Business in Calgary - March 2023

KEEPING US FED

UFA CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED CEO SCOTT BOLTON ON THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY ALBERTA’S FARMERS

THESE ARE SOME OF THE MANY FEATURES THAT ARE STANDARD–NOT OPTIONAL–WITH ALL 2023 JAYMAN HOMES, SAVING YOU UP TO $900 ANNUALLY ON YOUR ENERGY COSTS.

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ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING OUTLET

Benefit: Future-proof your home with an electric vehicle charging outlet.

Save $120 or more per month on fuel with an electric vehicle.*

TANKLESS HOT WATER HEATER

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ASK SAM

INCREASING INTEREST RATES AND THE CALGARY REAL ESTATE MARKET

QQ: Have higher interest rates made an impact on the housing market?

Yes and no. In some areas of the country there has been a decline in sales due the the hike in interest rates, but that isn’t the case here in Calgary. The higher rates have definitely made an impact on buyers and we are seeing them spending less on a house than they may have a few years ago. Here is what I am experiencing in the local Calgary real estate market:

ALBERTA’S ECONOMY IS STRONG

Our energy sector is strong and people are migrating to Alberta for jobs. In 2022, the most growth was in the professional services and technology sectors. These jobs typically pay higher salaries. The increased migration, the high quality of jobs available in Alberta and the price of oil and gas has offset any decline in sales due to higher interest rates.

LOW INVENTORY

Probably the biggest factor that has kept our housing market strong is the lack of properties that are listed. This low inventory creates an environment where multiple offers are common and houses can sell for more than the asking price. Until inventory increases and supply and demand are balanced, the higher interest rates won’t impact sales. However, this scenario isn’t expected to last all year. I anticipate that inventory levels will rise by late spring. Therefore, if you are planning on selling in 2022, I recommend getting your house on the market as soon as possible to take full advantage of the current market conditions while they last.

MORTGAGES

Higher interest rates means that qualifying for a mortgage is a bit harder. Some buyers can’t afford what they may have in the past due to the interest rates. This probably won’t affect the luxury markets as much since these buyers can sustain a higher mortgage rate and sometimes they don’t need mortgages at all.

THE NEW NORMAL

If you have owned a property for longer than 10 years you already know that although interest rates are higher than they were a few years ago, they are still not as high as they have been in the past. Rates were at historical lows for the last few years. Home owners will become accustomed to the new rates as they become the new normal.

Right now, Alberta is in an economic bubble compared to other parts of the country. Our strong economy and the lack of properties available to purchase continue to balance out a downturn in the housing market due to higher interest rates. But conditions will change as the year progresses. The fastest to the market will benefit the most.

THE MARKET IS CHANGING. DON’T MISS YOUR OPPORTUNITY.

FEATURED PROPERTIES

SPRINGBANK | $4,000,000

Fantastic opportunity to buy two adjacent Springbank parcels of land totalling 38 acres. Located at the intersection of Lower Springbank Road and Horizon View Road and bordered to the North by Escarpment Drive, these spectacular properties offer rolling hills and stunning mountain views. The north parcel consists of 22 +/- acres zoned R-1 (2 acre minimum) and R-2 (4 acre minimum). Currently, both parcels are being utilized for agricultural purposes. This beautiful piece of paradise is in a prime location, surrounded on three sides by paved roads with scenic countryside views and offers privacy, and proximity to Stoney Trail. This is a great opportunity to buy both parcels together making it the ideal picturesque spot for future development.

DOUGLASDALE | $1,195,000

#501

A sophisticated penthouse overlooking the scenic banks of the Bow. This spacious, luxurious unit contains details you would expect to find in an estate home. A double sided French chateau inspired fireplace separates the generous living room from the dining area. There is plenty of space to host elegant dinner parties or special occasions. The open concept kitchen allows conversation to flow while you prep meals. Highlights include custom cabinetry with carved corbels, Wolf and Subzero appliances, and high end finishes. The grand primary bedroom has access out to one of the two outdoor living areas both with river views, a luxe 5-piece ensuite, and a large closet any fashionista would envy. Guests will appreciate the tucked away 2nd bedroom and bathroom. A laundry room, additional storage unit and 2 titled parking stalls are included. The concrete construction dampens noise between floors making it extra quiet. Communal gardens, access to the river paths and uncompromising quality make this the lap of luxury!

