On-Site Magazine April 2013

APRIL 2013

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HEAT GOES ON How global warming will impact infrastructure decisions pg.18

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VOLUME 57, NO.3 / APRIL 2013

COVER STORY 18 The heat goes on Climate change means many things, but for a start, it will mean repairing damaged roads and building new infrastructure to support northern development.

DEPARTMENTS Comment 5 Industry steps up

8

32

News Industry news

16

Construction Stats The latest news on building permits and construction employment

42

Funny Photo Funny Photo contest

COLUMNS 40 Software

37

Managing the risks of BYOD

44

Risk Celebrating failure to manage risk

46

Contractors and the Law

40

Terminating employees for cause

42

Index of Advertisers

features 26

32

37

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Edgy e-newsletters: Best practices for contractors

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COMMENT

Industry steps up

O

Get the latest construction news!

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n April 1, BuildForce Canada opened its doors, replacing the Construction Sector Council (CSC) after a decade of providing labour market forecasting to the construction industry.

Recognizing the importance of this type of forecasting, the construction community intervened.

“In the wake of the end of the federal government’s Sector Council Program, industry leaders have stepped up to the plate,” explained executive director Rosemary Sparks in a company release. “We have a new brand, a new board of directors, a new funding model and a new governance structure. But our mandate will continue to address the need for a skilled workforce in the construction industry.”

And there is clearly a need for this type of skills development.

On March 26, a forecast of labour, supply and demand was released by the CSC indicating that the construction industry will need to recruit more than 250,000 workers, including the traditional number of new entrants to the workforce to meet building needs from now until 2021.

According to the Construction Looking Forward, National Summary, 2013-2021, a significant portion of this need is to replace retiring workers.

So, what’s the new organization going to do about it?

“The products and services that have helped the industry thrive over the past decade, such as the annual labour market forecasts, will continue to be a priority,” says board member Mark Arnone, vice-president of refurbishment execu-

tion with Ontario Power Generation, noting the Construction Looking Forward reports, which look ahead nine years, have been key in helping businesses across the country plan for, and manage workforce requirements.

The involvement of board members, such as Arnone, is a good example of how BuildForce is improving industry involvement. The addition of owners and client companies to the usual lineup of contractors, will add much needed perspective to the organization.

The new funding model has actual industry dollars behind it, as well as federal funding on a project-by-project basis. The plan is to go to the government for funding on special initiatives such as forecasting. BuildForce also plans to continue providing its current lineup of e-learning tools, and has plans in the works for new revenue generating tools.

This broader perspective, coupled with a new funding model, bodes well for the future of labour market forecasting in Canada.

Corinne Lynds / Editor CLynds@on-sitemag.com

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CONtRIBUtORS

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Meet ouR ContRIButoRs

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art director | Melissa Crook (416) 442-5600 x3260 MCrook@bizinfogroup.ca

Climate change is a ‘how to boil a frog’ proposition… the changes have been gradual as the temperature rises slowly. There is almost no aspect of life in Canada that will not eventually be touched by these events.

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On heavy-haul trailers: They are the low-slung, unsung heroes of the heavy construction industry.

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Terminating employees can be difficult, stressful and, if not done properly, expensive. This is particularly true when an employee has been terminated for cause.

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MeMbers oF

Canadian Association of Equipment Distributors

Canadian Construction Association

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Construction begins on $90M road, rail and utility corridor at Port of Prince Rupert A groundbreaking ceremony at the Port of Prince Rupert on March 8 marked the start of construction of the port's $90-million road,

rail and utility corridor project. The project will support billions in terminal developments and boost Canada’s trade capacity and exports to Asia-Pacific markets.

The corridor will be a catalyst for significant terminal developments being

Metrolinx releases short list of proposed investment tools for consultation Metrolinx has released a short list of investment tools for consultation that will help decide how transit expansion is funded in the years ahead.

Metrolinx is developing an investment strategy to help finance “The Big Move” and the next wave of projects including the Downtown Relief Line, the Yonge Subway Extension into York Region, new rapid transit in Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, new bus rapid transit corridors in Halton, Peel, Toronto and Durham, and major changes to the GO Transit rail network, municipal transit projects, roads and highways and green transportation options, such as cycling and walking.

Metrolinx examined over 25 investment options— strategies and investment tools to fund transit—that are used in other jurisdictions and received input through a series of 12 round table meetings with residents across the GTHA on ways to fund public transit.

“We want to continue our conversation with municipalities, stakeholders and the public to help us deliver our investment strategy,” said Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig.

Metrolinx is considering the following investment options for additional consultation:

advanced through private sector investment on the Ridley Island Industrial Site at the Port of Prince Rupert.

The project includes construction of five parallel rail tracks, a two-lane roadway, and a port-owned power distribution system along an 8.0-km corridor. This will provide shared-use infrastructure for proposed potash, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other terminals on the island. The capital costs of the terminal developments are currently estimated in the billions of dollars. Phase one of the project will be completed in December 2014.

“The Government of Canada is focused on creating jobs, growth and long-term prosperity, and this project is one of many under our Asia-Pacific Gateway initiative that delivers on this goal,” said Wai Young, member of parliament for Vancouver South and co-chair of the Canada-China page 10 Legislative Association, on behalf

> Development Charges > Employer Payroll Tax > Fuel Tax > High Occupancy Tolls (HOT) > Highway Tolls > Land Value Capture > Parking Space Levy, including pay-for-parking at transit stations > Property Tax > Sales Tax > Transit Fare Increase > Vehicle Kilometres Travelled (VKT) Fee “At our roundtable meetings, we heard that there is wide recognition of the problem of congestion and there is impatience for a solution,” said McCuaig. “Participants want to see more transit and transportation expansion, they understand that this requires significant investment and overall they supported tools to build new transit and transportation.”

Metrolinx is required to provide advice on investment tools to the Ontario government and GTHA municipalities through an investment strategy. The investment strategy, to be released by June 1, will provide funding options for implementation of The Big Move, Metrolinx’s regional transportation plan.

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INDUSTRY NEWS from page 8 of the Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway. Young participated in the official construction launch, in which an excavator roared into action while representatives of the construction team lifted shovelfuls of sod. "The development potential of Ridley Island is good news not only for the community of Prince Rupert but for all Canadians as we continue to open new markets to increase our exports to fast-growing Asian markets.”

The Port Authority's Gateway 20/20 Plan foresees reaching an annual throughput capacity of 100m tonnes of cargo as proposed terminal developments are completed.

The $90-million utility corridor is being funded jointly by the Governments of Canada and British Columbia, who have each contributed $15 million. CN and the Port Authority, have each committed $30 million.

Next stage of tunnel construction underway for the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension

Harper Government expands economic opportunities for women in non-traditional occupations A roundtable meeting was held in Regina, Sask. on April 10 to discuss women in non-traditional occupations, and highlighted the Harper Government's commitment to increasing economic opportunities for women.

“I am proud that our government supports the full participation of women in the economic and social life of our country, including in non-traditional occupations,” said Susane Truppe, Parliamentary Secretary for Status of Women and Member of Parliament for London North Centre. "I believe the greater the role women play in these sectors, the more they can contribute to jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.”

To meet this priority, Economic Action Plan 2013 announced a number of measures to better connect Canadians with job opportunities. These measures will contribute to increased representation of women in all occupations, including skilled trades and other non-traditional occupations, many of which are experiencing skills shortages.

“Our Government remains focused on what matters to Canadians—jobs, growth and long-term economic prosperity,” said Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women. “Empowering more women to succeed in non-traditional careers makes sense for Canadian women and Canada’s economy.”

Susan Truppe is hosting a series of roundtables, as well as meetings with representatives from various non-traditional sectors for women including, mining, engineering and construction trades.

“We are honoured to host this Status of Women Canada roundtable,” said Larry Rosia, president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology. “There has never been a better time to pursue a trades or technical education. Technology is essential to economic development, and there are excellent career opportunities in a wide variety of technical fields.”

