Soleil

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ECONOMIC FACTORS JASON BRISBOIS

NORTHERN ALBERTA’S TEMPORARY WORKFORCE: IS FLY-IN-FLY OUT, DRIVE-INDRIVE OUT GOOD OR BAD?

BY JASON BRISBOIS

T

he fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) or drivein-drive-out (DIDO) oil sands workforce is a contentious issue for Wood Buffalo. Most oil sands workers live in project accommodations (camps) and the number is growing.

While the camps traditionally housed construction workers, they are becoming increasingly used by maintenance and operational personnel on FIFO/ DIDO arrangements. The camp model is so popular that some companies, such as ConocoPhillips, are using the quality of their camps as a recruiting tool.

The Wood Buffalo 2012 census found 39,271 workers living in camps – compared to only 5,900 in 2000. That means the camp population has increased by over 500 per cent over a period when Alberta’s entire labour force only increased by 33 per cent. The census surveyed 1,800 workers in project accommodations and found just over 50 per cent had their primary residence in another province in Canada, while 43 per cent had their primary residence somewhere in Alberta other than Wood Buffalo.

Government officials in Wood Buffalo have a longstanding complaint that the temporary workers place a burden on urban services such as the hospital, the local road system and recreational facilities and that they contribute to increased illegal activities such as prostitution and drug use. The Provincial Government is not happy that many of the workers earn income in Alberta but pay income taxes in their home province, thus depriving our province of much needed revenue. Labour market economists argue that temporary workers are a poor way of addressing

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The Provincial Government is not happy that many of the workers earn income in Alberta but pay income taxes in their home province, thus depriving our province of much needed revenue.

Labour market economists argue that temporary workers are a poor way of addressing Alberta’s long-term skilled workforce requirements.

Alberta’s long-term skilled workforce requirements.

Notably, Alberta is not the only place with a FIFO/DIDO issue. In Australia, where there are many more FIFO/ DIDO sites than in Canada, the House of Representatives recently released a report entitled: Cancer of the bush or salvation for our cities? Fly-in, flyout and drive-in, drive-out workforce practices in Regional Australia. The Australian researchers visited Bay Bulls, Newfoundland and Fort McMurray, which they thought were models that Australian mining companies should follow.

The Alberta Government developed a Comprehensive Regional Infrastructure Sustainability Plan (CRISP) for the Athabasca oil sands area. The plan

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

advocates alternatives to work camps, such as increased transportation access to job sites from Fort McMurray and the smaller regional communities, and the establishment of ‘nodal’ communities offering more permanent accommodations and the medical, educational and other services required to encourage workers to live there with their families. It is a good concept, but it is unlikely that few FIDO/DIDO workers will uproot their families from Edmonton, Calgary, or other major centres across Canada to live closer to work. You can love it or hate it but odds are FIDO/DIDO will be with us as long as the oil sands operate.

Jason Brisbois is the director of the Western Centre for Economic Research at the University of Alberta School of Business.

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OFF THE TOP

NEWS FROM THE MONTH

BUSINESS

RIGHT ON TARGET

This spring, American retail giant Target lands on Canadian soil.

Three Target stores will be located in Edmonton, with additional stores in Sherwood Park and St. Albert.

“Our goal is simple: to offer a brand that’s true to both Target and the uniqueness of Canada,” says Target Canada President, Tony Fisher, in a public statement.

Target had very humble beginnings. The first store opened in Minneapolis as Dayton Dry Goods in 1902. The man behind the brand was George Draper Dayton, a banking and real estate entrepreneur.

Dayton Dry Goods was very successful and rebranded in 1911 as Dayton’s Department Store to better reflect the expanded products and services it offered.

The name Target did not surface until the 1950s when Dayton’s Department Store opened a commercial interiors department to sell fabrics and decor to the commercial sector.

This department was called Target Commercial Interiors. The 50s was also when Dayton’s Department Store began expanding. The first expansion saw a Dayton’s open outside of downtown Minneapolis in 1954.

Just two short years later, Dayton’s expanded into the suburbs.

Target, as it is known today, was born in 1961 when the Dayton Company decided to form a discount store chain. The company explained their unique logo by stating, “As a marksman’s goal is to hit the centre bulls-eye, the new store would do much the same in terms of retail goods, services, commitment to the community, price, value and overall experience.” Fast forward to 1979 – Target is a huge success and celebrates a milestone of achieving $1 billion in annual sales.

Always one to usher in new trends and innovative thinking, Target went online in 1999. Of course, this meant when mobile apps became fashionable, Target’s app launch in 2012

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Always one to usher in new trends and innovative thinking, Target went online in 1999. Of course, this meant when mobile apps became fashionable, Target’s app launch in 2012 allowed for shopping, ad browsing, and prescription refills.

allowed for shopping, ad browsing, and prescription refills.

Now we are witnessing Target’s latest milestone – its coast to coast grand openings in Canada.

What can you expect from this popular retailer when it arrives in Edmonton? Great deals and a wide selection in all of Target’s departments: • clothing & accessories • grocery • baby • home • essentials • electronics & entertainment • beauty • toys • personal care To make shopping even more convenient, Target’s REDcard® is available as a debit or credit card and each time you swipe, you save 5 per cent.

Due to Target’s charitable giving, work practices and sales performance, the Ethisphere Institute proudly named Target one of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” in 2012. In the same year, Target was also hailed by Fortune Magazine as one of the “World’s Most Admired Companies”. Target rounded out the year by being added to the 2012 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

By the end of 2013, Target will have a total of 124 stores nationwide. You can visit the Edmonton and area stores at Bonnie Doon, West Edmonton Mall, Millwoods Town Center, Sherwood Park Mall and St. Albert Center. BIE

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

SECURITY

WATCHING YOU IS PRIORITY 1

The best way to protect your outdoor spaces is with video camera monitoring, right? The answer is not as simple as “yes.” Camera sensors trip to create alarm conditions, but the things that trip them are not always true alarms. Falling snow, animals, strong winds or even a change in daylight can set off the alarm and like the classic boy who cried wolf, too many false alarms means no response when the real alarm sounds.

Mark Palka of Priority 1 aims to change that. Palka and his team have invented monitoring software capable of distinguishing between true and false alarms.

To understand the significance of this invention, consider how a traditional outdoor video monitoring system works. Cameras are set up to protect car lots, construction sites, storefronts – virtually anywhere a person with malicious intent can enter to steal or vandalize. Sensors are placed at strategic locations, and when the sensor is tripped, an “alarm condition” is created. The camera feed is observed at a monitoring station. The monitoring station alerts the proper emergency response officials (police, fire, company owner) to deal with the threat. The shortfall is that these cameras are constantly

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NEWS FROM THE MONTH

Since software enhances the monitoring, the system can be programmed in ways traditional systems cannot accommodate. Analytics, for instance can tell if an object that was not previously on site enters a space. For example, if someone walks into a busy airport, sets down a bag and walks away, the cameras can detect the bag as suspicious.

tripped, and the monitoring station—manned by people—must take precious time to weed out the real alarms before contacting the authorities.

Priority 1’s system addresses this issue fromV a1-3page technological standpoint.

Island.pdf 1 2013-04-08 3:50:50 PM

The difference is not the sensors but in the software used to control the system. Priority 1’s software simultaneously handles multiple alarms while automatically filtering out false signals. In addition to filtering false alarms, this system is so proficient,

FIND OUT WHY

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

it can track the movements of a lone security guard on site at night (increasing the guard’s personal safety while providing a second set of eyes), and pick up the licence plate of a moving car.

Since software enhances the monitoring, the system can be programmed in ways traditional systems cannot accommodate. Analytics, for instance can tell if an object that was not previously on site enters a space.

For example, if someone walks into a busy airport, sets down a bag and walks away, the cameras can detect the bag as suspicious. An alarm condition is created and the monitoring station can clearly see if the object is a real threat or not and take the proper precautions.

To date, Palka’s software system has caught intruders and provided admissible camera evidence of a workplace accident. Priority 1’s system is the only system in Edmonton that can draw an immediate Edmonton Police Service response. “When we call,” Palka explains, “they (EPS) know it is a real emergency situation.” These claims are backed up by videos – captured by Priority 1’s cameras – showing the short time lapse between the alarm condition and the police’s quick response.

Palka and his development team have been granted Canadian and American patents for their innovative system. BIE

MAYOR NAHEED NENSHI Mayor of Calgary

Calgary is highly accommodating, with more than 11,000 hotel rooms.

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Calgary breeds leaders and embraces visionaries. Being open to change and change-makers energizes the city, making it the perfect place to step up, take charge and move forward.

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OFF THE TOP

NEWS FROM THE MONTH

TECHNOLOGY

EDMONTON GEARS UP FOR THE WESTERN MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY SHOW

The Western Manufacturing Technology Show (WMTS) will be held at the Edmonton Expo Center, (Northlands) from June 4 – 6, 2013. The WMTS is the ultimate showcase for product manufacturers. From industry tools to process control to automation, this show is where the manufacturing professionals from all sectors come together to find equipment, supplies and services.

The WMTS is held every two years with Edmonton as the host city. This year’s show has some new features: • The TECHBAR: Bar-style interactive education sessions located on the show floor • Job Shop Night: A special evening for independent job shops who can’t get away from the office during regular business hours • Engaging Conference Line up: Comprehensive education in a theatre on the show floor The keynote speaker for this year’s event is Andrew Comrie-Picard, better known by his moniker, ACP. Guests of the show will draw inspiration from this former Edmontonian whose career history includes top rally car driver, precision driver, auto journalist, and television host.

ACP’s love of life in the fast lane began at eight years old when he raced BMX bikes. By 10, he was tinker-

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WMTS SHOW FLOOR

ing with his family’s trucks and by 12 he was on a World Championship R/C car team. University didn’t settle ACP down; that is when he branched out into rally car driving in Europe.

Post-university, ACP settled into his profession as an entertainment lawyer in New York, only to quickly abandon the practice to follow his true love of racing.

ACP is no stranger to the thrills and challenges of manufacturing. He has turned cars into airplanes, submarines, and weaponized spy vehicles in addition to hosting custom car building shows such as War of the Wheels on Global TV and Ultimate Car Build Off on Discovery Channel.

ACP will open the show on June 4 with an intriguing topic titled “Intuitive Engineering; What we can learn from shade-tree mechanics.” Other speakers during the show include Nigel Southway, who will discuss “Take Back Manufacturing;” Dr. John Wolodko, who will present “Materi-

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

als and Manufacturing R&D for the Alberta Energy Sector;” and Darlene Chuka who will talk about “Doing Business with the Federal Government and the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program.”

Exhibition space is nearly sold out but there is still time to get tickets to attend this event. Hailed by the organizers as “A showcase of top solution providers...who can show you how applying new methods and advanced technology can improve your operation and your margins,” this is a show nobody in Canada’s manufacturing industry should miss.

Mark your calendars because once this year’s WMTS is done, it will be two more years before you get another chance to see leading-edge machine tools, tooling and accessories, fabrication, design, automation, process control and plant maintenance equipment all one roof for three exciting days.

You can register, book exhibition space, and learn more at wmts.ca. BIE

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COVER

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF NORTHERN AB AND NWT

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF NORTHERN AB AND NWT HONOURS THREE EDMONTON BUSINESSMEN FOR INSPIRING GREATNESS Harold Roozen, Allan Olson and Frank Spinelli are Junior Achievement Inductees.

O

nce again, Junior Achievement of Northern AB and NWT has the honour and the pleasure of introducing you to this year’s Junior Achievement Hall of Fame induct-

ees. Nominated and selected by their peers, each of these outstanding citizens has earned the gratitude and respect of Edmonton’s business community. These are their stories.

Harold Roozen, Chairman & CEO of CCI Thermal Technologies Inc. Harold Roozen never contemplated being in anything else but business. “I remember growing up I was always going to be a businessman of one kind or another,” he says. It was a family tradition. His grandfather and father were in the flower bulb business in Holland before the war. “They spoke many languages, and my father and his brothers worked on the farm and travelled around Europe selling bulbs and tulips to every country you can think of.”

After earning a commerce degree and a MBA from Queens, Roozen made what was likely the best business education decision of his life. He went to work for Dr. Charles Allard as his executive assistant. Working with Allard was like going to graduate school in business for 12 years, says Roozen. “He owned probably 60 or 70 companies. Broadcasting, satellites, real estate development, car dealerships, you name it. I had a great opportunity to work with a great man who taught me a lot.”

Roozen put the business imparted upon him by the legendary Dr. Allard to good use, becoming president of his company, Allarcom, in 1991. Broadcast operations for Allarcom at that time included ITV, which is now Global.

One of the last things Roozen did before the company was sold was integral to our city’s cultural heritage. He built Allarcom Studios, home of SCTV. “It was a good business, but after it sold my wife and I decided we should look at other opportunities,” Roozen

HAROLD ROOZEN

www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

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COVER

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF NORTHERN AB AND NWT

says. So he bought CCI Thermal Technologies and got into the manufacturing business. “In the first six months of owning the business, it was a real struggle. I remember thinking maybe I’d made my first big business mistake. But it turned out to be the opposite.”