ALTADORE | $899,000

Set on a quiet, tree-lined street and a short walk to parks and schools. The kitchen is placed in the center of the main floor with handsome wood cabinets, stainless appliances including a 6-burner gas range, a central island with a secondary dishwasher and granite counters. The casual dining nook contains additional cabinets and a counter ideal for setting up a self-serve bar when entertaining friends. A fireplace flanked by book cases and a large south facing window are highlights of the living room. The formal dining room could be utilized as a sitting room or work space. The primary bedroom has an arched window perfectly framing the trees outside, a vaulted ceiling and a sitting area. A serene ensuite features a soaker tub, double vanities, a large steam shower with a rain shower head. Two additional bedrooms both with vaulted ceilings, a 4-piece bathroom and laundry room complete the 2nd floor. Downstairs is a recreation room with a fireplace, a bar, a 4th bathroom, and a 4th bedroom. The sunny south facing yard has a patio, mature trees and a walkway to the double detached garage. This is a lovely home with a well thought out layout in an ideal location!

201 QUARRY WAY SE

48TH AVENUE SW

By Shane Wenzel

By Cody Battershill

By David Parker

By John Hardy

By Jamie Zachary

TOP 4 REASONS TO

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International.

2023 With a Lot of Help From Government

BY SHANE WENZEL

While I have my own thoughts on what 2023 could ultimately bring, regardless of a questionable start in the first month of the year with cryptocurrency investors wishing they hadn’t fallen for the ‘hype’, it’s always about the economics and what the experts are saying.

One of the first predictions I heard in my inquiry is that the Bank of Canada suggests that inflation is likely to rise even higher in the short term before things begin to ease. While there was no definition of what ‘short term’ means, there has been several interest rate increases since that statement with the latest increase occurring in late January 2023 with no guarantee we are at the end. There is a noticeable rise in environmentalists looking for ways to end our fossil fuel industry as quickly as possible, along with a suggestion of money for a ‘Just Transition’ for oilfield workers. That suggestion hasn’t gone over well. But they tell us we’re not supposed to talk about that as it might cause doubt among potential investors. Yes, I would say that is very likely. Particularly since wind power is not possible without fossil fuels from the production stage through installation to maintenance.

So I decided to look for predictions from other sources relative to most Albertan’s concerns. Travel and tourism has been a great source of revenue for Alberta, but global tourism is not expected to return to normal post-pandemic due to escalating costs. Sporting and events are slated to spur tourism but then Calgary doesn’t yet have a modern event centre. I am still hoping we can accommodate the many thousands of Rotarians slated to land in Calgary in a couple of years without having to send them down the QE2 to find lodging.

The fastest growing economies in 2023 are predicted to first be Guyana at 30% as it steps up its oil and gas development, followed by Libya (15%) again due to oil and gas development and political stability, and shockingly Venezuela at 9.3%, followed closely by countries such as Rwanda, Ivory Coast and Senegal – all for the same reason. Everywhere else growth drops substantially. Canada is rated at 2% GDP growth. NDP pressure to do more to fight climate change puts us at a hopeful 3.3% inflation by year-end, just slightly lower than the USA. At least we aren’t Argentina with 0% growth and 70.5% inflation. No, that is not a typo!

When speaking about Canada they weren’t shy about adding that tensions between resource-rich provinces and climate-frenzy Ottawa will continue and serve to weaken our political stability. And that only an energy-export windfall will help counter the impact of rising prices.

Economic hardship in 2023 is said to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind along with housing insecurity as it seems the world isn’t building enough housing which is adding to the hardship for many.

And what is this about Canada spending millions of dollars on COVID isolation hotels because someone forgot to give 30-days notice of vacating until almost a year and a half after travel mandates were lifted?

Shane Wenzel is president of the Shane Homes Group of Companies. Follow him @shanewenzel on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.His column is written for the Alberta Enterprise Group, @AEG on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

POPPY BARLEY: SEWING THE FUTURE OF FASHION

Poppy Barley is a local, female-owned brand providing a sustainable fashion choice for North Americans. As their shoes and bags continue to gain traction, co-founders, coCEOs and sisters Justine and Kendall Barber never lose sight of Poppy Barley’s goals.

“We started Poppy Barley in 2012 because we couldn’t find anything like it,” says Justine. “In the beginning, we offered made-to-order tall boots and shoes online. Over the years our business grew and changed. Today Poppy Barley has retail stores, pop-up shops, an ecommerce store and made-to-order products. We focus on sustainability, versatility and comfort.”

Kendall adds, “Neither one of us could have ever imagined we’d have a company exactly like Poppy Barley, but Justine always loved design and architecture while being deeply committed to making the planet a better place, and I always dreamed of being an entrepreneur.”

The company started online and remained an ecommerce-only business for the first couple of years. Then a showroom opened, followed in 2017 by their first retail store in Edmonton. Another milestone took place in 2019 with the opening of the Calgary location. Then 2020 put a wrinkle in further expansion plans due to COVID. With the pandemic in the rear window, however, things are back on track and a Vancouver location is set to open this year.

It was during 2019 that Poppy Barley became a certified Benefit Corporation (B Corporation).