Women now represent nearly half the Canadian workforce, yet continue to be under-represented in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In 2009, women represented just 22.3 per cent of Canadians with occupations in engineering, mathematics and natural sciences. In 2012, women represented only 4 per cent of those working in construction trades, and 20 per cent of those working in primary industries such as forestry, mining, oil and gas.

The government's support through Status of Women Canada for community-based projects has nearly doubled since 2006-2007, from $10.8 million to close to $19 million, its highest level ever.

On March 13, at the site of the future Highway 407 Station, a collection of government officials and representitives from the the Toronto Transit Commission together launched the next stage of tunnel construction for the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE).

This stage of construction will see two

tunnel boring machines (TBMs) "Yorkie" and "Torkie" create twin tunnels linking the site of the future Highway 407 Station to the Steeles West Station site.

"Our Government has made significant investments to reduce gridlock, cut commute times and make public transit more page 12 convenient for commuters," said

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INDUSTRY NEWS

10 most common construction fraud schemes Diverted funds. Materials misuse.

Padded bills. Hidden cost overruns.

Every day, construction firms lose money to fraud perpetrated by employees, contractors, subcontractors and venture partners. In fact, a global study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) ranked real estate and construction fraud as the second and third most costly frauds in terms of median loss, and estimated that the average loss was a startling $628,500.

Despite media headlines and stereotypes, construction companies are often the victims of fraud rather than the perpetrators.

Construction numbers remain strong in Canada, and particularly in Toronto, which is estimated to have more skyscrapers and high rises under construction than any other North American city. From businesses in commercial construction to individuals involved in residential construction, it’s critical to understand fraud.

Grant Thornton LLP has released a new white paper, Construction fraud in Canada—Understand it, prevent it, detect it, which outlines the severity of fraud, lists the most common types of fraud schemes, and shows how to prevent and detect fraud.

The report provides details of the 10 most common construction fraud-related schemes: 1. Non-payment of subcontractors and material suppliers.

2. Billing for unperformed work.

3. Manipulating the schedule of values (SOV) and contingency accounts.

4. Diverting lump-sum cost to time-andmaterial costs.

5. Substituting or removing materials.

6. Change order manipulation.

7. Falsifying payment applications.

8. Subcontractor collusion.

9. Diverting purchases and stealing equipment or tools.

10. False representations.

The report also highlights red flags that may be helpful in identifying fraudulent activities, allowing companies to take action or implement controls to prevent fraud. For example, does one person dominate or control an entire process? Are subcontractors complaining of delayed payments? Are there unusual bid patterns?

“A strong fraud strategy can help companies reduce the risk of fraud loss, of course, but the benefits extend far beyond,” says David Malamed, senior partner, Fraud and Investigative Services, Grant Thornton LLP. “Fraud has a host of additional costs, such as penalties for violating industry standards or regulatory requirements, project delays or cancellations, escalating costs and reputational risk. A good fraud prevention program may even prevent injury or loss of life if the fraud involves the use of substandard or unsafe materials.”

The growing prevalence of construction fraud is not a myth or the product of hype—it’s happening, and the stakes are high.

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from page 10 Labour Minister Lisa Raitt. "This is the kind of smart urban transportation that will improve air quality, create good local jobs and long-term economic growth in the GTA." The TBMs will bore a little more than one kilometre of twin subway tunnels at a rate of approximately 15 m a day, southeast from this launch location to an extraction site. "Holey," "Moley," "Yorkie" and "Torkie" are the official names of the four TBMs that are being used to build the tunnels for the TYSSE.

The TYSSE project is an 8.6-km extension of the Toronto Transit Commission's (TTC) Yonge-University-Spadina subway line from its present terminus at Downsview Station to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre at Highway 7. It will have six new subway stations, including one at York University and three new commuter parking lots. The subway expansion will bring the line into York Region.

The TYSSE is expected to be completed by fall 2016 and will generate thousands of jobs from construction.

The Government of Canada has committed up to $697 million to the project, $622 million through its Building Canada Fund. The remaining $75 million has already been transferred to the project under the Public Transit Capital Trust 2006.

The Province of Ontario has provided $870 million towards the TYSSE project through the Move Ontario Trust. The City of Toronto is contributing $526 million to the project and The Regional Municipality of York is contributing $352 million. The TTC is the project manager for the extension.

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hosted a ground breaking ceremony for Deloitte Tower April 2—the city’s first privatelyowned and financed commercial office tower to be built in more than 20 years. The ceremony marked the launch of Cadillac Fairview’s $2-billion multi-year plan to redevelop a prime sector of downtown Montreal. Deloitte Tower will comprise 495,000 sq. ft. of office space and 20,000 sq. ft. of retail space. > Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. (RES Canada), a leader in the construction of wind and solar projects in Canada, has started construction on the 270MW South Kent Wind project. Located within the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, Ont., the project is being developed by Samsung Renewable Energy, Inc. and Pattern Energy Group LP. RES Canada was selected to serve as the general contractor and will oversee project management of all construction activities. > George Brown College hosted a groundbreaking ceremony last month marking the start of construction on a new facility that will support the growing Canadian green and smart building market. When completed in 2014, the building will house full-scale applied research development projects in partnership with local businesses and train students in advanced construction systems, green energy and computer-enabled, efficient buildings, methods, standards and technologies. > Infrastructure Ontario and Joseph Brant Hospital have issued a request for qualifications to design, build and finance the hospital’s expansion and modernization project, the first expansion in more than 40 years. The project includes the construction of a new six-storey patient-care tower and significant renovations to existing space to provide the growing local community with improved access to a larger, more modern hospital. > The Harper Government has announced a $28.8-million contract for construction of a waste water treatment plant at the site of the planned Port Granby long-term, low-level radioactive waste management facility. The contract was awarded to Maple Reinders Engineering and Construction Ltd. of Mississauga, Ont.

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FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY. PUNCH LIKE A SLEDGEHAMMER.

On the jobsite, there’s no need to come out with both guns blazing. The key is having just the right amount of firepower to get the job done. The Mack® Granite® MHD is designed for shorter runs and lighter-duty cycles. But don’t sell it short. It’s a bona fide workhorse that exerts its authority over tough tasks. Yes, the Granite is durable, ergonomically advanced, and less expensive to operate. Just don’t call it pretty.

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CONSTRUCTION STATS A selection of data reflecting trends in the Canadian construction industry

$ billions 7.8 7.4 7.0

Building permits up in February

6.6

Canadian municipalities issued building permits worth $6.0 billion in February, a 1.7 per cent increase from January. Higher construction intentions in the non-residential sector in eight provinces, led by Alberta, more than offset a decline in the residential sector. Despite February’s advance, the total value of building permits has been trending downwards since late 2012.

6.2 5.8 5.4 5.0 4.6 4.2 3.8 3.4 3.0

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Note(s): The higher variability associated with the trend-cyde estimates is indicated with a dotted line on the corrent reference month and the tree previous months.

Planning, recruitment, training key to meeting national construction needs On March 26 a forecast of labour supply and demand was released, stating construction will need to recruit more than 250,000 workers, including the traditional number of new entrants to the workforce, to meet building needs from now until 2021.

A large portion of this need (about 210,000) is to replace retiring workers, according to the Construction Looking Forward, National Summary, 2013-2021, published by the Construction Sector Council.

Unemployment was down in March Following an increase the previous month, employment declined by 55,000 in March, all in full time. The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 7.2 per cent. Despite the decline in March, employment was 1.2 per cent or 203,000 above the level of 12 months earlier, with the increase mainly in full-time work.

Over the same period, the total number of hours worked also rose by 1.2 per cent. Provincially, employment declined in Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, and edged down in Ontario.

The only province with an increase was Nova Scotia.

Employment thousands 17,900 17,700 17,500 17,300 17,100 16,900 16,700 16,500

Source: Statistics Canada

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S:7”

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T:10.875”

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Envision a world that doesn’t just turn. It flies.