When Roozen bought CCI, it employed less than 20 people. After acquiring and integrating a half dozen associated companies, the number of employees now stands at around 400 with offices in Edmonton, Ontario, Houston, Denver and Greensburg, Indiana.

“One of the factors of our success is that we bought good companies that had good brand names.” Roozen points out that CCI Thermal is not as well known as its brands are, one of which is Roughneck Heaters, possibly the most dominant product line in the oil patch for explosion-proof heating. “When you’re selling an explosion-proof product, you have to have top quality.”

People often ask Roozen what’s made him successful, and he’s quick to recognize the role a certain organization had in helping him get on the road to success. “Believe it or not, I was a Junior Achievement guy when I was in high school,” he says. “Within the program, of course, you start up little companies, make something and go out and sell it. I was in two companies over two years that did quite well. I always had the feeling that owning your own equity and running your own business is where you want to be, paddling your own canoe and putting your experience to the test.”

When Roozen bought CCI, it employed less than 20 people.

After acquiring and integrating a half dozen associated companies, the number of employees now stands at around 400 with offices in Edmonton, Ontario, Houston, Denver and Greensburg, Indiana.

Nonetheless, Roozen realizes that the role of entrepreneur is not for everyone. “It’s risky. You have to make judgements sometimes that are really difficult. It’s managing people, putting ideas together. You’ve got to be on top of all the details,” he says. “I’ve learned that you need to stay ahead of the curve. You can’t just stand on what you have.”

Allan Olson, Chairman - First Industries Corporation Allan Olsen is a man who could tell you a thing or two about the peaks and valleys of a life lived in the landscape of business. Granted, he’s spent a lot more time on the peaks, but he would be the first to tell you that it was while in the valleys that he learned the most.

Olson had the good fortune of being the son of the man who co-founded a little construction company called Stuart Olson. “My dad was very enthusiastic for me to join the company,” Olson recalls. Although he brought with him a solid academic foundation in the form of an engineering degree and an MBA, he describes his first three years at his father’s business as a learn-on-the-job experience; and he learned quickly.

“My father came to the conclusion that the direction that I was probably heading in wasn’t for him,” Olson says. The elder Olson explained that at that stage in his life, he simply wasn’t interested in taking high risks in pursuit of rapid growth. So his son, who was interest in those risks, bought his father out then and there. “I remember my father visiting

20

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

me years later, sitting across the desk from me and shaking his head. We were building highway overpasses, tunnelling Jasper Avenue and building highrises. It had dawned on him that every day we did as much construction as he’d done in a year. So we’d had some pretty good growth.”

The construction boom Stuart Olson was riding, of course, proved not to be eternal. They were in for some heavy weather. But rather than drop sail and ride it out, Olson and company battened down the hatches, jettisoned whatever they could and sailed right into it. “Some major contractors were forced to downsize. We made a strategic decision that we would grow through the downmarket.”

Olson realized that if they could maintain a very high rate of growth at a very low profitability, they could attract the kind of high quality people who were being let go by their competitors. It worked. By stretching their financial resources to the nth degree, Stuart Olson Construction managed to grow in a down market.

Despite having stewarded the business from an annual

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COVER

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF NORTHERN AB AND NWT

volume of $1 million to over $300 million, irreconcilable differences of opinion within the company prompted Olson to make a huge decision. “I opted to step back and change my life,” he says.

After taking three years to reset his compass, Olson set off in a new direction. “It was a little truck enterprise that was owned by a friend who wanted out because it was going nowhere,” he says, adding that at the time he really didn’t see it as the kind of thing to stake his future career on. Nonetheless, he saw an opportunity for growth and bought it. “We rolled up our sleeves and the company that was ‘going nowhere’ soon became First Truck Centre, Canada’s largest Freightliner Truck Group with annual revenues in excess of $300 million.

This impressive feat was accomplished by more than the rolling up of sleeves, of course. It took an understanding of the elements necessary for business growth so complete, that Olson has served as director on more than 15 publicly listed corporations. Olson’s guiding philosophy in each of these enterprises has been what he refers to as a lifetime of learning. “I think it’s fundamental for success in business to make sure that the organization becomes a learning organization,” he says, “one that looks for and adopts technological change, knows what’s going on in its market and understands its competitive environment. All of that starts right at the top.”

Olson believes that family growth and health are also profoundly influenced by learning. “My wife, Fran, basically founded the University of Alberta Hospital Foundation and brought Edmonton the Festival of Trees, which continues to be one of the biggest fundraisers in the city today,” he says. “She has been able to make a tremendous contribution to the community because she gained the ability to do those things through our learning together.”

ALLAN OLSEN

The Olsons have made quite an impact on the city’s art scene as well. “Edmonton has seen the emergence of quite a community of very, very good painters and sculptors over the years,” he says, “and they had one thing in common.

None of them had any money. So we, whenever we could see value in helping, reached out to some of those artists. Now we can look back and say, I remember when we helped that guy out or that lady out. It was a great thrill for us.”

Frank Spinelli, Founder, Italian Center Shop Frank Spinelli has the distinction of being Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta and NWT’s first posthumous inductee, and there couldn’t have been a more fitting recipient. Anyone who knew him will tell you that this man was larger than life.

Those whose lives Spinelli touched might feel that this big man with the big heart was delivered to Edmonton. As it turns out, he was. Spinelli immigrated to Canada from a little Italian town in the 50s, and went to work in the Yukon mines where he broke his back. Mining’s loss was Edmonton’s gain, as he was shipped to our own Charles Camsel Hospital where he remained in traction for a year and a half. “They told him he would never be able to work

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

again, the fusion in his back was so severe,” says daughter Teresa Spinelli. For my father, who was a very ambitious man, this was very humbling. At that time there was no welfare, there was no unemployment and he had no family here.”

There’s a saying about not being able to keep a good man down and it certainly applies in this story. Spinelli’s first job after being released from the hospital was walking blind people across the street. Keep in mind that there was no “visually impaired assistance” program that he applied to. What Spinelli applied, in this instance and for the rest of his life, was himself. He simply created a job where there was none by identifying a need and filling it.

COVER

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF NORTHERN AB AND NWT

While you can still feel the breath of his spirit on this community and on the lives of those he touched, you sadly can no longer sit and talk with the man himself.

But in one very special way, you still can.

FRANK AND TERESA SPINELLI AT THEIR STORE IN LITTLE ITALY

Spinelli bought a gravel truck which he parked at the top of Grierson Hill. Each morning he let it run downhill, and when the engine chugged to life, the big man with the fused back who was told he could never work again, swung himself up into the moving cab and spent the rest of his day delivering gravel. Clearly, this was a man who believed that when it comes to what you have to do, you do it.

Then people started coming up to him and saying they really missed news from Italy. “They didn’t speak English very well, they didn’t have TVs or radios,” Teresa says. “So my dad started bringing in Italian newspapers.” Although the papers were months old, people were thrilled to receive them. When they asked for coffee, Spinelli started bringing in espresso, then pasta and olive oil. That was the beginning of the iconic Italian Centre in Little Italy.

Teresa has no doubts about the secret to the store’s success. “He’s the best example I know of the more you give, the more you get,” she says. “Back then he helped people with their taxes, taught them how to drive, he found them jobs, he translated for them. My dad died in 2000 but even today people tell me how he helped their family, whether it was with groceries or a new mortgage.” Spinelli’s motto, emblazoned on an apron hung with reverence on a crisp, white Italian Centre wall, was “Eat Today, Pay When You Can.” Determined that no one should go hungry so long as he had food, the big man didn’t even write these food loans down. “It was all done on a handshake. He did that right to the end, but it wasn’t with Italians anymore. It was people from Kosovo, people from Poland.”

Teresa Spinelli believes that her father made a big difference in Edmonton. By teaching people that Parmesan cheese doesn’t come in a green shaker, he was sharing his culture. “I think the more we know about each other, the more accepting we are, and he was very instrumental in that.”

“My father donated thousands of dollars to earthquake victims or whatever it was but people don’t remember that. They remember that he stopped and said, ‘I heard your son was in the hospital. How’s he doing?’ It was the little things that don’t cost you anything and take a minute of your time. That’s what people remember. It was really important to him that you felt valued.”

Edmonton might not have a Little Italy if it wasn’t for her dad, Teresa believes, pointing out that Calgary doesn’t have one. “He had the first place that made lattes and cappuccinos,” she says. “He wanted it to be a gathering place where people could come and meet their friends, play cards and share stories.”

While you can still feel the breath of his spirit on this community and on the lives of those he touched, you sadly can no longer sit and talk with the man himself. But in one very special way, you still can.

When a well-known building designer from New York visited Spinelli Park, Teresa pulled him aside and asked what he thought of the idea of erecting a statue of her father. “I told him my dad loved to play cards, that he loved kids.” He suggested she make a life-like statue of Spinelli playing his favourite card game, so that kids could play with him, climb on him and sit around him. “And that’s exactly what we did,” Teresa says. “I can’t tell you how many people come and sit with him for hours. Some of my neighbours call it the pilgrimage, you know? It’s wonderful.” BIE www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

23

TRANSPORTATION THE MAMMOTH MOVE

Mammoth The

Move

An enormous transport of 207 prefabricated modules from South Korea to the Alberta oil sands highlights the logistical innovations... and potential pitfalls…of mega-moves.

THE KEARL MODULES ARRIVED AT THE PORT OF VANCOUVER, WA AFTER A 8,500 KM OCEAN LINER JOURNEY FROM ULSAN, SOUTH KOREA. PHOTO COURTESY OF IMPERIAL OIL.

W

hen Imperial Oil decided to go ahead with its Kearl oil sands project in 2009, things were hopping in the oil patch. Alberta-based manufacturers of large equipment were at capacity and while Imperial managed to squeeze the majority of its pre-fabricated equipment needs into Alberta shops, the company had to look beyond our borders to manufacture about 20 per cent of the project’s equipment. As it turns out, Imperial had to go all the way to South Korea for 207 enormous modules that would be an essential part of the Kearl project.

Located 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray is the Kearl oil sands project, jointly owned between Imperial Oil (operator) and ExxonMobil Canada. Having begun production near the end of Q1 this year, it will be one of Canada’s largest open-pit mining operations with the initial stage of the $12.9 billion project expected to reach 110,000 barrels per calendar day (bcd) in 2013. A future $8.9 billion expansion will boost that number to a total licensed production of 345,000 bcd by 2020.

This kind of heavy production requires heavy equipment and Imperial turned to an experienced South Korean firm to get the job done. Fabricated by Sung ‘Jin Geotec, the modules ranged from vessels to pipe-rack structures and other components that would serve to process Kearl bitumen for transport by pipeline. While the manufacture of

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

BY CAMIE LEARD

equipment of this scale is a feat in and of itself, getting it from a sea port in South Korea to the oil sands in northern Alberta proved to be a journey of epic proportions.

The journey began in Ulsan, South Korea where Sung ‘Jin has been manufacturing power, process and offshore modules in five different factories since 1982. Pre-fabricating equipment such as reactors, vessels, columns and regenerators, for refinery, petrochemical and oil and gas processing plants, Sung ‘Jin has clients all over the world from Africa to Alberta including Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Suncor and others.

The first 33 of 207 modules, representing a total $250 million investment, left the Ulsan port by ocean liner in early 2011 for a two-week journey to Vancouver, Washington; but crossing the Pacific was the easy part.

Pius Rolheiser, a spokesperson for Imperial Oil, says there are thousands of details to consider when transporting equipment that can weigh more than 300,000 pounds and measure up to 24 feet wide, 30 feet high and 200 feet long.

“We originally planned to move the modules by ocean vessel to the port of Vancouver, Washington and then barge them to Lewiston, ID via the Columbia Snake River system and then truck them via US Highway 12 and other highways through Idaho and Montana to the Canadian border,” he explains. “The size of the modules determined the route that

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TRANSPORTATION THE MAMMOTH MOVE

Mammoth Move Fast Facts The Project Imperial Oil/Exxon’s Kearl oil sands project costs a total of $21.8 billion with an expected 4.6 billion barrels of bitumen over several decades.

The Equipment 207 modules of vessels, pipe-racks and other bitumen processing equipment that weighed up to 300,000 pounds and measured up to 24 feet wide, 30 feet high and 200 feet long each and representing about 20 per cent of the plant’s overall equipment inventory.

The Manufacturer Sung ‘Jin Geotec., South Korea The Mover The Edmonton branch of Netherlands-based Mammoet.

The Journey Approximately 8,500 kilometres from Korea to Vancouver, Washington and another 2,500 kilometres from Vancouver to Kearl for a total of 11,000 km by ocean liner, barge and truck.

TOP: WEIGHING UP TO 300,000 LBS AND MEASURING 30 FEET HIGH, BY 24 FEET WIDE BY 200 FEET LONG, THE ORIGINAL MODULES THAT CAME FROM KOREA COULDN’T FIT UNDER INTERSTATE OVERPASSES, SO IMPERIAL CHOSE A MORE RURAL TRUCKING ROUTE. PHOTO COURTESY OF IMPERIAL OIL.

