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Will Arscott PHF
Stories
ROTATELLER
MEETING RECAP - 14th May 2018
 
Submitted by Will Arscott
 
Heavy Construction Association of Saskatchewan
Shantel Lipp - President
 
This week we were back at the Bessborough. The meeting was presided by President-Elect Paul Gauthier
 
Greeter - Jack Brodsky
Cashier - Steve Wilson
Set-up - Al Morton and Wayne McGillivray
Visitors and Guests - Mike Giesbrecht
Grace - Al Morton
Sergeant - Dave Sundby
 
O Canada was led by Wayne McGillivray who sang some unfamiliar lyrics some of us may remember going way back to our childhood prior to the age in which we became enlightened on gender-neutral language
 
Grace - Al Morton led a grace that reminded us of our pledge to service above self and reminded us to always watch for opportunities to serve others
 
Visitors and Guests - Mike Giesbrecht
Introduced Shantel Lipp who was our guest speaker.
 
Announcements
 
- May 21st NO MEETING for the Victoria Day holiday.
 
- Membership dues are due by June 15th. They will be unchanged and are reduced prior to June 15 that $260 for the year. After June 15th they go to $285. Renewal forms are available at meeting and you can bring a cheque or enter your credit card to complete.
 
- Wayne Palmer is now fully installed as club Treasurer and Wayne Storozuk is retired. This change is official at the bank. President-Elect Paul expressed a special thanks to both Waynes and especially to Wayne Storozuk for his past service. Keeping up on all the financial matters for a club is a major job.
 
- Grocery cards please see Gary Rusu for yours. The inventory is coming down. Thanks to Drew and Scott Byers who each purchased $500 in cards.
 
- District 5550 Conference will be taking place 24th to 27th of May in Regina. You can still register.. Go to the District 5550 Website and follow the links. A day registration is possible if you only have one day available.
 
- The Regina Rotary Golf Tournament is taking place at the Torr Hill golf course on July 6th. If you would like to participate please contact President Mark.
 
- LobsterFest Tickets are for sale for $75 of which we receive $45 per ticket we sell for our own club. The event will be on Saturday 2nd of June at the soccer center on Attridge Drive. Please consider attending. It is always a good time. Volunteers are also needed so if you can give a couple of hours please see Dave Sundby. Dave got several additional volunteers at the meeting.
 
- Rotary Foundation - Our club will meet its commitment to the Foundation for this year and exceed it by a large amount. Many are to be thanked but none more so than Jack Brodsky. In the end his promise to match the Polio Plus giving of all Saskatoon Rotarians up to a maximum of $10,000 resulted in a contribution of $10,000 (about $7,700USD). Our club also contributed $1,160USD. This puts our club in elite company in terms of giving to the Rotary Foundation. Unfortunately the question this scribe was most interested in was not answered: Where did Jack decide that the tattoo on Brenda Banbury was going to be placed?
 
 
Sergeant at Arms - Dave Sundby
 
- Sergeant Dave proved to be serious about his business. He announced fines for those not attending LobsterFest.
- Mike Giesbrecht was fined for missing the Board meeting. He pleaded that early mornings are not easy with a family but the Sergeant was not swayed.
- Wayne Palmer was fined for being happy to become treasurer.
 
Happy and Sad
 
- H Drew Byers for the work Gary Rusu has done in moving the grocery cards. He and Scott are happy to help out with the final inventory.
- H Steve Wilson for warm weather for running and for Mother’s Day.
- H Avis Hardy for ovarian cancer fund-raising event and for Mother’s Day.
- H Gary Rusu also for Mother’s Day and 2H for the contribution Wayne Storozuk made as our treasurer.
- S (I forget who) but for a rental car that blew up and had no oil and cost them hours on the road though a replacement was delivered.
- H Will Arscott for youngest son for getting a dream power engineering job. S because it is fourteen hours away in High Level, Alberta (less than one hour from the NWT border). Will also announced that he would not wear a tie to meeting again until after Labour Day so those not wearing ties would no longer need to feel guilty.
- H Wayne McGillivray joined those happy about Mother’s Day.
- H Clare Heagy finished the session by again recognizing the work of Wayne Storozuk. Clare should know as he did the job for an extended and successful time.
 
 
Guest Speaker - Shantel Lipp, President Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association (Previously Saskatchewan Road Builders Association)
 
Shantel graciously provided her speaking notes so this scribe will allow her to speak for herself:
 