The

HEAT GOES ON How global warming will impact infrastructure.

By JIM BARNES

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COVER STORY

E

verybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” the old saying goes. That is changing, though. The weather— specifically, climate change—is becoming a growing threat and people are beginning to do something.

“There’s no question that the world’s climate is changing. It doesn’t matter why… It’s going to change, and that means we have to change with it,” says Clive Thurston, president, Ontario General Contractors Association, Mississauga, Ont. Everyone in this industry— owners, architects, engineers and contractors included—is in the front lines in this struggle.

Climate change is a “how to boil a frog” proposition… the changes have been gradual as the temperature rises slowly. There is almost no aspect of life in Canada that will not eventually be touched by these events. Repairing the damage, building new infrastructure to support northern development and building defences against natural disaster are all challenges Canada’s construction industry will face.

In Canada, on average, temperatures increased by more than 1.3 degrees C between 1948 and 2007. That increase was about twice the global average, according to Professor Gordon McBean, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction affiliated with the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. The national average temperature for 2010 was 3.0 degrees C above normal, making it the warmest year on record since record keeping began in 1948.

Average global temperatures are warmer today than at any time in at least 4,000 years, Shaun Marcott and other researchers recently reported in the journal Science. Over the coming decades, they are likely to exceed levels not seen since the last ice age. And this is all happening in the blink of a geological eye.

Polar disorderII The Arctic is ground zero for these changes. Mean temperatures are increasing at twice the North American average rate there,

according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Paris. Since the 1980s, temperatures at the top of the permafrost layer have increased by some 3 degrees C. Last September, the ice over the Arctic Ocean shrank to a new, recorded low: 3.41 million sq. km. It may become completely ice-free in summer by 2030.

A NASA study revealed that the Arctic could experience the equivalent of a 20-degree latitude shift by the end of the century, compared to 1980. “It’s like Winnipeg, Man., moving to MinneapolisSaint Paul in only 30 years,” said researcher Compton Tucker of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

FACT! Global temperatures are warmer today than at any time in at least 4,000 years.

The loss of the sea ice will be a game-changer for the region. »» T he Port of Churchill in Manitoba may become a major transportation gateway for trans-polar shipping to Northern Europe. »» Mining and oil and gas resources in the region will become much more accessible. »» New fisheries will open up. »» As countries race to reinforce their claims, demand for military and police facilities will expand. »» Infrastructure for all of the above will be needed urgently.

“There is going to be a huge demand for construction in both

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COVER STORY

the public and private sectors,” says Michael Atkinson, president, Canadian Construction Association, Ottawa, Ont. An Arctic staple, permafrost, will become noticeable by its absence. Recently, a showplace RCMP headquarters in Iqaluit was badly damaged when the thermosyphons needed to keep the permafrost it was built on solid, failed, for reasons yet to be determined.

“It has become obvious that climate warming is progressing in the North more rapidly than is being recognized and this will impact the stability of many structures that are built on frozen ground,” said consulting engineer Igor Holubec in a 2008 report, Flat Loop Thermosyphon Foundations in Warm Permafrost.

“In the north, requirements will change for infrastructure and building as a result of what’s happening to the permafrost,” said Karen Leibovici, president, Canadian Federation of Municipalities.

She points out that ice roads, used in winter to service remote communities, are on the endangered list. A way has to be found to replace them. “The costs to employers there in terms of transportation are going to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. We need to ensure that those northern communities are not isolated,” she adds.

FACT! The occurrence of forest fires in Canada could increase 25% by 2030.

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colonization by new species, infestations by insects and frequent forest fires.

In fact, the occurrence of forest fires in Canada may increase by 25 per cent by 2030, depending on which region is considered.

“The rate of change [in the B.C. forests] is so rapid that no equilibrium will be reached for a century. It will probably take centuries,” Richard Hebda, curator of botany and Earth history at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, B.C. told the Calgary Herald. “British Columbia is going to be transformed into something very different in geologically very short order—within the lifetime of a human.”

While flood and drought seldom belong in the same sentence, climate change will bring both to Canada. For example, warming in the mountains will decrease snowpack, simultaneously increasing winter flooding and reducing summer flows.

By 2050, seasonal precipitation is expected to decline over parts of western and Atlantic Canada in the summer, while average precipitation is likely to increase over all of Canada in the winter.

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The thawing Arctic will have another consequence.

Melting sea ice means higher sea levels—a potential increase of a metre or more over the next century, according to McBean, and Canada’s coastal cities will suffer.

In Atlantic Canada, sea levels have been rising anyway, for geological reasons. The additional increase in sea level will accelerate the problem, causing erosion, rapid migration of beaches and flooding of coastal freshwater marshes.

Storm surges in particular will be a problem for coastal cities, where unprecedented flooding is to be expected.

The west coast will face the same problems, particularly for lowlying municipalities like Delta, which could face inundation when sea levels rise.

Rises in temperature will have dramatic effects. In areas not affected by drought, agriculture may benefit. Warmer temperatures will open up new regions to agriculture, creating profitable farmlands. In the cities, demand for air conditioning and potable water will rise, straining already rickety systems.

The impact on forests will likely be significant. As a consequence of the temperature change, expect loss of old-growth trees,

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COVER STORY

At the same time, frequent and heavy storms will create flooding in many parts of the country. Flooding damage accounts for the highest number of property insurance claims in Canada. Low water levels will derive from increased heat and from changes in precipitation.

Alberta experienced severe drought last year, caused by a combination of high summer temperatures and low precipitation. The result was economic hardship and increases in food prices. Match that with severe flooding in Winnipeg and Ontario.

suPersTormsii The poster child of climate change is the superstorm. Superstorm Sandy, which hit the U.S. Eastern Seaboard last fall, inflicted an estimated $20 billion in insured losses.

More storms of all kinds can be expected. Natural Resources Canada expects more frequent freezing rain events because of climate change, with tremendous potential for destruction. Just one, the ice storm that hit Ontario and Quebec in 1998, caused total insurance losses of nearly $1.5 billion and damaged power lines, telephone cables, transmission towers and utility poles. Over a million people in Ontario lost power, in some cases for almost three weeks. “[Our] infrastructure was built to withstand storms that would come once every hundred years, and now we’re seeing them once every 10 to 20 years,” says Leibovici.

The strain on municipal infrastructure is building. “It’s going to mean a real reassessment of our public-infrastructure assets,” says Atkinson. “As storms get worse, there’s going to be a need to rehabilitate some of our storm-sewer systems.”

Water is becoming a major challenge. “[Some insurance losses] are driven in part by Canada’s aging sewer infrastructure, which is often incapable of handling the new, higher levels of precipitation,” says McBean. “A significant long-term deficit in infrastructure improvement has left sanitary/surface water systems vulnerable as, in some areas of the country, the storm and sanitary sewer infrastructure is simply unable to handle the increasing levels of precipitation.”

Retrofits to culverts, greater use of permeable paving, reinforced electrical and telecom infrastructure, upgrades to stormwater management systems and water-treatment facilities and modifications to dams can all be expected.

“Our older infrastructure needs to be upgraded to meet the demands resulting from climate change,” says Leibovici. “In my own city of Edmonton, we’ve had some severe flooding issues over the past 10 years. We have had to repair and rebuild our drainage systems to meet the new requirements.”

“The infrastructure that supported Canada’s rapid growth in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s is now reaching the end of its service life and must be replaced,” noted a document published by the Municipal Infrastructure Forum, itself sponsored by the FCM. It

FACT! Superstorm Sandy inflicted an estimated $20B in insured losses last fall.

cited worn-out municipal roads, upgrades needed for a quarter of Canada’s wastewater plants and traffic congestion in particular.

CraCKing THe Codesii “Some [municipal] infrastructure is reaching 50, 60 or 100 years old. The standards are changing. We need to make sure that we can meet the new requirements and standards,” says Leibovici.

Governments at all levels are starting to work on codes, standards and regulations.