The Timeline Three years: Planning began in May 2008. The first 33 modules left Korea in mid-2011 and the last modules arrived at Kearl in July 2012.

The Price Tag The Equipment: $250 million The Move: Proprietary

we took. We looked at numerous routes on both sides of the border but because of closed bridge structures, underpasses and so on, we had to go with the Highway 12 route.”

The massive shipment arrived safely in Vancouver, Washington in early 2011 and made its way by barge to Lewiston, Idaho. It was there that Imperial hit a snag that would end up costing the company months in delays and millions of dollars.

Citizen and environmental groups opposed the transport of the modules via the planned rural roads and, claiming the Idaho and Montana Departments of Transportation failed to perform adequate environmental assessments, filed injunctions with the district courts to prevent the loads from taking their original route on Highway 12. After months of negotiations and court battles, Imperial developed a plan to reduce the size of the modules and modify the route.

“The original 33 modules sat in Lewiston for six to eight months through the court proceedings,” says Rolheiser.

“Then we began the massive task of disassembling the modules to make them small enough to transport on the interstate highways.” Imperial hired 200 people to break up the 33 modules into 60 smaller units – a job Rolheiser estimates required 5,000 to 6,000 person-hours of work and a cost of at least $500,000 per module. Using an alternative

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

MIDDLE: THE FIRST OF 207 MODULES SAT IN LEWISTON, ID FOR MONTHS WAITING FOR COURT BATTLES WITH CITIZEN AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS TO CLEAR THE WAY. IMPERIAL EVENTUALLY HAD TO DISASSEMBLE THE MODULES TO NEARLY HALF THEIR ORIGINAL SIZE TO ACCOMMODATE A NEW ROUTE ON INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS. PHOTO COURTESY OF IMPERIAL OIL.

BOTTOM: THE FIRST KEARL MODULES MADE THEIR WAY FROM THE PORT OF VANCOUVER, WA TO THE PORT OF LEWISTON, ID BY BARGE VIA THE COLUMBIA SNAKE RIVER SYSTEM. PHOTO COURTESY OF IMPERIAL OIL.

TRANSPORTATION

THE MAMMOTH MOVE

THE 207 KOREAN-MADE MODULES REPRESENT 20 PER CENT OF KEARL’S TOTAL EQUIPMENT, SHOWN IN PLACE HERE PRIOR TO START-UP. PHOTO COURTESY OF IMPERIAL OIL.

route from the Port of Lewiston, the smaller loads could be trucked up US Highway 95 to Coeur d’Alene, east along I-90 into Montana and north on Interstate 15 to Canada.

The remaining modules also had to be disassembled at the Port of Pasco in Washington as well as in Korea before making their way along the new route. Once across the border, the modules were reassembled in Nisku, near Edmonton before making their way up to the Kearl site.

The last of the modules arrived in the summer of 2012 for

installation – about a year after the first of the modules left Lewiston.

The marathon move, managed by the Edmonton branch of Netherlands-based Mammoet, took three years from planning through to installation in Q1 of 2013. The cost?

Rolheiser says that’s proprietary.

At the time of printing, Kearl was poised to produce its first barrel, beginning an entirely new journey of bitumen from sand to market – but that’s another story. BIE

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27

FORESTRY

OUR BOUNTIFUL ALBERTA FORESTS

Our Bountiful Alberta Forests

BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

W

hat have our forests been up to lately? The AFPA gives us the inside scoop on Alberta’s forests and forest industry.

The Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA) has a unique message on their outgoing emails. While most companies close their electronic communications with “please consider the environment before printing this message,” AFPA cheerfully advises “It is OK to print this e-mail. Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of men and women, and working forests are good for the environment – providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. When you are through, please remember to recycle it.”

The AFPA was established in 1942, and it continues to operate as a non-profit association dedicated to the representation of the province’s wood and lumber industries and to the public awareness of the economic, environmental, and social values of Alberta’s forests. This month the AFPA gives Business in Edmonton readers a look at what is going on in our forests and the forest industry.

The Forest Industry is Growing

In 2012, the combined value of lumber, pulp and paper, and panelboard manufactured by AFPA members totalled

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

$2.3 billion; an increase of $184 million (9%) from 2011.

“Our industry has seen sustained growth in production and revenues this year,” states AFPA president and CEO Brady Whittaker in a press release issued in March 2013.

“The economics have been positive and that has allowed for further investment in our facilities, forest management and communities. We are very happy to be creating jobs and generating positive economic activity.”

Initiatives Combat Labour Shortage Fears

AFPA members reported staffing difficulties for the last few years, and fears are growing that some operations will be forced to close due to lack of qualified employees. Issues such as competition from other industries and career-oriented youth unaware of potential jobs in the forest industry play a part in the looming labour shortage.

Currently, Alberta’s forest and forest products provide 20,000 Albertans with jobs and contributes over $5.5 billion to the provincial economy. To keep these numbers strong, AFPA has partnered with the Government of Alberta and to launch the Wild Work program. Initiated in 2011, Wild Work reaches out to youths in high schools, at community events and through social media to provide education about the many high-quality career options in Alberta’s forest industry.

FORESTRY

OUR BOUNTIFUL ALBERTA FORESTS

Without measures in place to stop the pine beetle infestation, Alberta’s forests and economy would be severely threatened. AFPA is working with the Government of Alberta and other interested stakeholders to curb the spread and impact of the pine beetle.

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Forest Industry Members Actively Fight Climate Change

Forests are amazingly adept at carbon absorption, which is vital to our well-being. A single 25-year-old pine tree can absorb 6.82 kilograms of carbon annually. Over 80 years, one hectare of pine trees can handle 1.86 tonnes of carbon; a quarter section (64.8 hectares) will sequester 120.5 tonnes.

From finding ways to create energy from wood waste to pursing projects that use bio-energy, AFPA members work hard to reduce their carbon footprints and ensure our forests remain healthy and act as a natural carbon sink. Efforts have yielded tangible results. Since 2003, Alberta’s pulp industry has reduced greenhouse gas intensity by 18 per cent.

Pine Beetle Progression Has Slowed

For an insect the size of a grain of rice, the pine beetle packs quite a punch. The pest lays eggs under tree bark and the resulting hatchlings produce a fungus that kills tree tissue.

Pine beetles are highly mobile and capable of travelling several hundred kilometers in a single day. Strong winds assist their movement. For example, strong winds in 2006 carried billions of beetles from British Columbia to Alberta.

Without measures in place to stop the pine beetle infestation, Alberta’s forests and economy would be severely threatened. AFPA is working with

the Government of Alberta and other interested stakeholders to curb the spread and impact of the pine beetle.

Measures include identifying and harvesting the most vulnerable strands, finding ways to use trees already affected by the beetles, and continuous monitoring. While the threat of the pine beetle is still a reality, recent aerial surveys show the pine beetle’s progress has noticeably slowed and efforts to contain and prevent the damage have been successful.

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The Wood WORKS! Program Is a Success

The American housing market, which typically consumes over 75 per cent of Alberta’s wood products, is floundering. Additionally, wood is losing market share to other construction materials. To seek new markets and renew interest in the benefits of wood, the Wood WORKS! program was introduced.

Wood WORKS! is a partnership among federal/provincial governments and the wood/forest industry.

The program promotes the use of wood for structural components in non-residential projects, recognizes innovative designs that incorporate wood, provides education to the design and building industries about the benefits of wood and lobbies to have policy makers include wood in the building code.

The program has had several successes to date. In 2010, the combined value of projects that used wood after being influenced by Wood WORKS!

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FORESTRY

OUR BOUNTIFUL ALBERTA FORESTS

Alberta’s forests provide jobs, economic security and health benefits. You can get involved by working in the forest industry, volunteering, and being responsible with your fires and garbage when camping and hiking in the great outdoors. Our forests are the silent warriors that shelter us, feed us, and protect us as they have done for thousands of years.

Now we must continue to protect, honour and respect them.

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Getting Involved and Learning More

There are many ways to get involved in the Alberta forest industry.

Manufacturing, conservation and research are all excellent areas in which to build forestry careers, but there are also opportunities to volunteer. For example, the Canadian Institute of Forestry’s (CIF) Rocky Mountain Section (RMS) is run exclusively by volunteers. Jason Proche, RMS chair, explains: “The Canadian Institute of Forestry (CIF) is the national voice of forest practitioners. The CIF represents foresters, forest technologists and technicians, ecologists, biologists, geographers, educators, scientists and many others with a professional interest in forestry. The Institute’s mission is to provide national leadership in forestry, promote competence among forestry professionals, and

30

foster public awareness of Canadian and international forestry issues.

The Rocky Mountain Section supports the mandate of the national CIF and provides representation and service locally to its Alberta membership base.”

The RMS is one of the largest and most successful sections of the CIF. It works hard to attract and retain members through student recruitment at the University of Alberta and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. In addition to hosting events and contributing to scholarships, the RMS holds information and networking sessions. “We also hold two to three professional/ technical sessions per year,” Proche explains. “The full-day sessions are conference format programs that typically involve several guest speakers and a panel discussion. The topic of our most recent technical session was Planning Operations for a Common Landscape. It was held on March 12 and attracted practitioners from both the forestry and energy sectors.”

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

Proche is very optimistic about the state of Alberta’s forests. “I think the future is extremely bright for our forests—overall. Areas will be severely challenged by climate change impacts such as drought, wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, etc., but in general, forest ecosystems are adaptive as long as things don’t change too fast.”

Alberta’s forests provide jobs, economic security and health benefits.

You can get involved by working in the forest industry, volunteering, and being responsible with your fires and garbage when camping and hiking in the great outdoors. Our forests are the silent warriors that shelter us, feed us, and protect us as they have done for thousands of years. Now we must continue to protect, honour and respect them.

To learn more about Alberta Forest Products Association, see www. albertaforestproducts.ca. To learn more about the Canadian Institute of Forestry and the Rocky Mountain Section, go to cif-ifc.org and cif-ifc. org/site/rocky_mountain. BIE

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE Human resources professionals across Alberta are accomplishing some amazing work in challenging workplace environments.

To recognize these exceptional HR leaders, the Human Resources Institute of Alberta hosted the 6th Annual Celebrating Excellence Awards during the HRIA Conference in Edmonton, Alberta on April 18, 2013.

These awards demonstrate the value and appreciation that HRIA and the HR community have for our fellow practitioners.

The many nominations received for a great selection of candidates reveals that hard work, commitment, innovation and community involvement continue to be very much appreciated within Alberta’s HR world.

The winners for 2013 were chosen after a rigorous evaluation process within HRIA and the awards committee, and represent some of the finest professionals in Alberta.

Congratulations to all those who were nominated and to this year’s winners!

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2013 HRIA Celebrating Excellence Awards – Winners

R

oss Gilker, CHRP demonstrates exceptionally strong community leadership values and provides support to a wide range of not for profit agencies which improve the quality of life for many people facing challenging circumstances. Through his riding team, called CycleTherapy, Ross has contributed to the fundraising of many important charities including the Alberta Cancer Foundation, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Kidsport Alberta and the Association for Rehabilitation of the Brain Injured (ARBI). Based on Ross’s personal experience with stroke, the work with ARBI has very significant meaning for him. Seeing how far Ross has come on his own path to recovery is truly an inspiration. CycleTherapy came into being when Ross was recovering from a stroke himself and cycling was part of his rehabilitation. Ross is tireless, not only in his own volunteering efforts, but by motivating other members of CycleTherapy to assume community leadership roles as well.

COMMUNITY CHAMPION Ross Gilker CHRP

Ross is a true community leader and change agent ‘extraordinaire’!

RISING STAR Celia Kohler

C

elia Kohler, CHRP Candidate - has been an asset for Clique Hotels & Resorts since she started with the company in March 2012. Not only did she take the initiative to bring all Acclaim Hotel processes and procedures in line with current Alberta HR Standards, Celia also implemented safe work practices, created the entire staff incentive program and wholly designed the employee satisfaction program. This program was so innovative that it’s now being implemented at other Clique properties. Celia was the key in bringing about policies regarding recruitment, selection, prevention of bullying, harassment, violence and equality. And to top it all off, Celia brought in new environmental responsibility policies as well, helping Acclaim Hotel acquire a fourth Green Key. Celia displays an extremely high work ethic and is a passionate and dedicated member of the Clique Hotels & Resorts team. With all she has accomplished so early in her HR career, the sky is the limit from here!

A

labour disruption can be one of the most challenging times for a director of human resources. The NHL dispute was particularly unique in that the players were locked out but there were repercussions felt by employees across the organizations of the teams across North America.

While many teams chose to take traditional approaches to cut costs, the director of HR with the Edmonton Oilers, Tandy Kustiak, CHRP opted for a far more unique approach.

Tandy recruited companies willing to go into secondment partnerships, whereby the Oilers would keep the employees on the payroll, maintain their benefits and pay a portion of their salaries while the partner companies would pay the balance of the salaries. The program was an instant success, as dozens of employees headed off to new work sites.

