Keep construction sites open even if second wave hits: Pomerleau CEO
Sanitary protocols in Quebec’s construction industry are strong enough to ensure work sites can remain open even if a second coronavirus wave hits later this year, a top building executive said.
Quebec was one of two Canadian provinces, along with Ontario, to shut down construction and roadwork this spring as the pandemic escalated.
The shutdown, which lasted seven weeks in Quebec, prompted construction companies across Canada to collaborate on new safety rules that have proved useful in slowing the spread of the coronavirus, said Pomerleau chief executive Pierre Pomerleau.
“I don’t think we will need to shut down the work sites again,” Pomerleau said Thursday during a discussion hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. “We know the measures. They ’re already strict, and perhaps we could make them even stricter. It’s in nobody’s plans to stop the construction industry. Today, I know no politician who would take that chance.”
Should COVID-19 cases start climbing once again, “the industry is ready,” the CEO said. “There is enormous collaboration, and if a second wave were to happen, we would quickly be able to react. We would do whatever is required to ensure the industry doesn’t stop.”
Family-owned Pomerleau is one of Canada’s five largest construction firms, with about 200 active work sites and annual revenue of just under $3 billion. Marquee projects in the Montreal area include the Réseau express métropolitain, the 67-kilometre-long light-rail project commissioned by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
As the pandemic hit, shutting down half of Pomerleau’s Canadian construction sites, the company sent about 1,500 employees home while continuing to hire. It’s looking to add about 300 staffers this year, according to the CEO.
“We wanted to be ready for an ultra-accelerated recovery, and we were right,” Pomerleau said. “We knew there were going to be massive investments at the end of this crisis. We knew construction was going to be strong.”
Working with the CNESST workplace health and safety commission, Pomerleau spent weeks this spring putting together a comprehensive “pandemic response plan” for employees and subcontractors that listed in painstaking detail the new health-related guidelines.
Changes included installing one-way staircases at large construction sites wherever practical to minimize worker contact and requiring elevators to be used at less than half capacity.
Productivity, which was initially hurt by the new measures, has almost entirely bounced back.
“We were expecting a major drop, but the results have been excellent,” Pomerleau said. “We realized that the stricter the measures, the greater the productivity. Now we’re at almost 100 per cent. The pandemic really made workers feel responsible. They’re more careful. Because the measures are strict, and because they’re followed, productivity has come back.”
The way Pomerleau sees it, COVID-19’S impact on construction will be long-lasting, affecting anything from design to building techniques and delivery speed.
“COVID-19 is an accelerator,” the CEO said. “All commercial and office spaces will need to be rethought, as will residential spaces.”
Governments across Canada “are planning to build dozens of schools and make massive investments in hospitals, research centres and retirement homes,” he said.
“Everything is being accelerated, so infrastructure programs are going to need to be carried out much faster than we thought. This will be a big challenge for us because we’re already facing a workforce shortage. This means we will have to use modular techniques, more prefab, more artificial intelligence.”