For example, one focus of the next edition of Ontario’s Building Code is to make buildings in Ontario more resilient to the impacts of extreme weather linked to climate change.

22 / APRIL 2013

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Ontario is working with other provinces and the federal government through the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes to update climate data for the model National Building Code and new provincial building codes across Canada. “[The Standards Council of Canada] is committed to mobilizing the expertise of Canada’s national standardization network to identify solutions that will address the unique vulnerabilities of Canada’s northern infrastructure,” says John Walter, CEO, Standards Council of Canada.

Northern construction is an urgent concern.

“CSA Group has actively been researching the role standards and codes play in helping to mitigate the risk associated with changing climate and its impact on infrastructure in various regions of Canada since 2005,” says Bonnie Rose, president, Standards, CSA Group.

“From the impact of prairie drought to increased hurricanes in the East to less ice in the North, CSA Group has been examining how these changes will affect existing infrastructure and new construction standards. This collective knowledge will prove invaluable in developing new standards for Canada’s far northern cities, towns and aboriginal communities,” she says.

In November, CSA announced it is developing four new standards related to climate change in Northern Canada, as part of the Northern Infrastructure Standardization Initiative (NISI): » Thermosyphon-supported foundations for new buildings in permafrost; » Moderating the effects of permafrost degradation on existing buildings; » Changing snow loads in the North; and, » Community drainage system planning, design and maintenance.

Short-term thinking about climate change got us here. Short-term thinking about a response to the problem will make things even worse. Early planning and investment beat losses and disaster relief.

Part of the solution is in place… sustainable building practices have established a foothold in the Canadian industry. Alternative energy sources and better attitudes toward energy efficiency are coming into wider use, to avoid greenhouse gas emissions.

“Sadly, in terms of global warming, Canada is the country to be in and construction is the sector to be in,” says Atkinson.

Jim Barnes is a contributing editor to On-Site.

Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com

24 / APRIL 2013

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TRAILERS

the right trailer Contractors need to consider load, route and provincial restrictions when shopping for a heavy-haul trailer By DAvID GoDkIn

T

hey are the low-slung, unsung heroes of the heavy construction industry. Each year ensuring the safe transport of veritable armies of dozers, excavators, loaders and other heavy equipment from yards to work sites across North America. How to be sure the construction trailer you’re looking at is designed and built for maximum productivity and safety depends on the design skills of the manufacturer and the knowledge of the dealer renting or selling it to you.

Do the math At first glance, flat-bed and low-bed heavy haul trailers are disarmingly simple: your truck cab connects to a removable, hydraulic gooseneck curving down to the front of the deck assembly in behind the truck cab where a series of pins and plates connect or disconnect the cab and trailer deck. Manufacturers may design some of the parts in different ways, but the object is always the same: to ensure safe, smooth loading, transport and unloading of machines upwards of 120,000 lbs.

But is that all there is to a heavy haul trailer? Not on your life, says Russ Losh. The northeast sales rep for Talbert Manufacturing,

which specializes in the manufacture and sale of low-bed trailers, points to innumerable styles and configurations of axles intended to carry them along. These range from axle extensions to jeep dollies to steer dollies for bridge beams and Schnauble trailers to haul towers for the wind industry. The trick, according to what Losh and other trailer experts say, is knowing what machine type you’ll be using and what your trailer will likely encounter out there on the road.

That fully loaded flat-deck, for example, “gives you a level surface so you can put just about anything on it,” but it may also cost you many miles of extra travelling distance if it’s over height and has to be routed around a bridge. A popular option for getting as low to the ground as possible is a 4-ft.-wide beam deck.

“A beam trailer is a way to reduce your gross weight as well.

Since it is only a pair of beams you don’t have the sides, you don’t have the wood, flooring, you don’t have a lot of things adding weight to your combination. ” Some contractors prefer a drop side deck over a beam deck. It doesn’t allow you the lower height or weight of a beam deck, Losh says, but it’s easier and quicker to load.

Losh estimates the average contractor will haul between 35 and

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TRAILERS

r for the job 75 tonnes of heavy equipment across a range of one or two axles to as many as thirteen axles. Specialty trailers will haul well above 75 tonnes depending upon the axle combination at the rear bridge, but also upon state and provincial regulations. Some jurisdictions will not allow four axles, at which point an axle extension providing significant separation distance between the 3rd and 4th axle (e.g.

14 feet) allows you to carry heavier loads. No longer considered a four-axle group, but a three axle and single-axle group, this configuration gives comfort to state and provincial inspectors. “Bridge engineers,” explains Losh, “don’t want you concentrating heavy weights in small areas.”

Know where you’re heaDeD For Chaz Murray, purchasing and sales manager for Murray Trailers in Stockton, Calif., it all comes down to strength: Wheel and tire strength, deck beam strength, pin strength in the goose neck and overall main frame strength. “If the mainframe of the trailer isn’t strong enough you’re going to be scraping the ground as you’re going down the road.” The common denominator for every configuration, however, is what it’s made of. A514 or T1 steel is the metal of choice for manufacturing trailers supporting high machine loads, including the structure members, webs, tie downs and flanges “All the good ones are made out of high tensile T1 steel, not out of lower tensile 50M steel,” says Cory Nakonechny, trailer manager for Custom Truck Sales Inc. in Brandon, Man.

Hydraulic flip axle

“The other grades that would be used,” adds Losh, “are 80,000 psi minimum yield; or it could be lower ASTM A8572 strength steel, but the main loading bearing members are usually the T1 material.”

Murray says western U.S. companies mostly run a 16-tire, fiveaxle grouping (i.e. three axles under the truck and two under the trailer), which allow them to carry up to 92,000 lbs. and enough load strength to haul a 623 scraper or a D8 dozer with relative ease. Adding a jeep dolly on a four frame trailer across a seven-axle configuration will give you up to about 120,000 lbs. of capacity to haul 345 excavators. A 9 axle under a beam deck maxes out at around 180K, a step down trailer around 175K. Murray estimates a typical 16-tire configuration gives his trailers 25 per cent more capacity than is legally required. That’s

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TRAILERS

important because for most trailer manufacturers and sales staff the fear is not that their trailer won’t hold the load, but that state or provincial regulators think it won’t. One state might allow you to pull a 53-ft.-long trailer and not worry too much about king pin length, for example. Crossing into California on a STAA route using a three-axle trailer more than 48 ft. overall with a king pin longer than 40 ft., says Murray, “can get you into big trouble quick.”

State and provincial regulators gear their permitting restrictions to the type of roads that trailers will be travelling over in their region.

“If I’m hauling an 80,000 lb. blow case separator, says Nakonechny, “I could get away with a tri-axle with a single-axle jeep and a single-axle booster. Or a tri-drive tractor that’ll just make it with tridem low-boy. But everything has to do with where you’re travelling, whether it’s a main R-tech or a secondary municipal road.”

“So, know your route,” he adds, whether you’re buying or renting a trailer. Nakonechny drove heavy haul in the oil patch for eight years before joining the sales staff at Custom Truck 13 years ago, and says some Canadian provinces will allow you “to permit pretty much anything you want as long as you have the right number of axles and the right spread.” It’s all there in your DOT or trucker’s manual, but amazingly some haulers continue to carry equipment weights beyond their trailer’s GVW capacity. “It happens all the time.”

“But these jobs are so critical that most people are getting educated. If this was 20 years ago people would just load the machine on the trailer, but nowadays there are so many regulations on height, width and weight they can’t just do that anymore.”

Losh says the bottom line is that regulators want you to carry a machine in the simplest way possible, i.e. one machine per load and within the axle weight limitations of the permit and GVW of the trailer. Many states, he says, will also require you to remove the counterweight on your excavator or the blade from your dozer.

Because heavy haulers are paid based on distance travelled rather than weight all this has an obvious impact on your customer. The more that has to be transported separately, the greater the customer’s cost.