Tandy’s dedication to this program has had an immeasurable impact on the culture within the Edmonton Oilers, and while this secondment project may be her crowning glory so far, you can’t help but think in the future she will have more innovative ideas that will have a profound impact on the culture of the company.

2 | HRIA CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE

STRATEGIC INNOVATOR Tandy Kustiak CHRP

2013 HRIA Celebrating Excellence Awards – Winners

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE Denise Grondin CHRP

D

enise Grondin, CHRP director of human resources at Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) is a true example of an achiever.

In a very short time, Denise has planned and completed a reevaluation and strategic direction for the compensation plan. She is an inspiration as an innovator and executor of her vision.

Denise always seems to focus on innovative solutions to issues within the workplace. During a time of economic change, while other HR departments embarked on a restructuring campaign, Denise implemented the FIRST project that looked inside AIMCO and fostered growth and development from within. Her vision and persistence reduced the turnover by 21 per cent and the costs of recruitment was reduced by 78 per cent.

Denise’s excellence has been proven time and time again, her recommendations and policies introduced served as an inspiration to the people within AIMCO, now and will well into the future.

CONGRATULATIONS

TANDY!

We are thrilled you are being honoured as the Human Resources Institute of Alberta’s Innovator of the Year.

You took on an incredible challenge and conquered it with a solution that demonstrated drive, creativity and compassion. That is the Oilers Way. We are immensely proud of your leadership.

Sincere congratulations from your friends and fans in the Oilers Family!

www.hria.ca | May | 2013 | 3

2013 HRIA Celebrating Excellence Awards – Winners

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE TEAM

S

ervus Credit Union undertook the challenging task of converting its three banking systems into one unified banking platform. While the conversion primarily impacted operations, IT and accounting, the HR team played a key role in supporting the project team by forming an HR Task Force made up of senior managers from its functional areas, including Learning and Leadership Development, Change Management and Strategic Staffing. The HR Task Force was put into place to enable better integration of various HR functional areas and ensure a swift response to and support for different people aspects of the project. The HR Task Force’s mandate was also to bridge the gap between the conversion project and the organization when it came to addressing people impacts.

Due to the work of the task force, the organization experienced minimal unanticipated employee or member impacts. Executives were directly engaged in communication activities on-site in branches and departments to provide required sponsorship for resulting changes. Leadership was provided with learning opportunities for change management coaching throughout the many months leading up to conversion. Thanks in part to the work of the HR Task Force, the system conversion was recognized as the most successful conversion that Servus and its legacy organizations have ever undertaken.

Front row (seated): Henriette Smith, Judy Ruth, Jana Radziewicz, Beate Maslanko, Nancy Pasquill, Jordan Pedersen Second row (seated): Carolyn Lesyshen, Kayla May, Melissa Boe, Jacqueline Elias Third row: Nancy Lussier, Treena Richards CHRP, Alice Bourget CHRP, Brenda Huizinga CHRP, John Hearn CHRP, Lisa Karpuk, Dan Bruinooge (Chief People and Corporate Services Officer) CHRP, Tannis Tetreault, Sandra Mellor, Blair Bilyk CHRP, Kim Yip, Nadim Chin Last row: Danny Fournier, Andrew Lawman CHRP, Daniel Leclair, Jennifer Corsi, Duane Clark, Kaitlin Olsen CHRP, Monika Alder, Kirk Nielsen

4 | HRIA CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE

2013 HRIA Celebrating Excellence Awards – Winners

DISTINGUISHED CAREER Joan Morgotch CHRP

J

oan Morgotch, CHRP has been with The Banff Centre for 31 years and will be retiring this spring. She has made diverse and invaluable contributions, in her career, Joan applied critical thinking to a wide range of situations and her energy and enthusiasm for her work engaged her audience and helped them buy into HR principles and practises that achieved retention. Joan relentlessly advocated for the importance of involving HR in matters that affected the functional areas. When Joan spoke, leaders listened as they respected her opinion and saw results when they followed her guidance. Her ideas and solutions always ensured the business values and needs of employees were considered along with the direction of the organization. Joan is a generous and skilled leader who takes any opportunity to empower individuals through information sharing, mentoring or networking.

Because of Joan, staff know they are valued, leadership exists that appreciates the value of having an HR perspective in making strategic decisions for the organization and an HR department has been created that will be able to carry forward the values she has embedded in every facet of the Banff Centre.

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2013 HRIA Celebrating Excellence Awards – Winners

FELLOWSHIP AWARD Eldon Emerson FCHRP

E

ldon Emerson, FCHRP was the chair of the founding committee which collaborated over a number of years to develop key principles and operating terms to finally get independent groups to join under the then umbrella organization which led to the creation of HRIA. Eldon and the Board were not deterred by issues that arose because they knew the “CHRP” would become the recognized national brand for the HR profession and pushed ahead on developing the scope of what constituted professional practice of HR. Eldon was a strong advocate of recertification and the CHRP NOT being a permanent designation. He advocated PD as part of the raison d’etre of HRIA and that was reflected organizationally.

If not for Eldon’s leadership and other committed Board members, HRIA may not have launched when it did. Eldon holds certificate #1, the first Certified Human Resources Professional designated by HRIA in 1991 and was granted Lifetime Membership by the Board in 1993.

Eldon also served on the founding group that created the concept for a national HR body leading to the creation of the CCHRA. Eldon has been credited with leading innovative HR practices in the non-profit sector through his work in developing a shared services model for HR among six non-profit organizations in Edmonton. Eldon served as a founding board member for the HR Council of Not for Profit and chaired the Audit Committee, recently completing six years of service to this organization.

Currently, as the manager of the Muttart Foundation’s Human Resources Cluster Project, Eldon provides consultation, education and advisory services to help six Edmonton-based social service charities address their HR needs and issues. In addition, Eldon now gives his time to the Allan Gray Continuing Care Centre, where he serves as a current board director and as chair of the Long-Range Planning Committee.

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2013 HRIA Celebrating Excellence Awards – Winners

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Devon employees put their energy, integrity and hard work into action.

F

ran Parolin with Devon Canada Human Resources is a learning and organization development Specialist. In addition to being an outstanding leader in volunteer role, she is a leader within her profession stemming from roles as a business leader and team lead, university associate, curriculum consultant and educator within her 27 years of her career. Her outstanding leadership style and her contributions to the organizations she has worked in are well respected.

The foundation of her beliefs and work ethic whether personally or professionally is empowering people through a transparent approach. Within her career she has been an inspiration by creating a clear vision and empowering others to take the initiative to succeed.

She provides possibilities, encourages, and never asks for more than she was willing to give of herself. Fran acts as both a mentor and a role model and is an individual who inspires by example. She says what she means, which allow others to trust her, motivate them to give her everything they have to give, and keeps people interested in their work. Through her openness she invites feedback because of her willingness for her own growth of learning.

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Those who achieve the CHRP designation are at the leading edge of the HR profession in Canada. HRIA is proud to recognize the 241 new CHRP designates of 2012, congratulations to all for this achievement of excellence in HR! CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW CHRP DESIGNATES OF 2012 Aaron Merkosky, CHRP Agatha Starczyk, CHRP Alycia Ho, CHRP Amanda Graham, CHRP Amanda Northcott, CHRP Amber Huniak, CHRP Amber Lienhardt, CHRP Ameera Bhatti, CHRP Amy (Eungyung) Lee, CHRP Andrea Brown, CHRP Aneela Ali, CHRP Anette Ceraficki, CHRP Angelica Yao, CHRP Angie Perras, CHRP Anjum Amin, CHRP Anli Bao, CHRP Anveshna Malik, CHRP Ashley Bacon, CHRP Ashley Petryshen, CHRP Ashley Trevelyan, CHRP Aundrea Sebjanic, CHRP Aura Popescu, CHRP Bernice Chan, CHRP Bess Leung, CHRP Blaise Lakusta, CHRP Brady Bajnok, CHRP Brianne Welch, CHRP Brittany Butterwick, CHRP Bryan Mosley, CHRP Caitlin Peacock, CHRP Calvin Chan, CHRP Carilene Agard, CHRP Carmen Pollock, CHRP Carolina Rojas, CHRP Carrie Manitopyes, CHRP Catherine Heggerud, CHRP Celia Stephanie Phaneuf, CHRP Charleen Pomerleau, CHRP Christina Baron, CHRP Christine Deagle, CHRP Christine Niemi, CHRP Christopher Burrows, CHRP Christopher Lui, CHRP Christopher Sopal, CHRP Christpetra (Petra) Okeke, CHRP Christy MacDonald, CHRP Cindy Go, CHRP Colleen Morgan, CHRP Connie Shieh, CHRP Corina Stevens, CHRP Cortney Peters, CHRP Crista Bobowski, CHRP Dana Boyko, CHRP Daniel Haberstock, CHRP Danielle Hook, CHRP Danielle Schramm, CHRP Danita Haysom, CHRP Darren Brown, CHRP David Whyte, CHRP Dean Bowles, CHRP Deanna Davies, CHRP Debbie Manovich, CHRP Dennis Gilson, CHRP Diane Little, CHRP

Dipti Sharma, CHRP Dmetri Berko, CHRP Edward Mowbrey, CHRP Edward Darrell Neuman, CHRP Elissa Hope Malone, CHRP Eri Fujio, CHRP Eric Fishleigh, CHRP Eric P. Thomas, CHRP Erika Federau, CHRP Evangeline Maurice, CHRP Evelyn Vendiola, CHRP Faye Johnson, CHRP Fiona Wong, CHRP Francois Fournier, CHRP Gillian Muhl, CHRP Gisele Wright, CHRP Heather Kennedy-Plant, CHRP Hemal Desai, CHRP Holly Underhill, CHRP Honorata Krzysiak, CHRP Ida On, CHRP Inderpreet Budesha, CHRP Jaclyn Bock, CHRP Jacqueline Vargas, CHRP Jane Osanife, CHRP Janelle Armstrong, CHRP Janet Warner, CHRP Jaylene MacDonald, CHRP Jeannie Hong, CHRP Jennie Vo, CHRP Jennifer Callicott, CHRP Jennifer Clarke, CHRP Jennifer Devolder, CHRP Jennifer Matthews, CHRP Jenny Beaudoin-Pigeon, CHRP Jenny Chia, CHRP Jessica Coulter, CHRP Jessica Rodrigues, CHRP Jessica Truong, CHRP Jessie Jones, CHRP Jill Mitchell, CHRP Jocelyn Doucette, CHRP Jodi Drozda-Murphy, CHRP Jodie Murray, CHRP Jody Jones, CHRP Joshua Emmerich, CHRP Joyce Wan, CHRP Julia Stabler, CHRP K. Lynn MacKinnon, CHRP Kaitlin Olsen, CHRP Karen Anderson, CHRP Kathryn Morgan, CHRP Katrina Gilroy, CHRP Kelly Mac Vicar, CHRP Kelly Waterhouse, CHRP Kerri Logan, CHRP Khristine Lavery, CHRP Krista Pearson, CHRP Krista Westly, CHRP Kristopher Bonnett, CHRP Lana Meaney, CHRP Lana Workman, CHRP Lanna Hojski, CHRP Laura French Meyers, CHRP

Leah Mawer, CHRP Leanna Kielau Craig, CHRP Leanne Randall, CHRP Linda McKeith, CHRP Linda Nguyen, CHRP Lindsay Hann, CHRP Lindsay Jacobsen, CHRP Lisa Shane, CHRP Lora-Lea Pitzel, CHRP Lori Kalwa, CHRP M. Grace VanderVelde, CHRP Majeda Fyith, CHRP Manveer Pnaich, CHRP Maria Bondarenko, CHRP Marianne Meijer, CHRP Marie Espina, CHRP Maris Bourdin, CHRP Marivic .L Cariaga, CHRP Mark Dyck, CHRP Marlane (Laini) Torgerson, CHRP Maya S. Kambeitz, CHRP Melissa Bellrose, CHRP Michael Downey, CHRP Michael MacLeod, CHRP Michele Rondot, CHRP Michelle Carlson, CHRP Michelle Kinzel, CHRP Michelle Shay, CHRP Michelle Unchulenko, CHRP Monique Goodwin, CHRP Mrinalini Jha, CHRP Nada Ladhani, CHRP Nasheena Chagani, CHRP Natasha Weisner, CHRP Nazia Viceer, CHRP Neil Palesh, CHRP Nicole Giler, CHRP Nicole Pasche, CHRP Nicole Quinn, CHRP Nicole West, CHRP Nikki Malcolm, CHRP Nina Benvenuto, CHRP Noorin Mitha, CHRP Pamela Nicol, CHRP Patrick Duffy, CHRP Paul Conway, CHRP Paul Dhanjal, CHRP Paul Rees, CHRP Paul van Steenbergen, CHRP Pinky Aulakh, CHRP Rajiv Sharma, CHRP Ran Tai, CHRP Reid Simonton, CHRP Rena Toor, CHRP Rhae Hansen, CHRP Rob Kilarski, CHRP Robin Lummerding, CHRP Robyn Wong, CHRP Rodney Miller, CHRP Ruby van den Hoff, CHRP Ryan Dimitriou, CHRP Ryan Harrison, CHRP Ryan Milligan, CHRP Sabine Dinnert, CHRP

