Most powerful

It’s called mass timber and it’s become a construction game-changer in the Okanagan and beyond. Structurlam in Penticton makes mass timber called cross-laminated by gluing together layers of dimensional lumber in perpendicular patterns to create a light structural panel that’s as strong as steel or concrete.

Structurlam’s prowess was praised this week during the Kelowna stop of the 2017 Wood Design Lunch series at the Delta Grand hotel.

Close to home, the recently completed six-story addition to Penticton Lakeside Resort was made with Structurlam cross-laminated panels.

And the world’s tallest wood building – the 18-storey Brock Commons student residence at UBC Vancouver – is also constructed with Structurlam cross-laminated panels.

It was finished this summer and 400 students have since moved in.

Because the tower is so tall, it has a concrete podium and two concrete-stair cores.

Seventeen of the storeys have cross-liminated timber floors supported on glued-laminated wood columns.

Because mass-timber panels are manufactured at Structurlam’s factory on Government Street, they arrive on the construction site ready to go.

As such, the main structure of Brock Commons went up in less than 70 days, a far cry from the traditional year or two for traditional highrise construction of steel and concrete.

The Canadian Wood Council puts on the series of Wood Design lunches for architects, engineers, developer and local government officials to encourage the use of wood in larger projects.

The council touts wood as sustainable and an incredible job and economic generator because forestry is British Columbia’s biggest sector.

Wood construction is cheaper, just as strong and more earthquake resistant than steel and concrete, according to the council.

When it was completed in 2014, the eight-storey Wood Innovation & Design Centre in forestry-dependent Prince George was the tallest wood building.

It was eclipsed shortly after by Treet, a 14-storey wood apartment building on the waterfront in Bergen, Norway.

And now, Treet has been outshot by the 18-storey Brock Commons.

Two Okanagan leaders have been named to the Toronto-based Women’s Executive Network list of the top 100 most powerful women in Canada.

Ingrid Jarrett, general manager at Watermark Beach Resort in Osoyoos, was recognized in the Royal Bank Champions category for being a consummate tourism professional and mentoring other women to achieve success in the industry.

She also sits on the Destination Osoyoos board, is vice-chair of the marketing advisory committee with Destination B.C. and is past-chair of the B.C. Hotel Association, where she was only the second female in 100 years to hold the position.

Kelowna developer Renee Merrifield Wasylyk, owner of Troika Group, was recognized in the entrepreneurial category for creating a job for herself in the male-dominated development field.

Wasylyk’s Troika is behind such award-winning neighbourhood as the lakefront West Harbour, Green Square townhouses in the Lower Mission and the five-storey office building at 554 Leon Ave. that houses Troika’s headquarters as well as the offices of software firm Procera.

Sheet metal

Sheet metal workers make an average $31 a hour and there’s a chronic shortage of them.

To promote the trade, Okanagan College is having an information session Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the atrium of the trades complex at the Kelowna campus.

The next intake of the 20-week sheet metal worker foundation program is April.

Student can then go on to do four levels of apprenticeship classes and work training to become a qualified sheet metal journeyperson.

“We can’t train them fast enough to meet the demand locally and our grads are also finding work all over the province, in Alberta and up north,” said college mechanical building trades chair Brad Oliver.

“We are constantly hearing from industry that they are struggling to find enough skilled workers.”

Aerospace

The Central Okanagan already has a vibrant aerospace industry, but it could be even bigger and better.

The Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission had a study on the sector done to see where it’s at and what’s possible in the future.

The region is already home to 30 aerospace businesses ranging from small companies making aircraft components to KF Aerospace, which is the Central Okanagan’s largest private-sector employer with 700 workers.

KF does aircraft maintenance and retrofitting for airline, military, cargo forestry and government clients.

KF is already conveniently located beside Kelowna airport, which is also a major player in the aerospace sector as a regional hub with over 60 commercial flights in and out every day.

The report suggests an aerospace campus be developed beside the airport for more companies to cluster and grow the sector.

The report also recommends aerospace should be a component of The Learning Factory at UBC Okanagan, an initiative that sees industry and academia work together on real-world solutions.

Local aerospace companies do very little business with local fabricators, tech companies and other suppliers.

If they started to do so, it would create more jobs and economic activity.

There’s a severe shortage of aerospace workers and pilots, something that could be partially alleviated by promoting careers in aviation, more training and more immigration.

Job fair

If you’re looking for work, the Kelowna Job Fair is Monday, 1 to 3 p.m. at the Delta Grand hotel.

You can submit your resume online before the fair at JobsCanada-JobFairs.com and it will be shared with companies that are hiring.

Also, bring copies of your resume to the fair because employers will be doing on-site interviewing and some will even be hiring on the spot.

Steve MacNaull is The Okanagan Weekend’s business and wine reporter and columnist. Reach him at steve.macnaull@ok.bc.ca.