3 axle float with hydraulic flip axle & detachable neck

RIDE EASY The other cost is to the driver or owner operator spending long days out on the road carrying upwards of 90 tonnes of trailer, truck and machine. Choose a trailer with anything less than a 46,000 lb. air ride suspension on that load, says Nakonechny, “and it’s just going to beat up the driver and in the trailer systems. I mean, the trailer’s hopping and bouncing.” His Doepker trailers are outfitted with Hendrickson Intraax suspensions, his Globe heavy haul trailers with Cush suspension, each absorbing about half the impact from hard road conditions, he estimates. But long-term driver comfort depends on maintaining the suspension’s durability.

“Absolutely. You gotta watch the suspension, especially the wear points in the suspension, like if the rubbers are starting to wear out. They need to be changed out over a certain period of time as do any of the plastics.”

Losh agrees that on suspensions where there’s no welded axle connection the rubber bushings have to be monitored and replaced. That said, most suspensions these days have a lot fewer wear points than they used to. “Some manufacturers use an allwelded connection to eliminate that maintenance item.” Losh adds that 95 per cent of low-bed trailers produced by a quality manufacturer will be cushioned by an air ride system.

28 / APRIL 2013

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TRAILERS

With so much attention paid to keeping costs under control, many companies are also turning to lift axles.

“If you’re running both ways loaded it’s really not a big issue,” says Nakonechny, “but if you’re running thousands of kilometers and it’s 50 per cent empty, lift axles will save your tires and provide fuel economy.”

A fully loaded trailer also generates tremendous heat in the braking systems. Naturally, you check for pad wear, cracking in the brake drums etc., but some trailer dealers swear by disc brakes.

“They last longer, and they have better stopping power,” says Nakanechny. Others are less sure, including Rick Luska vice-president of Titan Sales in Burford, Ont. Coming downhill disc brakes perform better, but he believes they last about as long as drum brakes and are more costly. “So we don’t really push people in either direction on those.” Losh agrees: In areas where brakes get a lot of attention by inspectors, e.g. the Rockies “the extra cost isn’t so much of an issue.” Along those flat stretches in the American Midwest or the Canadian prairies “the brakes don’t wear as fast and the costs does become a factor.”

Others complain about the delay between truck brake application and trailer braking, causing one driver to keep his finger on his

brake controller when pulling a heavy disc brake trailer because that delay scared him so much. He argues ordinary electric drum brakes work fine as long as the brakes and wiring are in good shape and you have a good brake controller (BrakeSmart or MaxBrake) in your truck.

But whether it’s the size and type of load you’re carrying, state of the brakes, suspension or overall strength and structure, only well informed people can help you with your purchase or rental of a heavy haul trailer. Know your sales staff, says Nakonechny. Ask him about the grades of steel in the trailer he’s flogging. Do they offer hydraulic lifts and if not, why not? And what about the buzz around computerized steering controls that are all the rage in Europe and some gaining traction in North America. A worthy investment?

Nakonechny’s other message is to sales staff themselves and their relationship with the customer.

“You need to know your customer. Because it causes a problem if you’re not in tune with what the customer needs and what they're planning to do with the trailer.”

David Godkin is a B.C.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to On-Site. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.

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FOAMED ASPHALT

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sphalt roadbuilding costs are under pressure, and pretty much everyone—from owners to contractors—agrees on the need to get them under control. Foamed asphalt, first developed in the U.S. about 50 years ago, has the potential to keep a wide array of costs down on both new road construction and road rehabilitation. Use of the technology has been

growing quickly, starting in Europe a couple of decades ago and spreading around the world.

Today, foamed asphalt is in use from Northern Europe to Saudi Arabia.

There are a number of technological alternatives in producing warm-mix asphalt, notes Bob Forfylow, president of the Canadian Technical Asphalt Association and director of Quality for Lafarge Canada Inc.’s Asphalt Paving Group in Calgary. Some are based on

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waxy additives, while others involve the use of chemicals. The third alternative is mechanical foaming.

“There was a sort of a proliferation of all these different technologies,” says Forfylow.

The original work focused on additives, since they were relatively easy to produce and test in the lab. Mechanical foaming was of less interest to researchers at first, since the technology that made it productive was slow to develop.

However, there was a problem with additives: the additional cost. “It can cost $4 to $6 a ton to make this [kind of] warm mix, so the savings that were being generated were being offset by the costs of these proprietary products,” notes Forfylow.

That drove renewed interest in mechanical foaming, which has burgeoned in the past decade. “That has kind of taken over, today,” he says.

The concept is pretty straightforward. Water, equal in volume to about two per cent of the binder, is injected into the binder as steam. The steam bubbles result in foaming that causes the binder to expand to approximately 18 times its original volume. “Because of that tremendous increase in volume of the binder, you get better coating of the aggregate,” says Forfylow.

Demand drove the solution to the production puzzle and a small number of manufacturers supply this market now. “The first foam job done in Canada was in Calgary back in the mid-2000s,” says Forfylow.

because there’s better dispersion of the asphalt binder,” says Forfylow. That can give a contractor more time to work and compact the mix.

What ultimately determines whether foamed asphalt will be used in a given application?

Oddly enough, it often is not the application itself. “It has been tried in all kinds of applications, and to date has performed quite well,” says Forfylow. “It’s more a question of the experience and knowledge of the specifiers. It’s a question of how comfortable they feel with it.”

Is there a downside? Foamed asphalt pavement will often take a little longer to cool and cure. “Once you have density, you have to be careful you don’t open the road to traffic too quickly,” says Forfylow.

“On average, it’s about three to five days before you can pave the surface,” says Jason Herring, technical supervisor, BA Blacktop Ltd., North Vancouver, BC. “They recommend you wait until the moisture content in the new structure is about two per cent below the optimum… Obviously, the hotter the ambient temperature, the quicker it is going to cure. Ideally, you want to do this process in the summer, when you can get away with maybe two to three days of curing.”

Users need not be concerned about excessive moisture in the mix as a consequence of the foaming technology, emphasizes Forfylow.

“One of the biggest fallacies about mechanical foam technology is that you’re putting water in the mix. We do not put moisture in the mix.

We put moisture, two per cent by weight of the binder, into the binder itself. ”

After 50 years, a “new” techology catches on…

AdvAntAges The beauty of foamed asphalt lies as much in what it does not do as in what it does. It does not usually require special mixes or testing. It might help the contractor bypass heavy expenses in materials or logistics. It can be used with high percentages of recycled asphalt (up to 100 per cent) and aggregate, reducing energy, transportation and material costs. In addition, as with any recycled product, the impact on the environment is much less severe.

The foaming also helps with compaction. “It seems like there’s more lubricity in the mix

Cost Cutter BA Blacktop Inc. has been involved in a number of foamed asphalt projects in B.C. since 2010, including fairly large projects for the cities of Coquitalm, Delta and Burnaby.

“These projects have mainly been major arterial roads,” notes Herring.

The firm has been around since 1956. In 2009, Eurovia, a subsidiary of French conglomerate VINCI, acquired BA Blacktop. That gave BA Blacktop access to, and support for, new roadbuilding technology. Among those assets was Recyvia, an in-place full-depth

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FOAMED ASPHALT

The foamed asphalt process allows dramaticaly reduced shipping costs, because materials are pulverized and reused on-site.

recycling process for pavements that incorporated foamed asphalt technology.

In the beginning, they brought in the technical director of Eurovia. “We also brought in the main project superintendent from our subsidiary in Quebec, DGL Construction. We brought them out for several days during the first project for the city of Coquitlam,” explains Herring.

For that first job, all the materials went to DGL for the mix design. “Prior to the foaming, they came out and did a full training program with all the different equipment. Then our technical director and our project superintendent came out and helped us monitor things,” says Herring.

“With this process, everything is left in place,” explains Herring. “You’re doing what’s called a foamed-asphalt-base stabilization. You’re using the existing materials to create a much stronger foundation for the road structure.”

The existing material is pulverized and blended. “Ideally, you get a 50/50 blend of recycled, pulverized asphalt with your existing granular

material,” says Herring.