HUMAN RESOURCES INSTITUTE OF ALBERTA

8 | HRIA CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE

Sabrina Khan, CHRP Sakulya Chandraratne, CHRP Sandhya Sharma, CHRP Sandy Metz, CHRP Sarah Boechler, CHRP Serena Staples, CHRP Shahenda Abou-Aly, CHRP Shalzah Visram, CHRP Shama Joynt, CHRP Sharon Colebrook, CHRP Shayantani Sarkar, CHRP Shujun (Sabrina) Zhang, CHRP Srimanti Nayak, CHRP Stacey Van Den Bussche, CHRP Staci Johnson, CHRP Stephanie Mongrain, CHRP Steve Peddie, CHRP Steven Ostopowich, CHRP Sujata Tadeparti, CHRP Sutton Bowers, CHRP Tabitha Bazely, CHRP Tammy Arseneau, CHRP Tammy Irving, CHRP Tanis Gee, CHRP Tegwen Jones, CHRP Teri Lawrence, CHRP Thomas Zabel, CHRP Thy Nguyen, CHRP Tiana Hanssen, CHRP Tiffany Keating, CHRP Tracey Nelson, CHRP Tracy Cook, CHRP Tracy Danis, CHRP Troy Davies, CHRP Tyler Jameson, CHRP Tynan Wong, CHRP Vanessa Lancaster, CHRP Vanessa Newby, CHRP Vanessa Pfunder, CHRP Veronica Thai, CHRP Victoria Hennessy, CHRP Vladislav Slavov, CHRP Wendy Allsopp, CHRP Wilhelmina Ashun-Codjiw, CHRP Wilma Li, CHRP Wing Chee Norraine Chan, CHRP Zaheen Mohammed, CHRP Zhiying Qi, CHRP Zoe Walton, CHRP

For details on what the CHRP designation can bring to your career or organziation visit

www.CHRPAlberta.ca

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BY BEN FREELAND

I

n late September, celebrity chef Vicky Ratnani landed in Edmonton, where he began a week-long food-focused tour of Wild Rose Country. This tour was featured on New Delhi TV. His first stop was West Edmonton Mall, where he partook in a Kobe beef burger at the Delux Burger Bar after joining Breakfast Television’s Mark Jesperson for his ice skating debut. He then took a ride on the High Level Bridge streetcar before settling in for another meal at Characters on 105 Street, all the while raving about the city’s scenery and eclectic blend of old and new.

For Edmontonians unaccustomed to hearing their city mentioned – much less raved about – by foreign celebrities, Chef Vicky’s appearance generated considerable hoopla in Edmonton’s social media circles. Long considered by its residents as a “nice place to live but not a place you’d visit,” Edmonton has indeed discovered a certain swagger in recent years in the form of improved infrastructure, revitalized neighbourhoods and ambitious projects. Chef Vicky’s visit seemed to confirm this newfound panache. Edmonton, many commentators concluded, is indeed a great place to visit and it’s about time that fact was acknowledged.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MERCER TAVERN

www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

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TOURISM

TOURISM EDMONTON - LOTS TO RAVE ABOUT

TEGLER DISCOVERY ZONE (JOHN JANZEN NATURE CENTRE)

With another glorious Edmonton summer approaching, there is much new under the sun for Edmontonians looking to “tourist it” in their own city. Here are five attractions for those looking to rediscover their hometown.

Mercer also boasts a superb wine selection and an eclectic beer menu specializing in microbrews and iconic international labels.

The Warehouse District and Mercer Tavern

A little known fact about Edmonton is that the city boasts the longest stretch of connected urban parkland in North America in the form of the city’s River Valley. At 7,400 hectares, the River Valley contains 22 major parks and over 150 kilometres of trails. It is also home to many of the city’s best child-oriented attractions. Among them is the John Janzen Nature Centre which, for the past 34 years, has offered interactive exhibits, educational programming and special events aimed at educating Edmontonians and out-of-town visitors about the animal life native to the North Saskatchewan River Valley.

A new addition to the John Janzen Nature Centre is the Tegler Discovery Zone, an interactive nature-themed play area for children aged 10 and younger. In the Discovery Zone, children can experience the life of a worker bee by pollinating a giant flower and crawling through a scaled-up honeycomb, spend the afternoon as a squirrel climbing birch trees and lounging in an underground burrow, or learn how beavers build dams by doing it themselves. Open all year round, the Tegler Discovery Zone is unstaffed, so guardians are required to stay in the play area with their children. All the better to learn a nature lesson or two with your kids!

The revitalization of Edmonton’s once-neglected warehouse district (and indeed its downtown in general) is one of the city’s most positive recent developments. The most recent – and exciting – chapter in this story has been the so-called “4th Street Promenade” along 104 Street. While Whyte Avenue is now virtually devoid of the coffee culture that once defined it, the Promenade boasts the delightful Roast and Credo coffeehouses while also giving Whyte Ave a run for its money in the public art and watering hole department. The neighbourhood even has its own open-air Saturday market (from May to October) as well as an allyear indoor farmer’s market.

The warehouse district is also home to one of Edmonton’s hottest new eateries and nightspots, the Mercer Tavern. Situated in the venerable Mercer Warehouse (built in 1911), the Mercer – and its companion coffeehouse Roast – is an inspired piece of restoration work with a sumptuous “retro-chic” atmosphere. The kitchen specializes in upscale pub grub, ranging from tavern poutine and Baja-style fish tacos to chili-glazed salmon and a trademark charcuterie board with selected meats and cheeses. The

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

Tegler Discovery Zone (John Janzen Nature Centre)

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Fantasyland Hotel is Alberta’s business destination for corporate meetings and team-building events. Stay in one of our 235 Superior and Executive corporate rooms.

Be sure to ask about our fantastic new team building events.

• Team building on the new challenging three-level ropes course, Ropes Quest • Team up with your colleagues in the Group Adventure Challenge as you work your way through a variety of the Mall’s exciting attractions • Reception on board the Santa Maria ship • Team bowling at Ed’s Rec Room or Ice skating at the Ice Palace • Corporate parties at L1 Lounge • 18 holes of miniature golf with your colleagues • Group dining in L2 Grill • Nightly live entertainment on Bourbon Street • Free parking in the world’s largest parking lot

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TOURISM

TOURISM EDMONTON - LOTS TO RAVE ABOUT

EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Bannock Burger

Another little-known fact about Edmonton is that the city has the fastest growing Aboriginal population of any Canadian city, and is expected to surpass Winnipeg as Canada’s most Aboriginal city by 2014. But while evidence of Edmonton’s growing Aboriginal identity is plentiful, this fast-growing community has thus far had a minimal impact on the city’s dining scene. A new north-end eatery seeks to change this. Bannock Burger began as a food stall in Churchill Square, where it garnered rave reviews at last year’s Taste of Edmonton. In March 2013, founder Jules Thomas opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant at the corner of 140 Ave and 142 Street.

A year ago, Edmontonians with a hankering for frybread or a First Nation-style taco would likely have had to make a trek out to Enoch or Hobbema. Today, Thomas’ restaurant does brisk business with its no-nonsense ‘rez’ cuisine, drawing a diverse crowd of Aboriginal and non-Aborigi-

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

nal customers. The menu features beef, chicken and veggie bannock burgers as well as mountainous tacos, soup, home fries and poutine, while also merchandising apparel with the restaurant’s name emblazoned in English and Cree symbols. Thomas has his sights set on a second outlet near Churchill Square in the near future. For now, though, it’s well worth the trip to the north end.

Yet Another Season of Die-Nasty

Improv comedy theatre is, in large part, an Alberta phenomenon. It was Calgary’s Loose Moose Theatre Company that patented the now worldwide phenomenon of Theatresports®, while Edmonton’s own Varscona Theatre stands as one of the great improv hotspots. Of the Varscona’s longest running and most famous acts is the improv soap opera, Die-Nasty. Debuting in 1991, this wickedly funny weekly show features continuing storylines and recurring characters as well as live music and directorial

TOURISM

TOURISM EDMONTON - LOTS TO RAVE ABOUT

The most enticing new area in the terminal is the ‘European triangle’ adjacent to gates 62 and 64, which consists of a Heineken Lounge, a Caffè Sorrentino and North America’s Belgian Beer Café outlet. voiceover. Past guest starts have included Mike Myers and Kids in the Hall alum Mark McKinney.

Die-Nasty’s 22nd season entitled A Streetcar Named Die-Nasty draws to a close on May 27. The troupe will then reconvene for a special Edmonton Fringe performance series from August 17 to 25 before regrouping for Season 23 in October. No word yet on the theme for the 2013-2014 season, but given their past seasons, which have run the gamut from The Princes and Queens of Medieval Castle Downs to Die-Hards: NHL Greats in 1970s Edmonton, it’s bound to be period-based and somehow related to the city of Edmonton, but otherwise it’s anybody’s guess.

The Airport (Seriously!)

One of Edmonton’s most exciting recent developments has been Edmonton International Airport’s quantum leap in 2012. With a new U.S. and domestic-international departures lounge, 34 new shopping

and dining outlets, the new Central Tower, a two-storey ‘living wall’ made of selected plants and a soon-to-be opening Renaissance by Marriott Hotel adjacent to the terminal, it’s hardly an exaggeration to say that Edmontonians who haven’t flown out of EIA in over a year will scarcely recognize the place.

The most enticing new area in the terminal is the ‘European triangle’ adjacent to gates 62 and 64, which consists of a Heineken Lounge, a Caffè Sorrentino and North America’s Belgian Beer Café outlet. With a patio seating area overlooking the living wall, the Belgian Beer Café offers a distinctive European atmosphere, an eclectic range of European dishes and a wide range of Belgian brews, including Leffe Blonde, Shocktop, the legendary Delirium Tremens (named the World’s Best Beer in the 2008 World Beer Championships in Chicago) and the delightful Stella Artois. All the more reason than ever to take the airport’s advice and show up early! BIE

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www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

47

MEDIA & MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED IT TO SURVIVE?

G N I T RKE

A M DIA

ME

Does Your Business Need it to Survive?

BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

Y

ou can market your business on dozens of social media sites, but do you need them and if so, how do you choose? A rogue marketer and a non-profit organization show you how to survive in a digital world.

I’m a writer who got into the game just as search engine optimization (SEO) became the next big thing. Suddenly the market was flooded with requests from companies to have their websites optimized. SEO firms popped up by the hundreds, all claiming to have the power to get you on the first page of Google search results. The whirlwind hasn’t stopped yet.

On the heels of SEO came Facebook and before you could get used to not putting a space between face and book, along came Twitter. You scarcely posted your first tweet before you were taking photos for Instagram. Your photo had yet to be posted before you had to pin your interests on Pinterest. LinkedIn, Flicker, Digg, Bebo, YouTube, Tumblr – this is just a partial list of available social media sites; before you finish reading this article, another one may very well be launched.

People were quick to latch on to these ways to stay connected and share their interests; marketing firms were equally quick to realize the potential for companies to cash in. This has separated most businesses into two camps.

Camp one contains those who peek with fear around the corner at the myriad of social media marketing options before running as far and fast as they can in the other direction. Camp two contains those who jump right into the fray and sign up for every site in hopes that throwing

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

a wide net will catch at least a few fish. Neither camp has the advantage.

Randy Brososky is the founder, owner and self-proclaimed Chief Rogue and Bottle Washer of Group of Rogues. Group of Rogues is a marketing firm that specializes in branding, marketing strategy, social media, online marketing, media management and more. With over 10 years of industry experience, Brososky has seen everything from traditional advertising (print, radio, television, billboard) to new (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram....you know this list could just keep going...) ways to be seen and heard.

His strategy is to make sure the companies he works with have a strategy – and that strategy may or may not include all aspects of social media marketing.

“You have to have a strategy just like with any other type of marketing,” confirmed Brososky. “Social media marketing is another tool for the tool box, but a very unique tool.”

Speaking of tools, Brososky hammered out a fitting analogy. “It is like buying a screwdriver. It doesn’t matter how cool the screwdriver is. You don’t need it if you only deal with nails.”

So what is a modern company intent on keeping up on the cutting edge of marketing to do? According to Brososky, the same thing that company did to determine their traditional marketing needs. “Stick to your goals. Re-identify your goals,” he encourages. Look at your business from the outside. What are you really selling? Then decide what types of social media marketing will work for you. You can get value out of it but only if you know which outlets to use.

MEDIA & MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED IT TO SURVIVE?

“You have to have a strategy just like any other type of marketing.

Social media marketing is another tool for the tool box, but a very unique tool.” ~ Randy Brososky

RANDY BROSOSKY, FOUNDER, OWNER AND SELF-PROCLAIMED CHIEF ROGUE AND BOTTLE WASHER OF GROUP OF ROGUES

That brings us right back to our list. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Flicker, Digg, Bebo, YouTube, Tumblr, new site to be released before you finish this article – how do you choose? If you don’t have a firm understanding of what these sites do (how do you pin an interest anyways?), it’s time to call in the experts.