In a world where fast fashion dominates the industry to the peril of environmental resources and exploited workers, certified B Corporations take a solid stand. The certification proves commitment to the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. B Corporations focus on purpose, people and profit, keeping the impact of employees, production partners, customers, community and the environment at the forefront when making important business decisions.

It is this purpose and mission that is at the core of Poppy Barley’s success.

Justine confirms, “Poppy Barley products are designed for real life – to go from the office to the playground to a night out. Our products are thoughtfully designed for maximum comfort, versatility and longevity. Poppy Barley reimagines the fashion industry to create a new standard of luxury for people and the planet. Through considered design and uncompromising comfort, we offer highly versatile, sustainable products. All Poppy Barley products are designed in Canada and made in our factories in Mexico, Spain, Italy and Portugal.”

Kendall adds, “The fashion industry comes with astonishing environmental and social costs including pollution, water consumption, carbon emissions, human rights issues and gender inequality. The harmful impacts on the planet are undeniable. The only choice for Poppy Barley was to be part of the change and ensure that sustainability and ethical production are core fundamentals of our business model. We exist to re-think every step of the fashion industry to make it better – for our planet, for our people and for our future. There is a lot of greenwashing these days. It is hard to know which brands are legitimate. We became a B Corporation because we are not just talk.”

Being a B Corporation is not the only way Poppy Barley gives back.

ABOVE: KENDALL AND JUSTINE BARBER. PHOTO BY EMILIE IGGIOTTI

“We exist to re-think every step of the fashion industry to make it better — for our planet, for our people and for our future.”

by Nerissa McNaughton

Justine says, “In conjunction with the brand’s 10th anniversary, we made the decision to create the Poppy Barley Future Fund to support charities operating in The Girl Gap. Girls from ages 10-14 struggle as the confluence of societal and biological trends create a perfect storm for adolescents: rapid decline in confidence, poor mental health and a sexualized culture. The Poppy Barley Future Fund will commit $100,000 over three years to adolescent girls and non-binary youth as they navigate some of the most critical years of their life. Our first partner was KidSport Edmonton to help fund the registration costs for girls to play sports.”

ATB has been a key partner in the growth of Poppy Barley.

“The thing about growth,” notes Kendall, “is that you need to onboard your bank to believe in and fund your growth before it actually happens. ATB took a risk alongside us. They are creative in their solutions and really seek to understand our business. We firmly believe that our team at ATB believes in us. They have confidence in us as leaders and in our business model. The questions ATB asks us are smart and forward-thinking because they speak ‘Poppy Barley’ fluently. Our team has remained consistent and well-versed throughout our trajectory. ATB has been a key player in helping us overcome challenges and believing in our growth before it even happened.”

The outstanding products, vision and mission of Poppy Barley have not gone unnoticed. The brand has earned two Canada Post E-commerce Innovator’s Awards, a Best Independent Retail Ambassador of the Year award from the Retail Association of Canada, an Alberta Women Entrepreneurs Impact award, recognition from Women of Vision and a Western Living’s Designer of the Year award, among others. Justine was awarded as a distinguished alumnus from the University of Alberta.

What comes next for this agile brand?

“The future looks fun!” Justine and Kendall conclude. “We will open a store in Vancouver and then, hopefully, Toronto. We will expand more aggressively into the USA. Our product assortment will expand into new categories, such as knitwear. We’ll stay committed to our values and promise of luxury for the people and the planet. Hopefully, along the way, we will elevate the lives of the people who make, wear and support Poppy Barley.”

Have you been wondering all this time how they came up with such a unique name? The co-founders are ready to let you in on the secret!

“In medieval England – when every village had a shoemaker and all shoes were made just for you – cobblers used poppy seeds and barleycorns as the units of measurement for shoemaking. One barleycorn was equal to 1/3 inch and four poppy seeds equaled one barleycorn!”

Learn more about the brand at poppybarley.com.

ATB is pleased to present a 2023 profile series on the businesses and people who are facing challenges head-on to build a strong Alberta.

PHOTO BY ALYSSA LAU

A VISIONARY’S GUIDE TO THE NEXT 40 YEARS

by Rennay Craats with photos by Riverwood Photography

Forty years in business is a major accomplishment and that milestone turns people’s eyes to the past to celebrate the journey. But SureCall Contact Center’s founder and executive chairman Marc Bombenon has his sights trained squarely on the future.

“It’s inherent in us to look at everything based on our past experiences so when you introduce things that are totally new, it doesn’t compute and you say, ‘nah, that’s not likely.’ But for me, I started my business living in the future,” Bombenon says, as he marvelled at the innovative and futuristic technologies found in his favourite TV show, Star Trek.

That start came in 1982 when he moved from Montreal to Calgary to start a wireless paging company. With $1,500 and a business degree, he established Page Direct and grew it into the largest paging outfit in Calgary. When the market introduced cellular, Bombenon embraced this technology too as Page Direct was one of the first cellular companies in the city and quickly became the largest on both networks.

