by Len Loewen

As this year races by, we are all as busy as ever. Fall of 2018 and the early part of this year was surprisingly slow for some of us, as all the municipalities that Greater Vancouver is comprised of seemingly took a collective breath and many projects were stalled due to lack of permits. However, it’s full steam ahead now and the labour pinch is tightening up.

It’s been my pleasure to work with some of you over the past year as we were between projects, and I can confidently say that we have many brilliant people in our industry. The talent level is impressive as is shown clearly by the many outstanding projects being churned out by Formwork Association members. As we all strive to shore up our crews with more talent and new talent, we should strongly support the initiatives taken through the BCFA to create partnerships with organizations aiming to develop relationships with school districts and job fairs. These are small steps, but are definitely in the direction of reestablishing our industry as a trade’s leader in viable and sought after employment opportunities. In short, we want our young people to want to do what we do. I for one, find great joy in seeing an apparently useless 18 year old millennial blossom into a powerful and capable professional tradesman.  When that happens, I know we are doing some things right.

Recent BCFA meeting were headlined by several WorkSafe BC officers spending time with us to explain the changes being implemented by June, 2019. These conversations highlighted to me, the practical benefit of professionalism in our work. The more we expect of ourselves, the easier time we will have meeting the standard of expectation set by our clients and WorkSafe BC. As we train up the next generation, I want to encourage us all to strive for professionalism as day by day, we individually represent the BCFA and our industry as a whole.