There are three camps of consultants, Brososky explains. Camp one will charge you money to write down things in great detail that support whatever you want to say. Camp two has found a high-markup product and will sell it to you as the only solution you need. Camp three will ask you “what’s your problem?” (but in a very nice way) to find out what results you need from a marketing strategy. If they can’t provide it, they will send you to someone who can.

This camp looks at the message and the medium and marries them together in perfect harmony. You want someone from camp three.

The Rogue marketer knows social media marketing isn’t going away anytime soon, but it is also an outlet in infancy. “Social media marketing has been around for awhile, but it’s only in the last five years or so that it has been looked at as a serious marketing tool. Therefore, there is no tried and true solution with these new ways,” he pointed out. Brososky further explains, “The best thing you

can do is to think about the message you want to send, your target audience and your budget, and then decide which marketing strategy will work best for you. Focus on your goals and then select the right social media tools, rather than commit to a

bunch of social media tools and then cram them into your strategy.”

Hope Mission, Brososky says, is an excellent example of how to use social media responsibly. Hope Mission you say? Let’s see what they have to tell us about social media and marketing.

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www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013 GOVCHRC26563 BusCalg&Edm_Advance.indd 1

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13-2-7 4:10 PM

MEDIA & MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED IT TO SURVIVE?

A SINGLE TWEET RESULTED IN OVER 10,000 BOTTLES OF DONATED WATER.

Devin Komarniski is the communications coordinator for Hope Mission. Thanks to his use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram, Hope Mission has been nominated for a Yeggie. (“Yeggie: The Edmonton New Media Awards, or the Yeggies for short, is an annual awards show created to recognize and celebrate outstanding social media content creators in the capital region.”1 ) Hope Mission is short listed in the Best in Non-Profit category. (“Best in Non-Profit: These organizations might use social media to campaign, or simply to communicate with community members about the issues they support.”2 ) “Overall, social media has been just amazing for us,” Komarniski smiled.

“It has raised awareness of what we are up to in the city.” Komarniski goes on to explain that social media has helped Hope Mission reach a broader audience and that new contacts and supporters have been made thorough the Mission’s social media strategy.

Komarniski demonstrates Brososky technique of only choosing what will work for the goals and ide1

als of the organization. “Facebook is our biggest referral site back to our website, which is important for donations, commenting and sharing stories. Twitter brings us volume.

People retweet, share mentions and get fired up about campaigns.”

So how does that work, exactly?

During the 2012 summer heat wave, Komarniski sent a single tweet asking to help keep the homeless hydrated. This 140 characters-or-less tweet was retweeted 400 times in one week.

Ten thousand bottles of water were brought to the Mission and the story was picked up by traditional media sources (radio, television). Another example is the young boy from Spruce Grove who spoke to grocery store managers and collected emergency care packs for the homeless. Komarniski put his photo on the Hope Mission Instagram feed. The photo caught the attention of Metro and CBC, who came calling for stories.

Komarniski admits it’s a full time job to keep the sites updated, but for him, it’s worth it. “It is absolutely worth it. That’s not even a question.

Any non-profit not capitalizing on

HTTP://WWW.YEGGIES.COM/ 2 HTTP://WWW.YEGGIES.COM/AWARD-CATEGORIES/#NONPROFIT

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

these free tools and not investing in this area will find themselves struggling to catch up. There is more than enough proof to show that it works.”

So it looks like it works but only when applied correctly. With all the marketing choices that have become available in the last five years, it is easy to get overwhelmed. You do not have to abandon your existing marketing strategy, but you should not ignore the potential of social media marketing either. Go back to basics. What are you selling? Who is your target audience?

When you determine those things, you can see which new marketing techniques will work for you and which ones will not. These are simply more tools you can use to further your business plan, and like the saying goes, you need the right tool for the right job.

Don’t buy a screwdriver if you have to pound a nail. The way you selected what you needed from traditional marketing options is the way you can select what you need from these new marketing options. Pick through the toolbox, take what you need, leave the rest and watch the power of marketing – old and new – transform your business. BIE

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

IKE AND BRIAN GIFFORD FIND CREATIVE WAYS TO REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE

IKE AND BRIAN GIFFORD FIND CREATIVE WAYS TO REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE

A non-profit organization and an inventor get creative in finding ways to live green.

BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON

I

KE and Brian Gifford Find Creative Ways to Reduce, Edmonton loves to recycle. Approximately 65 per cent of residential waste is recycled, reused, or composted and 80 per cent of households participate in a recycle program through blue bins, blue bags, or taking waste to an Eco station. A non-profit organization and a local Edmonton man explain how they take the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle to heart.

The InKind Exchange (IKE) was started by United Way of the Alberta Capital Region and is located in Edmonton at 14710 - 112 Avenue. IKE accepts new/newer computers and associated peripherals (less than two years old), new or gently used office furniture, new educational materials, new toys and craft supplies, and new personal hygiene items. You may not know the name IKE, but you have doubtless heard of its other initiatives: Tools for School, Coats for Kids and Families, and Homeless Connect.

“IKE works with, and accepts highly valued items donated from corporations,” explains Nancy Critchley, director of communications for the United Way of the Alberta Capital Region. “These donations, such as office supplies, technology, and other re-useable items are then offered to the charitable sector who have purchased an IKE membership. This allows the charities to reduce their overhead costs and further the impact of their programs and services, as well as keeping items out of our landfills.” As an added benefit, members of IKE are registered to shop online with Staples Advantage where they are eligible to receive up to a 65 per cent discount on office supplies.

Since its inception in 1997, approximately $27,000,000 in fair market retail value has been distributed throughout the community. “Approximately 90 per cent of the items donated to IKE are redistributed,” continues Critchley. “One of the reasons for our high re-use rate is due to our donors understanding, and working with us to ensure our charities are receiving the highest quality of donated items possible.”

“It’s no secret that not-for-profits and their supporters

want to stretch their limited resources and invest in the programs and services they offer,” agrees Rob Yager, senior vice president, United Way of the Alberta Capital Region.

“A membership at IKE helps them do just that, helping these important community agencies further their work by saving on overhead costs that, for some, could curb the really important work they carry out.”

One not-for-profit organization carrying out such “really important work” is STARS. The air ambulance service reports that the four new desks they obtained for their engineers are “just as good as new” and that the products available through IKE allow them to keep overhead low.

“Every dollar we can save goes towards the rescue missions,” says Kyla McKechnie, receptionist at STARS Edmonton.

Sometimes, however, reducing, reusing and recycling requires out-of-the-box thinking—and when it comes to thinking outside of the norm, Brian Gifford is in his element.

Gifford is an inventor. Over the course of 30 years, he has built an aquatic weed cutter and improved the designs of bale rollers, feeders and trailers. These days, however, his attention is on his latest project, an oil/sludge skimmer capable of handling everything from a heavy oil spill to chunky debris.

Gifford is no stranger to oil spills. His aquatic weed cutter helped clean up the contaminated foliage at Wabamum’s 2005 oil spill. Gifford had always wondered why nobody had built a skimmer with better oil recovery capabilities. “I heard a lot of complaints from guys about the skimmers they were using,” he explains, “mostly about the shortfalls and how they couldn’t pick up debris without clogging the machines. I thought for 10 years, why don’t they do it this other way?”

With nobody stepping up to the challenge, Gifford decided to tackle the task. “I made a prototype,” he smiles, “and to my surprise it worked the first time! I was shocked!

To this day I don’t know why it hasn’t been done before. It works. I know it works. I tested it.”

www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

51

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

IKE AND BRIAN GIFFORD FIND CREATIVE WAYS TO REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE

InKind Exchange: The InKind Exchange cannot accept used items except for computers and office furniture in good condition as it does not have the resources to repair or refurbish used items outside of the aforementioned. Also IKE does not transport donations; they must be dropped off, and prior approval is required due to space limitations. For all other donations including used clothing, household appliances or furniture, or other household items, IKE encourages you to contact 211 to be connected to a charity in your area that can use the items. Learn more about IKE at 780-990-1000 or inkindexchange.ca.

DESKS FROM IKE ALLOW STARS TO ALLOCATE IMPORTANT FUNDS TO RESCUE MISSONS.

And test it he has. The first prototype was a small skimmer tested in a bathtub. Next came a larger one that he tested in a kiddie pool. Then he built a bigger one and created a contained spill situation of oil and chunky debris on his private pond. The oil was recovered, and the debris was removed without clogging the machine. Success.

In an oil spill, the longer the oil sits on the surface the thicker it can get (depending on the type of oil). The congealed oil is difficult for most skimmers to handle. To address this problem in the BP spill, over 95,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were dropped by air into the Gulf. The dispersant broke up the oil into droplets so the skimmers could collect it. Recovery efforts aim to pick up 15 per cent - 20 per cent of oil spilled at sea, but experts agree that 20 per cent is an optimistic number.

The Exxon Valdez spill, for example, recovered only 8 per cent.

What happens to the oil that cannot be collected? Nothing. It is left to degrade on its own and some types of oil that do not fully degrade sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Gifford’s skimmer uses a system that is capable of picking up thin, freshly spilled oil as well as thick, coagulated oil. It extends the window of opportunity to collect oil since heavy oils are easily handled by the machine; no chemicals are required to thin out the spill. In Gifford’s tests, almost 100 per cent of the oil was recovered and debris such as small twigs, leaves, garbage, and plant matter were easily handled.

Gifford aims to revolutionize the way oil spills are handled by providing a chemical-free process that is safe for HTTP://EDMONTONRECYCLING.INFO/STATISTICS.HTML 2 HTTP://EDMONTON.KIJIJI.CA/

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

all waterways. He has designed his skimmer so that it can easily be scaled for everything from complacent ponds to rolling ocean waves. “I’m looking to help the environment and the economy,” says Gifford and it looks like others are taking notice of his altruistic drive. Portage College is considering his skimmer for their first research and development program, and when he presented his invention at a convention in Banff, it was very well received. “Recover and reuse,” Gifford states of the intent of his invention, proving once again that reduce, reuse, and recycle applies to far more than just household goods.

Edmonton has been hailed as a leading example of how Canadian cites can reduce, reuse, and recycle1. Organizations such as the IKE and creative thinkers like Brian Gifford show us how the concepts of reduce, reuse, and recycle can be applied from what is in our homes and offices to the resources we pull from the earth. Every bottle you hold on to until you find recycle bin, every couch you put on Kijiji2 instead of in the trash, every piece of paper you flip over so that you can use the other side and every item of clothing you put into a donation bin is one less item in a landfill. Every gallon of oil saved, every vat of chemicals not used in an oil spill and every barrel of oil recovered and resold is a win for the economy and the environment. The ways to reuse, reduce and recycle are limited only by your imagination. Choose to live green today. BIE

Spectacular New Jasper Place Library

Edmonton Public Library’s 100th Anniversary: A Century Of Collecting Magic Edmonton Public Library has a great past and a promising future.

By Mark Kandborg

I

t’s been said that after fire, mankind’s most important invention was language. One can only imagine how much more enjoyable that fire was to sit around when fears, plans and ideas could finally be shared. Rather than merely stare at the flames, our ancestors now had a portal for the thoughts haunting the inside of their heads. It must have seemed like magic.

Through the millennia, languages and the ideas encapsulated by them have been recorded, collected and expanded upon. For centuries, libraries have served as cathedrals to humanity’s spiritual, cultural and intellectual journeys.

Linda C. Cook, Edmonton Public Library CEO since 1997, knows that a library is much more than a book museum and

Linda C. Cook, Edmonton Public Library CEO

more than a warehouse where words wait in silence for intrepid fingers to loosen them from their shelves. She knows the secret, which is a library is not a place where books go to die. It’s where they go to live.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Edmonton Public Library. “For the past hundred years we’ve been known as a library that has taken risks,” Cook says. “For instance, in 1941 we took an old streetcar and completely reconfigured it and it became North America’s first bookmobile.” That streetcar was eventually replaced by a bus.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that the simple act of bringing books to people had on the lives of many Edmontonians. “I remember it being so exciting, and I don’t remember much from elementary,” local spa owner Jillian Kaliel says with a smile. “I was kind of scared of books, but it was fun.

You’d go inside and you could choose any one you wanted.

You didn’t even have to pay for it.”

As far as innovation goes, the bookmobile was only the beginning for the EPL. “We were the first public library in Canada to automate our catalogue system and our circulation system. We were also the first to implement selfservice check in and check out of materials,” says Cook, who feels that this single innovation has revolutionized the Edmonton Public Library system. “We knew there was no way we could keep adding staff as our circulation increased,” she says. “It just wasn’t sustainable.” Putting the newly simplified check out procedures into members’ hands lightened the staff workload of processing 10.5 million items a year by roughly 85 per cent, allowing library staff to shift their focus from the mundane to the sublime.

2•

“For the past hundred years we’ve been known as a library that has taken risks.” ~ Linda C. Cook “Rather than waiting for the community to come to us, we can now go out to them.”

