Letter to the CIQS Hello Folks, The Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors held their annual meeting in St. John’s, NL this weekend. The topic for discussion and presentation was diversity. Diversity involves many aspects - one of which is physical disability and more importantly accommodation for persons with disabilities. I would think that the organizing committee would have this uppermost in mind. As a person who was invited to give a presentation on diversity and a person who is a wheelchair user, I would think that I would have been accommodated for all aspects of this weekend event. However, the dinner was held at a venue that is inaccessible and as much as I would have enjoyed being a part of this dinner, I was denied the opportunity due to inaccessibility. It is easy to talk about issues but taking the necessary action to help alleviate the issue is another aspect that is often overlooked. Memory of individuals is commonly short-lived but organizations as a whole have the ability to effect change among its members. I appreciate the opportunity to have spoken at the CIQS conference and do sincerely hope you all enjoyed the dinner. Justin Mercer, CIQS-NL
Response Justin, I hope that the lack of access to the Saturday dinner did not ruin your first experience at a CIQS AGM. The location choice was a carefully measured decision and you can be assured that there was no intent to deliberately exclude you from the event but was chosen to allow the attendees to experience local food and hospitality in a private venue away from the hotel. We tried to balance the entire weekend between the hotel and outside to maximize exposure to our city and culture. As in most progression, we have to take baby steps to achieve our final goals and building/services access to all is prime. Your participation at the events, especially your presentation at the Friday lunch, was critical to delivery of the diversity message. With your permission I would like to post both your e-mail and my response in the Construction Economist in order to take the message to a broader audience. In conclusion, please accept my apologies for all inconvenience caused and I trust that your opinion of the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors and all that it represents has not been tarnished by this single event. Best Regards, Roy Lewis, PQS(F), Immediate Past President CIQS
Congratulations to the following members who have qualified as a PQS or CEC: CIQS-Ontario Kevin Alexander, PQS Jacques Amelin, PQS Antonio DiDomenico, CEC Charles Vincent Granton, PQS McLean Patterson, CEC Joel Pineda, CEC Sami Abdul Aziz Rabbani, PQS Zhongsheng Larry Sun, CEC Yvonne Yee On Tong, PQS John Edward White, PQS
CIQS – Maritimes William Mark Isbister, CEC Peter Riley, CEC Keith Matthews, CEC CIQS – British Columbia Simon Amesbury, PQS Angela Lai, PQS Richard Traher, CEC
24 | CONSTRUCTION ECONOMIST | www.ciqs.org | Summer 2012
CIQS Members at Large John-Michael Clarke, PQS Lalani C. Dodangoda, PQS Jimoh Kareem, PQS Jeyakaran Nadarasa, PQS CIQS – Quebec Claude Roy, ECA