As an example, he cites Marine Way in Burnaby.

“That particular road needed to be re-profiled... We ended up having to put in a layer of virgin road base (a crushed, 100-per cent quarried aggregate) and we put in a layer on top of the blended, pulverized material. Then, we re-blended that into the existing materials to build up the profile.” A new asphalt pavement was laid on top of that.

“This process allows you to dramatically reduce the cost of shipping materials off-site,” notes Herring. “At the tail end of this process, we are coming back with our reclaimer and we are hooking up an asphalt cement truck. Then, we are spreading a certain amount of Portland cement in front of the area we are going to do.”

Typically, BA Blacktop was putting in about 2.5 per cent asphalt cement and one per cent Portland cement. They re-pulverized this material and foamed the asphalt.

“You are creating a much more stabilized structure. It’s a structure that is a lot stronger than conventional asphalt but also has the flexibility capacities.”

Herring foresees a strong future for the technology in road rehabilitation.

“You are basically reclaiming your existing road structure. We are pulverizing the existing asphalt and blending it in to the granular materials underneath. We are not removing and trucking off any materials. There is a huge savings in trucking and in purchasing new materials. If the road is deemed to need a complete rehabilitation, this is the ideal process,” he says.

As municipalities attempt to renew their infrastructure, foamed asphalt offers many advantages. Herring notes that many older roads in B.C. have inferior granular material underneath.

“Back then, they used a lot of what we call pit-run fill—whatever material happens to be available in the general area.” Such roads may not have the structural capacity for today’s heavier trucks and higher traffic volumes and need to be strengthened.

deCAdes of serviCe The process probably has a longer, deeper history in Eastern Canada than in the rest of the country.

“Ontario has sort of taken the lead,” says Forfylow.

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378

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FOAMED ASPHALT

“There is no such thing as hot-mix asphalt or warm-mix asphalt anymore.”

The Ministry of Transportation—Ontario constructed its first full-depth reclamation project with foamed asphalt on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 17) north of Sault Ste. Marie in 2001.

This 22.5 km stretch of highway was originally constructed in 1959 and was resurfaced in 1981, noted Tom Kazmierowski, manager of MTO’s Materials Engineering and Research Office, in a 2012 paper entitled 10-Year Performance of FDR with Foamed Asphalt Stabilization.

ARAN (Automatic Road Analyzer) surveys carried out in the following years found that the pavement remained smooth (International Roughness Index of <1) and in good condition (Pavement Condition Index of >85) after 10 years in service, according to the report.

Foamed asphalt is ready for prime time. By some estimates, as much as 85 per cent of all the warm mix asphalt in North America is performed with mechanical foaming technology.

T:7”

It is well on its way to becoming the norm in many North American jurisdictions. “There is no such thing as hot-mix asphalt or warm-mix asphalt anymore. It’s just asphalt concrete,” says Forfylow. “The state of Texas doesn’t even specify. They do not differentiate because there is no difference. Warm mix has the same properties or better properties than conventional hot mix.”

What about the technology’s future in this country? “Canadians are a bit of a cautious bunch. Our American cousins have really adopted the technology, and most of the work being done there now in most of the states is warm mix,” explains Forfylow. “Most of the work in Canada has been done on a trial basis—trial, by trial, by trial.”

Jim Barnes is On-Site’s contributing editor.

Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com

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TECHNOLOGY

Edgy E-Newsletters E-Newsletters: 12 Best practices for commercial contractors

D

BY JOE DYSART

espite all the buzz over social media, email newsletters still remain extremely cost-effective tools for commercial contractors— tools that can create strong, emotional bonds with customers that are not easily severed.

“It’s a key element of how we communicate not only with our members but also to ‘future’ members, and others in the construction industry,” says Keith Sashaw, president, Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VCRA).

A highly regarded consultant on effective email newsletter design, Jakob Nielsen, principal Nielsen Norman Goup, says subscribers’ emotional bond with the medium is so strong, they are reluctant to ‘unsubscribe’—even when they no longer read the email newsletter regularly.

For contractors looking to experiment with email newsletters, or improve upon the email newsletters they’re already sending out, here are 12 best practices to keep in mind:

3. DON’T BE OVERLY NOSEY: Jeanne Jennings, an e-marketing consultant, recommends companies ask for no more than five to seven subscriber information items on its subscription page.

4. DON’T MAKE A SUBSCRIBER FEEL LIKE A TARGET: “Asking for a street address, phone number or information on purchase authorization signals you want to see the registrant’s information and fill her electronic, snail and voice mailboxes with solicitations,” explains Jennings. “People will either abandon the page without subscribing or lie. Neither of these furthers your cause.”

5. BE HONEST ABOUT HOW YOU’LL DEAL WITH A SUBSCRIBER: “Include elements that increase registration rates, such as links to a sample issue and your privacy policy,” says Jennings. “Include a brief (one or two sentence) summary of the privacy policy on the subscription page.”

1. REALIZE GOING IN, YOU’RE PLAYING WITH A POWERFUL

6. DELIVER ON YOUR NEWSLETTER MISSION PROMISE:

MEDIUM: “The positive emotional aspect of newsletters is that they can create much more of a bond between user and company than a website can,” says Nielsen. “The negative aspect is that usability problems have a much stronger impact on the customer relationship than they normally do.”

Perry McEwen, e-newsletter editor, KMA Contracting, based in Guelph, Ont. adds: “Our e-newsletter keeps the KMA name out there. As a result we have many repeat customers and referrals.”

Even though virtually all e-newsletters are free, all must deliver on the content promises made to the subscriber.

Essentially, the right to space in a subscriber’s email box has to be earned with each issue. “The cost in clutter must be paid for by being helpful and relevant to users—and by communicating these benefits in a few characters in the subject line,” says Nielsen.

2. DON’T WASTE POTENTIAL SUBSCRIBERS’ TIME: Too often, subscribing to an email newsletter quickly becomes a convoluted process, demanding the completion of a long, drawn-out form.

Nielsen recommends an online subscribing process that takes no more than 60-seconds.

7. KEEP IT SIMPLE: Users are most responsive to newsletters that get to the point quickly in a colorful way, according to Nielsen.

Sashaw agrees: “Make sure it is to the point and relevant.”

KMA’s McEwen adds: “There is a fine line between keeping your network of contacts informed, and boring their socks off. I keep the e-newsletter short, sweet and to the point and include lots of photographs.”

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TECHNOLOGY

8. PUBLISH REGULARLY: “A predictable publication frequency that is not too aggressive is usually best, except for newsletters that report breaking news,” says Nielsen. “A regulator publication schedule lets users know when to look for the newsletter and reduces the probability that it will be deleted.”

1

2

9. INTEGRATE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA: Every e-newsletter presents an opportunity to engage with a business via Facebook, follow that business on Twitter, share the e-newsletter with a friend or download a complementary mobile app. The trick is to seamlessly integrate all mediums to maximize this opportunity.

“We are just beginning to look into that element,” says Sashaw. “We have ramped up our social media activity with Facebook sites for Vancouver Regional Construction Association and our VRCA U35 Network, and have a Twitter account.”

10. TEST YOUR EMAIL DESIGN FOR MOBILE DEVICES: If you suspect a significant number of subscribers want to receive your e-newsletter on their mobile device, test to see how your design fares on Email Grader (http://email.grader.com/). If your newsletter fails the test for mobiles here, you’ll want to design a specially formatted version just for mobile devices.

11. DON’T PLAY GAMES WITH THE “UNSUBSCRIBE” FUNCTION: Understandably, companies that amass legions of newsletter subscribers are reluctant to say goodbye to all those potential customers. Consequently, many are tempted to make unsubscribing an arduous process. Bad move. Not only will you irritate potential customers—you’ll continue to irritate them each time your unwanted newsletter shows up in their email box.

“Users are substantially more critical of a slow unsubscribe process,” says Nielson. “Once you want out, you want out quickly.”

