President’s Message
Thanks to our founding members orest stachniak, pqs n my first message to you as president of the CIQS, I started by saying wow, well it really is a WOW! I started my term in a very heated economy with global shortages of labour, commodities and an over abundance of credit. Just a short six months later the exact opposite, labour and commodities appear to be in abundance but a shortage of available credit is now affecting projects. There is nervousness in the construction industry, the credit crunch has project owners and financial institutions demanding higher than usual analysis of how and where their money is being or going to
Our membership has continued to develop and to gather experience with the years.
be spent. The leaders of the G20 have just met in London, England in an attempt to repair the global economic crisis and have agreed on: • Restoring growth and jobs • Strengthening financial supervision and regulation • Strengthening our global financial institutions • Resisting protectionism and promoting global trade and investment • Ensuring a fair and sustainable recovery for all • Delivering our commitments As professional quantity surveyors, we are being asked to use our knowledge and training to provide the analyses and reassure decision makers that their projects are on sound financial footing. I have just written about the past year but the CIQS has been in existence for the past 50. It has seen the world go into and come out of recessions and has become stronger with each. Our membership
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has continued to develop and to gather experience with the years. It is this knowledge that is needed now. We are at the heart of helping the leaders of the G20 make their agreement come to fulfillment. This knowledge leads me to believe that our membership will be able to reap the rewards and benefits due them. I read recently about a teenager bragging to his friends at the local mall. He was bragging about all their worldly possessions. They had cell phones, computers, space travel, digital satellite and colour TV. He turned to a group of senior citizens and asked what did they have? One of the gentlemen calmly replied, “We had nothing so we invented those items you just named.” Most of the items I listed did not exist in 1959. We may not all be seniors but our founding members are so I would like to thank them for inventing the CIQS. For you history buffs here are some news headlines from 50 years ago: • The Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors was incorporated • The 14th Dalai Lama goes into exile • Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba • The St. Lawrence Seaway opens • Ben-Hur is released along with “Sleeping Beauty” and the original “The Shaggy Dog” • Alaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states respectively • Winnipeg Blue Bombers win the Grey Cup • Montreal Canadians win the Stanley Cup Things we take for granted and do not even think about today except for possibly who will win the Stanley Cup and will the Leafs ever make it to the playoffs again? click here to return to table of contents
