Another busy construction season forecast

The P.E.I. Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association’s 56th annual meeting is set for Feb. 1-2 at the Delta Prince Edward Hotel and Convention Centre in Charlottetown.

It is a great opportunity to gather and exchange views on our industry as a whole as well as an opportunity to thank all of our members and associate members that allow us to have a successful industry here in P.E.I.

This past construction season proved to be a very busy one for our members, working on quite a number of different jobs. This has sent a general feeling through the industry that it remains strong and optimistic that the coming construction season will be busy as well. This will allow our membership and all of the suppliers and subcontractors to make further investments in staff as well as equipment and resources that will have a positive effect on our local P.E.I. economy.

The Fall Capital Budget and the Five-Year Capital Plan were presented in the legislature. The Highway Capital Budget for 2017-18 is $42 million. That is up from the $39.5 million budget for 2016-17 and the expenditures are forecast to be $3.95 M over budget. The Highway Maintenance Operations budget for this year was $46.8M up by $496,000.

Also we will see further funding announced by the federal government through various funding programs that will allow for a shared investment by provincial government and local municipalities to update and replace existing aged infrastructure. In summer of 2017, executive director Joe Murphy retired from our association and will certainly be missed by all. I would like to thank him for all his years of guidance and representing the board as a true professional

With the retirement, the board elected to have Melissa Paquet step into the role of acting executive director. Melissa has worked a number of years with the association and with Joe. She brings a wealth of knowledge and skill to the position and I am confident that we are in good hands with her representing the association. Our committees were busy this year with a number of meetings with both government officials as well as stakeholders in our industry. Minister Paula Biggar has always been available to discuss industry issues and has made her staff available to do the same. The relationship remains good and we hope the support of our association continues.

One area that received a considerable amount of attention was the Plans, Surveys, Drawing and Standards committee. A number of meetings were held to discuss the quality of the plans that have been issued on various projects and what we all need to do to improve them.

The committee met with federal infrastructure, provincial government, municipalities, consulting engineers association as well as the utility companies over various meetings to find a direction to improve and move forward. The committee will be meeting in the coming year and have drafted a minimum requirements document that has been circulated. This is an issue across the country and we do appreciate our local representatives taking the time to work together on a solution for P.E.I.

P.E.I. played host to the spring meeting of the Atlantic Roadbuilders Association on June 9, 2017. This association continues to be a valuable one, allowing all the provincial associations involved to share ideas and information to grow as an industry.

I would like to offer best wishes for incoming President George Koke, as he will be a great representative of the association and industry.