12. CHOOSE YOUR MAIL NEWSLETTER TECHNOLOGY WISELY: The latest generation of higher-end email service providers, who offer their services in the cloud, enable marketers to engage in extremely sophisticated analytics. For starters, such services allow senders to track every point-and-click that occurs within every e-newsletter and other e-messages they send.

In addition, these providers enable you to slice-and-dice your email newsletter data virtually any way you like, producing custom reports that help you continually refine your tome’s efficacy.

Enterprise-level contractors, for example may want to consider StrongMail’s Social Studio (www.strongmail.com/products/strongmail-social-studio/) service, for example, enables companies to match email addresses in their databases with ‘top influencers’— or people who have a lot of active friends online—and then reach

3

1. “There is a fine line between keeping your network of contacts informed and boring their socks off,” says KMA Contracting’s Perry McEwen.

2. MailChimp is an inexpensive online email newsletter service.

3. ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Hub enables marketers to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.

out to those influencers to contribute to the email newsletter, as well as to company social media online.

A number of marketers, for example, have already used Social Studio to invite such widely read bloggers and other influencers to alert their Facebook friends about discounts and promotions, and then give rewards to those influencers who generate the most conversions in terms of referred sales or another desired action.

“The real value of social media marketing is to move beyond merely listening, to start driving actual revenue,” says Paul Bates, UK managing director at StrongMail.

Meanwhile, ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Hub (www.exacttarget.com/hub/index.html), offers a CoTweet Social module, that enables marketers to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts, track conversations, schedule posts—while monitoring all the activity with analytics and reports.

And another module within the package, Sites, gives marketers the ability to create, design and deploy static, interactive or socially enabled landing pages in the online versions of your email newsletter to support specific marketing campaigns.

Similar programs with sophisticated analytics solutions include Interact Campaign, from Responsys (www.responsys.com/suite/

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TECHNOLOGY

index.php), and the aforementioned Social Studio from for starters. This is GroupMail’s entry-level product. More robust verStrongMail, both long-established email-marketing companies. sions—GroupMail Business and Groupmail Marketing Pack—offer Fortunately, for contractors looking to invest less coin, there many more features. are also a number of extremely powerful, PC-based email Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in newsletter software packages that are much less expensive, Manhattan. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com but still extremely sophisticated. Top programs in this genre include: • Campaign Enterprise, from Arial Software $985 (http://www.arialsoftware. com/enterprise.htm): A longtime favorite, Campaign Enterprise enables you to track every click subscribers make in your newsletter. Plus, it offers scores of variables to personalize you email newsletter with the subscriber’s name, company and other distinguishing data. You’ll also be able to insert varied paragraphs, images and other content elements, enabling you to customize an email newsletter by region, demographics, the type of relationship you have with the recipient and more.

• Atomic Email Studio, from AtomPark Software $299 (www.massmailsoftware.com/ studio/): Another extremely popular program, Atomic Email Studio also allows you to personalize each email newsletter you send with info about each subscriber you have in your database. You’ll also be able to work with your email newsletters using the Studio’s task-specific modules, including List Manager, Subscription Manager and Mail Verifier. Other modules enable you to autocollect new subscribers for your newsletter from you website, as well as hunt for email addresses on your PC. • SendBlaster Pro, from Nuraxis $199 (www.sendblaster.com/): Another highly rated solution, SendBlaster also offers personalization, as well as list maintenance In 2009, Husqvarna released our first remote-controlled demolition tools and analytics. It can run a spam-alert robot. In four short years, we now offer five robots. check on your email newsletter, to ensure it complies with all spam laws and is not charOur machines were developed to be highly maneuverable, powerful, stable and with a long reach. They are built to perform in tough, dusty acterized as such by the scores of ‘spam cop’ environments and are operated by an easy-to-use Bluetooth® equipped websites that are currently policing the Web. remote control. In addition to all the innovative features, Husqvarna’s • GroupMail Personal Edition, from Infacta, expertise and field technicians offer highly accessible and competent $139 (www.group-mail.com/): Another reliable service and support. package, GroupMail Personal Edition offers personalization for each email newsletHUSQVARNA CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS ter you send, 38 HTML templates to 2077 Bond Street • North Bay, Ontario P1B 8J8 • T 800-461-9589 • F 800-825-0028 • www.husqvarnacp.ca Copyright © 2013 Husqvarna AB (publ.) All rights reserved. Husqvarna is a registered trademark of Husqvarna AB (publ.). choose from and mailing list management,

Breaking through.

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SOFTWARE

By Jacob Stoller

C

Managing the risks of BYOD

ontractors have been securing mobile devices for decades. The growing use of employee-owned smart phones and tablets on company networks, however, brings security risks that demand a re-thinking of corporate privacy policies.

Life used to be simple. When a supervisor logged into the corporate network from a jobsite, it was on a company-owned mobile device, protected by the company’s IT security mechanisms. Today, thanks to the rapid rise of the bring-your-own device (BYOD) phenomenon, more and more people are logging in on personally-owned devices that IT has little or no control over.

Company-owned devices still predominate in the construction industry—according to a March 2013 study commissioned by Sage Software, three out of four construction firms supply mobile devices to their employees. However, the study also found one-third of construction firms have policies permitting BYOD. IT departments have traditionally used several mechanisms for securing companyowned devices. These include stipulating terms of usage, installing security and other protective software, and ensuring the device can be remotely accessed by the IT department, who can, if necessary, shut down the device, or remove data from it if there is an apparent threat.

With personally-owned devices, things get complicated. Unless there is a written agreement to the contrary, employees maintain the right to install their own apps and use the device with no restrictions.

Furthermore, they have a legal right under the Charter to keep their personal

information on the device private.

This means the same device that houses sensitive company information that IT needs to secure, such as competitive pricing data or emails about a liability issue, could also contain confidential employee information that might be used, for example, as evidence in a divorce proceeding.

GettinG it riGht What’s needed is a set of policies that give IT security personnel the permission and tools they need to monitor and secure any device that is used to access corporate data. This begins with a signed agreement whereby the employee grants the company the right to access and remove data from that device. While this may sound extreme, experts say this is an absolute requirement for companies allowing BYOD. “Asking for access to corporate data on their personal device is a deal that employees are making,” says Toronto-based Constantine Karbaliotis, Americas Privacy Leader for Global HR firm Mercer. “Expectation for privacy has to be diminished, because the corporation needs to protect the information on their networks.”

Of course, with the rising use of the cloud for data storage, protecting what’s stored on the device solves only part of the problem—much of the data employees handle is stored at various online locations.

“If you have assets in multiple places, you can’t impose a security perimeter around a specific location,” says Michael O’Neil, CEO of Toronto-based research firm IT Market Dynamics. “You instead secure access to any location by centering your approach on the identity of the user.”

Consequently, firms are starting to boost their ability to track and secure employees’ corporate identities.

teChnoloGy to the resCue Technology vendors now offer a variety of solutions that allow the user to log into a mobile device separately as either employee or private individual. A common approach, offered by San Francisco software provider VMWare and others, is an application called a container, that gives employees access to the corporate computing environment. Another, is a mobile device with two SIM cards—one for personal and one for corporate. Of course, some people simply own two smart phones.

Canadian technology icon Blackberry has taken the dual persona concept a step further in their latest enterprise software release with a feature called Balance. The ease of moving back and forth between corporate and personal—all it takes is the swipe of a finger on a Blackberry device— effectively removes the inconvenience of two separate logins. The segregation is complete, however—it’s not even possible to copy data from one environment to the other.

Technology, however, will not solve the BYOD problem on its own. Companies must have policies and procedures in place that protect their right to protect corporate data on any devices used by employees. This is especially true in the construction industry, where legal risks are greater than in many other industries. As Karbaliotis points out, companies need to create these policies with a thorough understanding of the quantitative risks specific to their business.

“The goal is to try to be proactive, not reactive,” says Karbaliotis. “Don’t sleepwalk into these situations.”

