Construction magnate literally helped build Canada
With a population of 694 at last count, the town of Stoughton isn’t exactly known for its skyscrapers. But thanks to an ambitious young carpenter who set up shop there more than a century ago, towering structures around the world can trace their lineage to the tiny community.
Ernie Poole left his home in Prince Edward Island at the age of 19, eventually settling in 1904 in southeastern Saskatchewan, then at the height of a modest construction boom. Putting skills he learned as an apprentice to his millwright father to good use, Poole started his own construction company, graduating from farm houses and barns to town halls and schools.
The company continued to expand over the next decade, shifting headquarters from Stoughton to Rouleau to Moose Jaw. By the time Poole settled on Regina for his head office in 1914, he had named the firm Poole Construction Company Ltd. Today, it’s known simply as PCL Construction.
Poole’s first big project was the $300,000 Fort Qu’Appelle Sanatorium in 1918, which left the company well-positioned to prosper as the nation rebuilt after the First World War. But the stock market crash of 1929, coupled with the drought of the Dirty Thirties, forced Poole to move his headquarters to Edmonton, in search of bigger contracts.
The move paid off, as the company weathered the Great Depression and the Second World War, growing rapidly through the ’40s and ’50s. Today, more than 50 years after Poole’s death in 1964, PCL is Canada’s largest contractor, with offices in 31 cities around the world and an annual construction volume of $8 billion. In 1977, the Poole family sold the company to its employees, which now number more than 4,000.
Although the skylines of many Canadian cities are dominated by PCL projects — among them the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Pearson Airport’s Terminal 1 in Toronto, the B.C. Place revitalization in Vancouver and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa — Saskatchewan is still “the sun of the PCL solar system,” according to company literature. Cranes bearing the familiar PCL logo have risen over scores of major projects in this province, including the first two Hill Towers and First Nations University of Canada in Regina, several buildings at the University of Saskatchewan and the new Mosaic Stadium.
As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the Leader-Post and StarPhoenix are telling the stories of
150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation. Send your suggestions or feedback to sask150@postmedia.com.