The community that Cook is referring to is more than just homes and schools. “Edmonton is such a diverse, multicultural city, and as our population increases, that’s going to increase as well.” She points out that there are a lot of new immigrants whose experience in their home countries has not been a positive one when it comes to libraries, which often serve as less-than-embracing arms of the government.

“Women in some countries are not allowed to access libraries or even to read books. Our community librarians will sometimes physically accompany a group, because they don’t want to come without her or him,” Cook says. “The thing that gets them is they see an array of books that are in their mother language. They see newspapers they can read to find out what’s happening in their home countries in their language. Once they realize that the library has all this wonderful stuff and that they’re welcome, then they come in on their own.”

Liberating staff from mundane tasks not only freed them from the physical bounds of library walls, it freed them from their desks as well.

Liberating staff from mundane tasks not only freed them from the physical bounds of library walls, it freed them from their desks as well. Walk into any branch and you’ll be met by a library staffer who will ask you what they can help you find. You no longer have to find them. The entrance to the Stanley Milner library offers a striking visual representation of this change as form follows function, and in this case, vice versa. Gone are the huge desks which felt like barriers because, quite simply, they were. “Now it’s much more open,� says Cook, for whom access is key. “We’re trying to make the experience barrier-free.�

Automatic check-out machines

Now wait a minute, you might be saying. That’s great and all, but let’s talk about the elephant in the stacks. These buildings are full of, there’s no easy way to say this... books. Isn’t that just a bit like increasing access to 8-track tapes? Or stone tablets?

Don’t kid yourselves. These people are in the information business. They’re not about to be left in the dust. They’re creating the dust. “People talk about an information explosion,

Congratulations to the Edmonton Public Library on your 100th Anniversary!

Mayor

Stephen Mandel

Ward 6 Councillor

Jane Batty

Ward 1 Councillor

Ward 2 Councillor

Ward 3 Councillor

Ward 4 Councillor

Ward 5 Councillor

Ward 7 Councillor

Ward 8 Councillor

Ward 9 Councillor

Ward 10 Councillor

Ward 12 Councillor

Linda Sloan

Tony Caterina

Kim Krushell

Ben Henderson

Dave Loken

Bryan Anderson

Ed Gibbons

Don Iveson

Karen Leibovici

Amarjeet Sohi

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"

! •3

Peter Schoenberg, EPL’s Manager of Digital Literacy and Web Services.

O

n behalf of the members of Civic Service Union 52, I would like to congratulate the Edmonton Public Library and its staff on its 100th anniversary.

Throughout all these years, EPL has been an essential source of knowledge for the citizens of the City of Edmonton and CSU 52 has always been proud to serve as the Union for most of EPL’s employees.

CSU 52 looks forward to continuing our positive and productive relationship with EPL for the next 100 years.

but that’s not accurate. It’s an information nuclear explosion,” Cook says. So slip on your radiation suits, because that’s what the Edmonton Public Library is providing access to.

Enter Peter Schoenberg, EPL’s Manager of Digital Literacy and Web Services. He’s the tip of the library’s digital spear, and it’s a job he’s taken to like an astronaut to Tang, his enthusiasm for the task surrounding him like a Tesla arc. You get the picture. There’s simply not the space to do justice to the full spectrum of Schoenberg’s future-centric purview, so we’ll just touch on some highlights.

“Using technology has always been what we do,” Schoenberg says. “We’ve been online since before people knew that there was an online. The big difference, which has been re-

Congratulations Edmonton Public Library on 100 Years!

Lanny Chudyk President

www.unitedprotection.com 4•

Just like with a physical book, if they have more than five people waiting for an e-book title, the library buys another copy. With the electronic version, however, the process is far more efficient. ally accelerating over the past two or three years, is that the actual content is now online. The thing that you’re borrowing, listening to, reading or watching is actually a digital object.” E-books are a perfect example of this, but how exactly do you borrow a virtual object?

“We’re treating digital in the same way that we treat physical,” Schoenberg explains. Just like with a physical book, if they have more than five people waiting for an e-book title, the library buys another copy.

EPL provides e-books across the full range of topics so you can expect to find popular fiction titles as well as non-fiction.

We have specialized e-book collections too, such as Safari Books, which provides technical e-books from O’Reilly Media for both consumer and computer programmer audiences.

While most e-books can be read from computers, tablets, or smartphones, we also have an eReader lending program for customers just interested in trying out the technology or those who don’t otherwise have access to this type of equipment outside the library.

Zinio is a great new product that just went live a few weeks ago,” continues Schoenberg, describing a system which boasts over 270 magazine titles online. “You can download it and read it and get a new issue any time you want.” Basically, you can pay for The Economist online or you can get it for free with your library card. Click. The EPL also has 800 newspapers from around the world available live every morning from 50 countries in 70 languages. “The full issue, not some watered down version that

the site gives you until you pull out your credit card.” Click. How about 270 plays online, including the complete works of Shakespeare for the kid sitting at home at 10 o’clock at night who has to write something on Hamlet? Click. “In terms of digital content, the tipping point has happened for us. We were actually ahead of the curve. We’ve had e-books for a long time, for instance, but now the public wants it.”

There’s a sense of forward-looking inertia that you can almost feel when you walk into the Edmonton Public Library these days; a kind of busy calm in the air. I was planning to conclude this piece by saying something like ‘don’t worry, the Edmonton Public Library’s not going anywhere’, but of course, that’s not true. It has its sights set on a near future sparking with an unfettered stream of information, free of boundaries and full of promise. The EPL, more than ever, seems happy to lead us there.

“We’re at a really good spot right now,” Linda Cook says, with the smile of someone who’s clearly as invested in the future as she is proud of the past. “It’s a perfect time for us to sort of spread our wings.”

(780) 496-7047 • www.epl.ca

Congratulations Edmonton Public Library on 100 Years!

We are proud to be a partner in your success.

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Celebrating Six Decades of Going ‘Above and Beyond’ to Bring Edmontonians Peace of Mind

By Mark Kandborg

I

f you grew up in Edmonton, chances are good that at least one of the roofs over your head was installed by A. Clark Roofing and Siding LP and it’s likely that was the roof you never gave much thought to, because when the job’s done right, those little shingles quietly and dependably protect you and yours from the worst that an unpredictable environment can bring, day in, day out, year after year. If there’s one thing A. Clark Roofing and Siding LP pride themselves on above all else, it’s always doing the job right.

Archie Clark and his brother started A. Clark Roofing (the “A” stands for Archie) in 1953, beginning with “flat” roofing and moving on to shingles in the sixties. A few years later, when the big Alberta oil boom hit, the company was more than up to the challenge.

“Homebuilders started building blocks of houses,” recalls current general manager Robert Dunlop, who had just started with the company right out of high school at the time. “We had 160 installers, shingling houses a block at a time.” However, nothing lasts forever and when the recession arrived, taking the construction industry by surprise, those 160 installers had to be cut back to 20. “We went from very lucrative to struggling for a while there,” Dunlop says. Times were tough for everyone, but due to good management, customer loyalty and a reputation for service that was second to none, A. Clark pulled through and emerged as one of the only roofing companies in the city to survive the downturn.

Today, A. Clark Roofing and Siding LP has 25 staff members and 30 crews in the field. The breadth of the field has grown for

A. Clark Roofing & Siding | 60 years

them, too, and includes everything from new construction to renovation to commercial work for general contractors. With a full-time service department and siding division, there’s little they can’t cap or clad. “We do an incredibly wide variety of work,” Dunlop says.

More than just the economy has changed over the past few decades and of course, roofing has too. Shingles used to carry a warranty of 10-15 years. Now that warranty is often for a lifetime. Another thing that’s changed is choice. “The big thing is how many products there are out there today,” Dunlop says.

“Back in the day there were really only two or three manufacturing companies. In the early 2000s, the American market came into play. Besides more types and manufacturers of shingles, we now have cedar shakes, concrete tile, rubber and decorative

“We take a lot of pride in what we do.

We have superintendents who go out to every site and inspect the job during and after the product is put on by our installers. If something’s not right, we’ll make it right.” ~Robert Dunlop

metal roofing. There’s a much wider variety of products available than we’ve ever seen before.”

That’s just on the roofing side. Since opening up a siding division 30 years ago, A. Clark has brought the same level of service and expertise to the sides of your home or building as they have to the roof, providing a complete exterior package including continuous pre-painted steel eavestroughs and pre-painted aluminum soffit and facia, all in a variety of colours.

Not sure what’s right for your particular needs? Give A. Clark Roofing and Siding LP a call and a representative will

Congratulations to A. Clark Roofing & Siding on 60 years of success!

Ph.: (780) 435-3761 • Fax: (780) 435-1716 Email: info@macskylights.com • www.macskylights.com

Renovation work on a residential home using Stone Coated Metal Roofing Material.

come to your home and provide you with a free written quote and peace of mind, the kind that lets you rest easy with the knowledge that by following their friendly advice, you’re assured of the proper type of roofing or siding products and accessories you’ll need to keep you and your family protected for years to come.

But with great choice comes great responsibility. “The biggest challenge we have today is that we’ve really got to be educated. There’s quite a learning curve involved for any company to install these products properly,” Dunlop says.

He and the staff at A. Clark Roofing and Siding LP know that it’s not just material that makes a roof, it’s the level of expertise and service that goes into installing it. For Dunlop, that’s what sets A. Clark apart. “We take a lot of pride in what we do. We have superintendents who go out to every site and inspect the job during and after the product is put on by our installers. If something’s not right, we’ll make it right,” he says. “At the end of the day, when we walk away from that roof we know that the customer has a good product put on exactly the way it should be.”

Dunlop offers some tips on how to keep your roof, well, tip top. “If you’re not afraid to climb up and take a look, you want to make sure there’s no debris, no missing shingles. Check it in the fall. Make sure the eaves are cleared out. Then check it again in the spring for ice damage. Again, keep those eaves clear for melting, so there’s no overflow.” What if your DIY confidence leaves you when you pass a ladder’s fifth step? “Give us a call.

We’ll be happy to do it.”

Keep in mind that this isn’t a “make work project,” it’s a “save work project.” After all, an ounce of inspection is worth a pound of shingle nails. If you find that there are potential problems looming overhead, A. Clark Roofing and Siding LP’s service department have the tools and expertise they need to swoop in and perform a pre-emptive strike. “Our technicians are trained to give you the most care in finding a solution with your home from roof leaks, missing shingles or siding, extra venting accessories... even snow removal.”

When you’ve been in business for six decades, you learn a thing or two about loyalty. In the case of A. Clark Roofing and

A. Clark Roofing & Siding | 60 years

Right; Different types of metal roofing, Standing Seam Metal Roof Below; Decorative Stone Coated Roof in Shake profile

Siding LP, that loyalty comes not only from their extensive customer base, but just as importantly, from within. “We’re bringing on new people every year, but we’ve got a core of great staff that have been with us for a long, long time,” Dunlop says. He believes that says a lot about what the company has to offer its employees, but even more about what those employees have to offer their customers. “Wayne Dunlop has been with us since 1977. He started as an estimator, was a part-owner and general manager. Now, at 73 years old, he’s still working part time as an estimator.” That’s commitment. That’s loving what you do.”

Edmonton is a city of extreme environments, whether economic or meteorological. In the 60 years since Archie Clark first raised his eyes skyward and made the decision to venture past that fifth step, A. Clark Roofing and Siding LP has proven they can weather the storm, both figuratively and literally, over the long haul.

“We’re the oldest roofing company in the city and one of the oldest in Alberta,” Dunlop says, proudly. “Some companies come and go in a decade. But give us a call in 10 years. We’ll still be here.”

3120 - 93 St. Edmonton , AB T6N 1C7 Phone: 780.465.7571 • Fax: 780.469.6476 www.aclark.ca

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GOLF

STONY PLAIN GOLF COURSE: A CHALLENGING COURSE IN A PEACEFUL SETTING

Stony Plain Golf Course: A Challenging Course in a Peaceful Setting

BY NERISSA MCNAUGHTON PHOTOS COURTESY OF STONY PLAIN GOLF COURSE

S

tony Plain, a charming suburb of Edmonton, is located just 17 kilometres from the city’s west end.

The heart of Stony Plain boasts old fashioned lampposts on Main Street from which large floral baskets hang in spring and summer. A massive lighted Christmas tree delights everyone who turns up for Stony Plain’s famed Christmas tree Light Up each holiday season. In keeping with town’s elegance and charm, the Stony Plain Golf Course offers golfers a challenging course in a peaceful setting.

Continued on page 66

www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

63

New Rustica Steakhouse Opens at Eagle Ranch Golf Resort I

nvermere, B.C. (April 1, 2013) – Eagle Ranch Golf Resort, an affiliate of Stone Creek Resorts Inc., announces the opening of the Rustica Steakhouse on April 11, 2013. The restaurant opens with renovated premises that include an upgraded deck for a blend of fine and comfortable dining.

