Public Works conference offers education, networking
More than 100 delegates from the Saskatchewan Public Works Association were in Moose Jaw as part of the organization’s annual conference, taking part in a host of educational workshops and networking opportunities offered by the governing body for public works in the province.
The conference – entitled Leadership in Planning for Tomorrow – ran from Feb. 27 to Mar. 1 and featured courses involving everything from provincial disaster assistance information to pump teardown for water and sewer and asphalt patching equipment workshops.
“It’s all about public works, so we try to cover all the different disciplines, a lot of different things and different areas,” said SPWA president Dale Petrun of Saskatoon. “We had some continuing education sessions, too, certified operators need so many units every year to maintain their certification so that’s something that goes along with the conference.”
Having the chance to exchange ideas is also a major part of the event, especially given how many SPWA members come from communities of different sizes.
“Often issues a small community has are issues many small communities have,” Petrun explained. “So it’s a chance to sit down and shorten the learning curve, which is always a benefit.”
Canadian Public Works Association president Andrew Stevenson was also on hand for the week and echoed Petrun’s sentiment.
“I’ve been around to a lot of different chapters and it’s the grassroots people with the networking and education that’s extremely important,’ he said. “So it’s the small towns learning from the cities and the cities learning from the small towns because there are some things they do better as well. -
“And it’s an overall education from them when it comes to new technology and things coming out.”
A major part of the conference is the trade show – dubbed PWville – which was set up in the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre for the first two days.
“We had 41 suppliers with booths, some from Alberta and Manitoba and others from in Saskatchewan, some local ones also. It was a nice variety of equipment and services,” Petrun said. “A lot of it is building relationships, so you might meet a vendor and they’ll remember your face and vice versa, they’ll be someone you can go to if you need something.”
The conference also featured an awards night on Tuesday – where City of Moose Jaw director of engineering Josh Mickleborough and City of Moose Jaw public work supervisor Staci Dobrescu were both honoured – as well as a curling funspiel on Wednesday.
All in all, the week ended up being exceptionally informative and offered an important opportunity when it came to the recognition of what public works is all about. “No one really think of public works unless the water doesn’t turn on or your toilet doesn’t flush or your garbage doesn’t get picked up,” Stevenson said. “That’s when it’s important, and we want to make sure that when we’re needed we’re able to do the best job we can. That’s what makes this conference so important, because public works is so vast, from the people who are mowing grass to the people who are at the cemetery and with water treatment... you have to cover all those different areas. This gives us a chance to work on a lot of that in a short time.”
“...we want to make sure that when we’re needed we’re able to do the best job we can. That’s what makes this conference so important...”
SPWA president Dale Petrun