Jacob Stoller is principal of Toronto-based consultancy Stoller Strategies. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.

40 / April 2013

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April 2013

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RISK

By David Bowcott

“I

Celebrating failure to manage risk

’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”—Michael Jordan The captioned quote was delivered via a commercial at the height of Michael Jordan’s basketball career. Originally delivered to sell more Nike Air Jordan’s, the simplicity and clarity of this message connected with many at the time, and even today it is cited as amongst the best and most inspirational TV commercials of all time.

It connected with many because its message was simple, it isn’t your success that makes you successful it is learning from your failures and maintaining a hunger to try (and try your best) that makes you successful.

Celebrating failure is a growing trend in many industries. Construction is no different. Recently a client of mine told me a great story about a major project his firm was bidding on. He mentioned to me his bid team came out of a meeting on the project high fiving each other and patting each other on the back. It was almost as if they’d won the job, even though the job wasn’t closing for a few days. When the bid team was asked by a fellow employee what it was they were celebrating, one of the leads on the team said: “We found over 20 potentially devastating mistakes in the bid we were about to propose. Finding those failures will likely win us the job!”

Not unlike Jordan, this bid team is using the “shots” they’ve all made in the past to uncover potential bad shots in the future. Effectively the failures this firm experienced in the past have become their

“We found over 20 potentially devastating mistakes in the bid we were about to propose. Finding those failures will likely win us the job.”

battle scars, and like many battle wounds, you remember quite vividly how you obtained them, and more importantly, how to avoid them in the future. It’s easy to celebrate success, but putting aside the anger and embarrassment associated with failure in order to focus on the “why” of failure, is perhaps more worthy of celebration.

As more project delivery models are used that stress transparency, collaboration and the long-term effectiveness of the asset being developed, the need to focus on risk management up front will continue to grow.

Experience, or battle scars, will be drawn upon more frequently during the planning stages of these projects, so the need to tap into those experiences will be a vital ingredient to successful project execution.

It isn’t only about having the experiences to tap into, but how effective your firm is at documenting these experiences and sharing them, so you can better serve your clients.

So how do you capture and use past experiences to more effectively meet the demands of new delivery models (and new asset owners)? The following are some high level ideas: Create a culture of failure celebration – People fail and employees shouldn’t be taught to keep failure in the dark. Failure should be exposed and celebrated so that it can be used to avoid repeats.

Use technology to transmit failure solutions – Through the power of networks, the experience of a few can be shared with the many. Invest in technology that can effectively share battle scars.

Peer benchmarking – Some consulting or risk advisory firms offer the ability to benchmark your best practices (which are largely founded on your firm’s experiences)

against the best in the business.

Find the right firm to execute this report and pay the relatively small fees to find out how effective your practices are in fighting future potential failures.

Associations – They aren’t just for great conferences. Encourage your association to create platforms for sharing experiences and best practices.

Track root cause of loss data – As contractors you see how design, labour or materials failed to perform as planned.

The frequency at which you see this is often far greater than most owners, design firms, financiers and asset operators.

Harness this information and use these failures to ensure future success.

Acquire and/or hire experience – If you do not have employees with experience with specific project types then hire them.

Growing experience can be expensive and sometimes the acquisition of a company or the hiring of a person may save you from the pain of gaining your own battle scars.

Look for the battle scars in the company or employee you are looking to acquire/hire.

Tap into your insurance partners – Insurance is founded around failures. When something goes wrong, chances are it is insurable. Ensure you have an insurance broker and an insurance market with experience and they have the ways and means to allow you to tap into the collective experiences of their clients so as to assist you in navigating future risks.

These are but a few ways to amplify your failures or learn from the failures of others to better manage risk in your firm.

David Bowcott is senior vice-president, national director of large/strategic accounts, AON Reed Stenhouse Inc. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.

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ONS_T

READY TO CRACK

THE TOP 40?

On-Site’s annual Top Contractor Report will be published in the June issue.

Simply go to www.on-sitemag.com and click on Top Contractors, then Get Listed.

Send your completed survey from to us by May 7, 2013

50 or less employees?

We’ve got a category for you too. We’ll interview and profile the winner in the June issue of On-Site - just like we did with last year’s winner Metro-Can Construction of Surrey, BC.

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CONTRACTORS & THE LAW

By Matthew Swanson & Brandon Hillis

T

Terminating employees for cause

erminating employees can be difficult, stressful and, if not done properly, expensive. This is particularly true when an employee has been terminated for cause. In such situations, the employee and the employer will often have substantially different views as to the nature and consequences of the employee’s conduct or performance, and whether the employee is entitled to any compensation for having been terminated.

A key issue will often be the employee’s history of misconduct or poor performance, and the manner in which the employer has addressed that history.

This includes whether the employee received prior warnings or the employee’s actions were condoned by the employer.

Generally, an employer will not be able to terminate an employee for cause due to an employee’s misconduct or poor performance unless the employer has previously provided that employee with an appropriate warning and an opportunity to improve. While prior warnings may not be required for a single instance of severe misconduct or incompetence, (e.g., substantial theft, fraud or physical assault) lesser forms of undesirable behaviour or poor performance are not typically sufficient to justify dismissal for cause.

When a warning is provided, the employer should clearly communicate that the employee’s conduct or performance has been unacceptable as well as the appropriate standards that must be met going forward.

The employer must then give the employee a reasonable opportunity to improve on his or her conduct or performance. Employers may wish to offer to assist the employee in meeting the appropriate standards and may also wish to set up a time-line or

schedule for improvement. Finally, and most significantly, any warning must clearly set out that the employee may be subject to discipline, which could include dismissal, if the issues raised are not addressed. The failure to provide appropriate warnings will jeopardize the employer’s ability to terminate for cause.

The employer’s conduct after a warning is given can be just as important as that of the employee who was warned.

The employer’s conduct after a warning is given can be just as important as that of the employee who was warned. The mere fact that a warning was given may not be enough to support dismissal for cause if problems continue.

Without taking any steps to follow through with the stated recourse, the employer may be deemed to have condoned the continued poor behaviour. Similarly, rewarding an employee that has failed to respond to an employer’s warnings—for instance, with a raise, bonus, promotion, or even just a positive review—could be considered condonation and may nullify the effects of prior warnings. If an employer has condoned the behaviour of some of its employees, it is likely that the employer will be deemed to have condoned such behaviour for all of its employees.

Terminating employees for cause is a complicated and challenging matter, and court disputes often arise. If an employer is unable to establish that appropriate warnings were provided prior to termination, that employer may find itself in a position where it cannot justify termination and may owe the dismissed employee considerable severance as a result.

Matthew Swanson and Brandon Hillis are lawyers at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. Matthew practices commercial litigation, with an emphasis on contract and construction disputes, and Brandon practices labour and employment law.

Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.

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K W s

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THERE’S STRENGTH IN STRONGCO. LET’S WORK. Knowledge, experience and reliable equipment have helped Strongco achieve the title as Canada’s leading Volvo dealer.

With over 20 locations across Canada, customers have come to trust Strongco’s team of professionals to provide solutions that help increase productivity and profits with every job.

Strongco is the partner you need for dependable Volvo equipment. Contact your nearest location today.

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Baie-Comeau 418-589-4141

Ste-Foy 418-653-2801

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Moncton 506-857-8425

Kitchener 519-744-3518

Ottawa (Stittsville) 613-836-6633

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Trois-Rivieres 819-840-0828

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Thunder Bay 807-475-3052

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Volvo Construction Equipment 46-48_Law.indd 47

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When it comes to performance, all roads lead to CASE. Our DV Series features a dual pump propulsion system saving customers up to 5% in fuel costs over similarly sized competitive units using a single pump system. It also gives the operator 100% traction efficiency with a consistent frequency to each drum improving the surface quality. Get on the path to higher productivity by visiting your CASE dealer today.

CaseCE.com/DVseriesCan Š2013 CNH America LLC. CASE is a registered trademark of CNH America LLC. All rights reserved.

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