The Eagle Ranch Rustica Steakhouse is based on the success and popularity of the Rustica Steakhouse at Silvertip Resort in Canmore, Alta., renowned for serving top quality, 100 per cent Canadian Prime steaks. Silvertip Resort is also an affiliate of Stone Creek Resorts Inc. “Rustica Steakhouse procures the finest prime beef from the top one percent of all beef processed in Canada,” said Andrew Hickson, Eagle Ranch Clubhouse manager. “You won’t get a better piece of beef. It’s so tender we don’t use a steak knife. Our steaks are prepared with house-made steak seasoning, and then finished under a 1,500 degree broiler. ” To complement the indoor dining experience, Rustica sports a new 1,400 square foot heated deck. A new fire table and a stylish pergola create the perfect setting for guests to sip fine wine while enjoying the spectacular beauty of the Columbia Valley.

Wine is given high priority. Eagle Ranch is a three-time recipient of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, most recently awarded in 2012. The wine cellar contains more than 400 bottles. “Rustica Steakhouse offers an extensive wine list,” said Hickson. “Some of our selections are quite rare, which gives wine connoisseurs a wonderful opportunity to tempt their palate.”

The Eagle Ranch Saliken restaurant has been closed to make way for the Steakhouse and extensive renovations to the premises.

The opening on April 11, 2013, coincides with the opening of the Eagle Ranch golf course. The golf course was ranked 4.5 stars by Golf Digest’s “Best Places to Play.”

Rustica Steakhouse currently serves dinner only. Reservations are suggested.

To book your tee time, or make a reservation at Rustica Steakhouse contact Eagle Ranch Golf Resort at 1.877.877.3889 or info@eagleranchresort.com

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64

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

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Telephone: (780) 489-4653 • www.lewisestatesgolf.com

Holding your experience to as high a standard as the course you play or the menu you choose.

The finest courses Mother Nature offers, both fairway and plated.

Our best is nothing without exceptional service.

Join us for world-class golf and fine dining at Silvertip Golf Resort.

Book your tee time or make reservations at silvertipresort.com or by calling 1.877.877.5444.

silvertipresort.com

www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013 STONECREEK_ST_ER_RUSTICA_BinCEd_6.875x8.875.indd Untitled-2 1 1

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GOLF

STONY PLAIN GOLF COURSE: A CHALLENGING COURSE IN A PEACEFUL SETTING

Stony Plain Golf Course opened for play in 1983. To date, this course has hosted over 15 major events including regional, provincial and national championships. Of the 18 holes, number four is the most challenging. This is due to the tree-lined 464 yard dog-leg par four with a tight landing area off the tee. The green is long and narrow and is well guarded by five bunkers. To help you maximize your time and experience on this course, the Stony Plain Golf Course website provides an illustration of each hole along with information on the tee shots and the best approaches.

Par for each hole is also listed.

The 180-person capacity banquet facility accommodates weddings, birthdays, reunions, meetings, retreats and seminars. The fully licensed restaurant and lounge, free parking and serene golf course views make this an ideal location for private and corporate functions.

Gary Christenson, CPGA head golf professional at Stony Plain Golf Course, feels “[Golf ] fosters life-long lessons with an emphasis on social responsibility and citizenship.

It’s a great opportunity to enjoy an outdoor activity in a

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

friendly social environment. You often get to know someone better on a golf course in four hours than you can after several meetings.”

While golf still holds great appeal for corporate clientele, Christenson has seen a demographic change over the last three to five years. “We are seeing more women learning the game and an increase in senior play as the baby-boomers age.”

If you are an avid golfer or just getting interested in the game, check out what Stony Plain Golf Course has to offer.

“Golf is a game that can be enjoyed at any level for a lifetime,” Christenson encourages.

Stony Plain Golf Course is located at 18 Fairway Drive, Stony Plain, Alberta. You can contact the course by calling (780) 963-2133 or 1-866-STONY-18. Clubhouse manager, Anne Lindgren, is available help you with facility bookings, charity drives, and more. You can reach Anne by phone or email at (780) 963-2036 or a.lindgren@ stonyplain.com. Learn more about the course online at stonyplaingolf.ca. BIE

WWW.EDMONTONCHAMBER.COM

THE EDMONTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INTRODUCES THEIR NEW PRESIDENT, JAMES CUMMING

BY CHAMBER STAFF

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indsay Dodd, chair of the board of directors of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, announced March 11 that after a thorough five-month search, James Cumming has been chosen to lead Canada’s largest and most successful Chamber as the new President & CEO. Cumming replaces long-time President Martin Salloum.

“We are pleased to add such a qualified and experienced person to our Chamber team.” ~ Lindsay Dodd Cumming will officially assume his new duties effective May 1, 2013.

“We are pleased to add such a qualified and experienced person to our Chamber team,” said Dodd. “We are positive that James will be able to build on the work that Martin began 19 years ago and advance the reputation and service that our members have come to expect and deserve from the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, all while moving the organization in a new and exciting direction.”

A proud, life-long Edmontonian, Cumming is a well-respected business and community leader. As a graduate of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and the Harvard Executive Education Program, he is known for delivering sound strategic leadership and proven general management. A former chair of the Chamber’s board of directors (1995), he is a leader with vision and integrity.

Cumming has built highly functional and engaged teams and consistently delivers excellent results.

Throughout his career, he has contributed extensively to building and executing plans which ensure the future prosperity of both the private and community organizations which he’s served. He has led a number of notable Edmonton corporations including Creative Door, Courtenay Real Estate Services, Princeton Developments and Cormode & Dickson Construction.

In the community context, Cumming currently serves as chair of the NAIT board of directors, is a director for the Norlien Foundation and has previously served as the national chair for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada.

Moving into his new role, he is excited about the Chamber’s future. He credits Salloum with having laid a solid financial and operational foundation upon which to build and is looking forward to working with the Chamber’s

JAMES CUMMING, PRESIDENT & CEO, EDMONTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

board, staff and members to further the vision of creating the best possible environment for business in Edmonton.

Big Shoes to Fill

Salloum leaves after almost two decades in the president’s role, having re-built the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce from an organization struggling to pay its bills in the early ‘90s to today being a model for all Chambers to follow. He began as the Chamber’s business manager in 1979 and was the executive director of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce in the mid-80s before returning to his roots at the Edmonton Chamber in 1994 to serve as president.

“The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, World Trade Centre Edmonton, the members of both organizations, and Canadian business as a whole owe Martin a great deal of gratitude and appreciation for his commitment and leadership,” said Dodd. “Going back over 30 years, Martin’s commitment to raising awareness of the potential of Canada’s North and to building Edmonton, a great northern city, into a provincial, national and international hub of business has been truly pioneering.” www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

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The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce invites you to the following 2013 Chamber business & networking events:

Thursday, May 9 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Waterloo Ford Lincoln 11420 - 107 Avenue

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CM

MY

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Spring After Business Mixer & Tradeshow

New World Rising Canada Expected to Fare Better Than Most Amid Lingering Global Volatility

Sponsored by:

CMY

Warren Jestin

11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

The Sutton Place Hotel 10235 - 101 Street

Join us as Warren Jestin, senior vice-president & chief economist with Scotiabank, speaks to what will keep Europe in recession, what is driving the U.S economy’s recovery and why the Canadian banking system is still the envy of the world.

Come and meet the people you want to connect with at Waterloo’s state-of-the-art showroom. Visit exhibitor’s tables, set up your own table, enjoy the catered menu and learn what’s it’s like to be part of Edmonton’s business pipeline.

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Monday, May 13

Senior Vice-President & Chief Economist Scotiabank

Tickets: $10.00 Members (+GST) $20.00 Non-Members (+GST) Exhibitor Display Table: $125 Members (+GST); $250 Non-Members (+GST) Table-top Exhibitor Includes: 10 event tickets, 6' table and linen. Power: Additional $25

Tickets: $49.95 Members (+GST) $69.95 Non-Members (+GST)

Texas Scramble

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

Cougar Creek Golf Resort

Network with business leaders and your corporate colleagues at Edmonton’s most prestigious corporate golf tournament event.

Registration Fees: $235 + GST per golfer include 18 holes of championship golf, power carts, full breakfast, a delicious BBQ banquet, plus special gifts and terrific prizes.

CELEBRATING EDMONTON FESTIVAL CITY Gold Tee Sponsors

Tee Box Sponsors

Cart Sponsor

General Exhibitor Sponsors

To order your tickets today, please visit edmontonchamber.com

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May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

In Kind Sponsors

Tent Sponsor

Printing Sponsor

EDMONTON.COM

COMPANY PROFILE: A GLOBAL COMPANY WITH PRAIRIE ROOTS

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n its own words, Stantec has left its mark everywhere — from drinking water, to roads, to industries, to buildings and even to our own neighbourhoods.

As one of the leading firms in the design and consulting industry with more than 150 offices across North America, the UK, the United Arab Emirates and India, this Canadian professional services company has projects around the world in planning, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics for infrastructure and facilities.

Founder Don Stanley was the first Canadian to earn a Ph.D. in environmental engineering. After graduating from Harvard in 1954, he took his knowledge and experience to Al-

berta, which was then experiencing a boom due to the discovery of oil in 1947. Quickly realizing the opportunities presented, Stanley diversified by finding partners with transportation backgrounds. Over the next 30 years, the firm expanded and found success during both booms and recessions.

In 1998, Stantec executives set a very ambitious target: to grow the organization from 2,000 employees with a gross revenue of $185.5 million to 10,000 employees with a gross revenue of $1 billion. The goal was not only reached but surpassed in 2009, and is still growing to this day. The current target is to become and remain a top 10 global design firm.

Equally as important as growth is sustainability and efforts toward that goal are clearly reflected in numerous awards throughout the years. In 2011,

Stantec was selected for the second year in a row as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers by Mediacorp Canada.

They have Climate Registered™ status, achieved by successfully measuring its carbon footprint. In 2012, Stantec was ranked first on Building Design + Construction’s (BD+C) list of Top 10 Green Building Engineering Firms, as well as placing in the top 10 of many other BD+C lists.

EEDC VP RECEIVES QUEEN’S JUBILEE MEDAL

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ne of our own has been recognized with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Kent McMullin, interim vice-president of enterprise Edmonton at Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, was commended for his contribution to a Federation of Canadian Municipalities program partnering Canadian and Ukrainian municipal bodies to promote economic growth.

KENT MCMULLIN

www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | May 2013

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EDMONTON.COM

NEW VP JOINS EEDC

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evin Weidlich has joined EEDC as vice president of marketing and communications, bringing significant leadership experience in building and empowering teams across the spectrum of marketing and communications – including media relations, messaging/ positioning, brand management, client service and community outreach.

With 25 years of leadership experience, including business development in the construction industry and marketing communications in the military

and business world, Kevin was most recently responsible for technology development in the aerospace and defence sectors with the Alberta government. A Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Army Reserve, he continues his military service as the senior staff officer responsible for civil military cooperation and information operations in Western Canada.

Kevin holds Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts degrees, both from the University of Alberta.

KEVIN WEIDLICH

EDMONTON WELCOMES WORLD CUP

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occer fans, mark your calendars.

The world’s largest women’s soccer tournament is taking over Canada in 2015.

Edmonton and six Canadian cities will host matches during the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada, which will be held June 6 to July 5.

The competition kicks off with an opening ceremony and opening matches in Edmonton, including a game with Christine Sinclair and Canada’s Olympic bronze medal team. Edmonton will host 10 games, which is more than any of the other cities. The other cities are Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Moncton, with the final match in Vancouver. Featuring players from 24

FANS CHEER ON THE CANADIAN TEAM.

national teams, the month-long tournament is a series of matches that will be played from coast to coast. In total, 52 matches will be played over 30 days in six venues.

Tickets are expected to go on sale in late 2014.

For more on the FIFA announcement and the match schedule, visit fifa.com/womensworldcup.

SPORTS EVENTS CONGRESS COMING IN 2014

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dmonton has been chosen by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA) to host Sports Events Congress in 2014.

Edmonton beat out Saskatoon and Regina to host the CSTA’s flagship event and Canada’s largest annual gathering of sport, tourism professionals and event management firms.

All three cities went through a rigorous bid evaluation process conducted by a selection committee steered by

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CSTA. Attracting more than 350 delegates annually, it has previously been held in Ottawa, Gatineau, Toronto and Richmond.

“We are honoured to have been selected as the host city for CSTA’s 2014 Sports Event Congress and are committed to working together as a team to deliver an exceptional event,” says Janna Tominuk, executive director of Edmonton Tourism. “This win for Edmonton is another example of our

May 2013 | Business In Edmonton Magazine | www.businessinedmonton.com

ability to host national and international events and how we continue to secure prestigious events which provide tremendous economic stimulus in our region.”

Sport Events Congress 2014 will be held April 1-3 at the Shaw Conference Centre, as well as the Courtyard Edmonton Hotel and West Edmonton Mall.

For more information, visit canadiansporttourism.com.

The fire and water, cleanup and restoration specialists of SERVPRO 速 are proud to call Canada home. So when the things that matter most are on the line, make sure we are too by calling 780-784-7777 or visiting servprocanada.com.

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780-784-7777

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