I want to thank you for allowing me to join you today to talk about who the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association is and what we do.
The SHCA is the voice of the heavy construction industry in Saskatchewan. We are member- based organization and represent over 200 heavy civil construction companies.
Our members complete projects that affect all sectors of Saskatchewan’s Economy.
They include urban and rural roads, rail, big city bypasses, mines, sport stadiums, dams and bridges, airports, railways, urban subdivisions and large industrial facilities.
When the economy is booming it is the SHCA members who build the infrastructure to last a century. The Heavy in our name refers to they type of work that we do, which always involves the use of heavy equipment.
I’ve coined the phrase “If the earth moved, it was us!” Because the reality is if the earth moved it was our members at work.
Many of the most memorable landmarks in the province are the result of the work of our members.
Mosaic Stadium,
The BIG DIG of Wascana Lake in Regina
The CPR Train and Victoria Bridges that cross over the South Saskatchewan River
And even
Implementation of our Inland Grain terminals.
We’ve literally taken the province of Saskatchewan from Trails to Highways and more.
My reason for being here today is to talk a bit about “A Better Way to Build” – A paper commissioned by our association about the importance of Infrastructure in Saskatchewan.
All people in the province use the works of the heavy construction industry every day to get to work, go to the cabin, get to school or access health-care, it’s only when they can’t that they realize just how critical it is to our way of life.
Year after year – our sector is one of the largest employers in the province and is also one of the better paying sectors in the province – falling second only to the mining sector.
Current employment numbers show there are 51,300 people working in construction. Half of those are in the heavy civil industry.
The others result in in-direct employment numbers created in manufacturing, engineering, finance, insurance, vehicle sales, signs and safety….etc.
Economists can measure our annual direct impact on GDP at over $5 million.
Labour and income over $2.3 million and financial returns to the government of over a billion dollars.
The SHCA has studied the percentage of GDP that the heavy construction industry is responsible for: We consistently sit at 10% of the provincial GDP. What does that mean?
Well, that is the equivalent to holding 145 Grey Cups in the City of Regina every year.
Now, infrastructure affects many sectors in the province - but we have a long-standing relationship with the Agriculture sector. A farmer friend described it like this: Imagine you have one road in and out to get where you need to go, and your annual salary is riding on that one road being drivable or not, that same friend also told me his bins are still full of last year’s crop, because he can’t get it onto the rail system at the moment, because they are overwhelmed by the Potash and Oil sector AND right now even they are experiencing issues moving their products, because they too can’t get to the ports fast enough or at all.
In Saskatchewan our highway network– is the only other way to move goods to international and domestic markets.
We are a trading province and we are land-locked
Our major resource exports are produced and sold internationally.
It doesn’t take a wizard to know that because Saskatchewan is land-locked, our huge billion dollar export streams only exist because of the right infrastructure.
These are not inclusive to roads but include addressing our needs for water, fuel, container and air facilities.
The government – who for the most part fundamentally realize infrastructure is important must address how they balance infrastructure budgets and priorities.
Challenges identified in our paper as it relates to infrastructure management include:
A lack of a long-term capital plan (with the exception of the Ministry of Highways annual anticipated tender schedule) there really isn’t one. If there is, it needs to be shared with industry.
Over-lapping and conflicting jurisdiction when it comes to decision making (decisions on capital spending now have to go through 4 levels of decision making – SK Builds, Priority Sask, Treasury Board and finally cabinet)
Unrealistic timing calls for proposals causing extreme delays that affect industry’s ability to deliver on construction. Knowing what work may be in the pipeline affects how contractors bid.
And there is extreme volatility in capital spending – when it comes to infrastructure financing in Saskatchewan. In tougher times the Highway’s budget usually bears the brunt of correcting deficits, longer term that can hurt the economy.
To use an example – In Manitoba things are looking rather dire for the industry and it’s beginning to create a ripple affect - The Manitoba government has mad drastic cuts to the highway budget that will result in major job loss in that province.
When the Saskatchewan government outlined its provincial plan for growth it they based the plan on 6 growth objectives.
  1. Invest in growth enabling infrastructure
  2. Develop a skilled work force
  3. Ensure competitiveness of the economy
  4. Support increased trade, investment and exports
  5. Advance our natural resource strength
  6. Ensure fiscal responsibility, lower debt, reduce the government foot-print.
Coincidentally enough, 5 of the 6 have significant infrastructure and construction implications. The last calling for a fiscally responsible government.
I’m here today because the issues raised in our paper “A Better Way to Build” are not only important to the SHCA members but to the entire province.
Of course - we want to keep building roads in Saskatchewan, and of course we want to keep our workers and investment here at home. Saskatchewan is in the midst of a growth and change period.
We have a new Premier with his own vision on how to move the chain forward,
with these changes we have new opportunities and approaches to managing the construction and infrastructure portfolio where large sums of public monies may be spent.
Early leaders like Walter Scott – acted on their vision for the province:
Establishing Regina as the Capital City
Creating the legislature
Creating Wascana Park, funded schools, the University Act, a phone service
And of our course established funding for highway construction.
He can be quoted as saying – “Just as sure as the sun shines there will be within this province alone some day a population running into the tens of millions” and my favourite “This is a great country. It needs big men with large ideas.” And we agree that’s why we need “A Better Way to Build” because nothing moves until the roads are built.
Shantel answered several questions and was thanked by President-Elect Paul. On top of being an excellent representative of her association she is also a model of a woman finding success in a male-dominated world. I hope she has a daughter she can take to career days.
 
Adjournment
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