MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

By: Bryan Hocking | Chief Executive Officer

If you thumbed through the summer edition of ROADBuilder before reading my message, you probably noticed a new look and feel to the magazine. I’m proud to announce that ORBA has taken the publication of ROADBuilder in-house. The new magazine boasts a bold new masthead in ORBA’s signature red and black, and features more articles on issues that matter to you as a member of ORBA on subjects that impact your business. The self-publishing of our communication channels started a few years ago with ASPHALTopics, followed by the newly designed Information Highway e-newsletter earlier this year and now ROADBuilder. In the fall, we will complete our stable of publications with the 2022 — 2023 Sourcebook.

ORBA Summit

Just a few weeks before the ORBA annual convention, none of us thought that we would be presenting our second straight virtual summit and AGM. For five months, we had been planning an in-person convention, but such is life when trying to live with a pandemic. In the summer of 2021, things began to look up. Jabs were getting into arms, COVID-19 numbers were down, and we were able to gather in larger groups. As an association, we were thrilled to begin making plans to return to work at the

office and start to organize in-person events. The President’s Tour was our first in-person event in nearly two years. We were able to visit Ottawa, London and the GTA. Our spirits were up and it was a treat to see members in-person and be able to bump a fist or two. I guess when we received word that we wouldn’t be able to visit Sudbury in-person because of an area outbreak it might have been a precursor of things to come.

In December, we first heard the word Omicron and it landed a devastating blow. It put us in another lockdown situation and we had to make the tough decision to move from an in-person annual convention to another virtual summit. Backed by the experience of organizing and presenting a virtual summit the year before, our Convention Planning Committee and ORBA staff quickly pivoted, turning a live event into a virtual one in a matter of days. Summit 2022 went off without a hitch with four action-packed days over two weeks. If you missed the event, you can view all the presentations on our website, including our keynote speaker, Stephen Poloz, and greetings from Premier Doug Ford, Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, and, of course, the Minister of Transportation, Caroline Mulroney.

Kevin Machej, ORBA’s new president

I am very pleased to announce that at the 2022 AGM, Kevin Machej became the new president of ORBA. Kevin brings a unique set of skills and a wealth of knowledge to the road building industry. His experience in finance, operations ››

and strategy is a major benefit to the association. Kevin has been working in the building materials industry since he started more than 25 years ago at the St. Lawrence Cement Mississauga Plant, a sister company of Dufferin Construction. Over the years, he had the opportunity to grow and work with all of Dufferin’s businesses from concrete to aggregates, and now construction, and worked in everything from IT, finance, and strategy to finally construction.

I also want to say goodbye to Rocky Coco as our 2021-22 president. Congratulations are also in order for Rocky as he was the recipient of the 2021 Director of the Year Award. Rocky confronted leadership in these unprecedented times with courage and grace, and dedicated his time to boldly tackling a number of major issues facing our industry during yet another unpredictable and unprecedented year. Throughout it all, he stood tall and did us all proud. We’ve already published five opinion pieces and have received positive feedback. You can read these articles on LinkedIn or in Information Highway.

New opinion column in Metroland Media

Recently, we negotiated a partnership between ORBA and Metroland Media, a division of the Toronto Star, to publish an opinion column every month. The monthly column will include ORBA and OAPC topics, helping us to reach a broader and more diverse audience. The column will run in 30 online community newspapers across Ontario, including Toronto. com, TheStar.com, the Hamilton Spectator, the Vaughan Weekly, and the Mississauga News, to name a few. Our audience has increased from 100,000 potential readers to 10 million potential readers across Ontario. As we create our own content, we begin to control our message. This content is then shared by ORBA and OAPC on our social media channels like LinkedIn and Twitter, further amplifying our message.

Success of annual Road Building Academy

Our ever-popular Road Building Academy was once again a great success. Survey results showed that 94 per cent of respondents said their overall course experience was good or excellent and 91 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that the course they took was able to improve knowledge and skills. Ninety-nine per cent of respondents said that the instructor’s level of knowledge was good or excellent. The only negative comment was that respondents wished they could have taken the course in-person. I can assure you that we at ORBA share that wish. This summer, the ORBA Education Committee will review the academy program and make recommendations to eliminate lesser-performing courses and to add new courses to the mix. Look for an exciting in-person, Road Building Academy in 2023!

Technology changes at the Road House

Finally, I want to let you know that a number of improvements have been made at ORBA’s head office throughout the pandemic when staff were working from home. Not only has it been redesigned and refurbished throughout, but we have also made some major technological improvements. We’ve installed high-speed fiber-optic internet service, ensuring that when we do meet virtually or host webinars that the video quality will be picture perfect with no lagging. The highspeed internet and an improved wi-fi network have allowed us to furnish the boardroom and one of our new meeting rooms with a stateof-the-art video conferencing system complete with a large screen television, video cameras, and a surround sound speaker and microphone system. This new set-up will allow us to hold hybridtype meetings for both ORBA and OAPC, allowing those who cannot travel to the ORBA offices to experience meetings as if they were there in person. We’ve also installed video cameras around the building, entrances and parking lot for the safety of our staff and visitors.

I hope to see many of you at our various in-person events throughout the year like the annual members’ golf tournament at Station Creek on August 16. It’s been far too long since we’ve had the opportunity to meet in person. I wish you well and I hope to see you soon.