He changed the name to PDL Mobility to better reflect the scope of the business and watched the market carefully as cellular exploded. He saw the writing on the wall with the notion of text messaging directly from cell phones and, at the height of its success, Bombenon sold the paging division. In its place he developed a 24/7 customer service centre and clients soon reached out to ask about PDL handling their calls and messages too, which organically expanded his business. As the landscape and margins for cellular products changed, Bombenon sold the company’s cellular division in 2010 and focused his attention on growing the call centre. Another name change to SureCall Contact Centers heralded in the next phase of the business which offered tailored customer service processes to companies from mid-sized to Fortune 500 across Canada and the United States.

After 40 years in the technology business, Marc Bombenon is fascinated by future innovations and is determined to be around for decades to experience them. Through his adherence to a diet of low-fat foods devoid of sugar or

processed ingredients with intermittent fasting paired with eight hours of sleep, regular exercise for fitness as well as bone strength and a positive mindset to deal with stresses, Bombenon is doing his part to stay healthy as technology does the rest.

“What mystifies all of us is how rapidly technology is accelerating, and that acceleration is accelerating. It’s not linear,” he says. “People like to talk to me about what I think is going to happen. And I say, ‘Are you ready?’”

Bombenon follows technology fervently and is part of Abundance 360, a thinktank comprised of entrepreneurs and investors that are on the cutting edge of the latest exponential technologies, from artificial intelligence to synthetic biologicals to blockchain, that will transform the world and disrupt entrenched industries in the not-sodistant future.

In fact, the future is now, and Bombenon expects that the incredible advancements in a wide range of areas like longevity and health will find people living well into their 120s. He sees bio technologies edging out pharmaceutical companies as they develop ways to fix and replace defective cells in a person’s DNA to circumvent disease instead of trying to mask or contain it. Innovators are also gaining traction in the efforts to slow and halt cell deterioration to the point where they can actually reverse aging. This technology focuses on medical procedures too, and scientist are currently fine-tuning 3D-printed organs made from a patients’ own cells to eliminate the need for live donors.

Advancement in 3D printing will affect commerce as well, as consumers will be able to print products on their own 3D printers instead or ordering them from Amazon or they will employ neighbourhood commercial printers to recreate any product quickly and inexpensively. Bombenon is excited to watch as all these technologies prolong and enhance life as we know it.

The entrepreneur is particularly interested in developments in communications where he built his legacy over the past four decades. He foresees internet and cellular companies being rendered obsolete by satellite connectivity that will integrate with the Cloud to provide coverage anywhere across the globe.

He also predicts a change in devices, which are a lifeline that acts as the users’ ID, healthcare, bank, shopping cart, education and entertainment. Soon, wearable devices like Oura rings that measure sleep and heart rate and Apple watches that track fitness and heart rhythms will be augmented not by cell phones but rather by neural chip implants that link directly to the brain to keep people connected and constantly gathering data.

“Everything you see and learn will be stored in the Cloud so you don’t have to rely on your recall as much because your memory will always be crystal clear,” he says. “It’s closer than you think.”

These are interesting technological times for the SureCall founder, and Bombenon is eager to share his thoughts and experiences with the crop of entrepreneurs coming up to help them navigate the complicated business landscape. He mentors them, sharing his successes and failures to help them in their journey and asks in return only that they pay it forward down the road.

After 40 years in business, Marc Bombenon has seen immense changes and is thrilled by the prospect of seeing the “impossible” innovations of today become common tomorrow.

“This is all part of my plan for the next 40 years,” he says. “It’s going to be exciting.”

Readers are invited to scan this QR code to find out more.

Some Reason for Measured Optimism

BY CODY BATTERSHILL

I’ve been noticing a new trend. Canadians are realizing the value of their growing commitment to a balanced conversation about Canada’s natural resources sector.

I know it’s not only about communications. Some tough external hurdles have been thrown in our way over the last few years – from a soft energy market to an unprecedented pandemic to a lingering war in Europe.

But since we’re still early in the new year, let’s raise a few positive examples of better things to come.

Consider the Trans Mountain Expansion project, connecting Edmonton to tidewater in Burnaby. According to reports, TMX will be mechanically complete by the third quarter of 2023, and oil will flow in the fourth quarter. With that expansion, the 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) pipeline will grow to 890,000 b/d, and Canadians will benefit.

Also scheduled for completion this year is the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline across northern B.C. Work on the $11.2 billion Coastal GasLink is 83 per cent complete, according to a recent update by owner TC Energy.

LNG Canada is part of a trend that will allow Canadian producers to bypass the U.S. when targeting Asian markets, thus providing a quicker route on vessels that can reach east Asia in about 10 days, less than half of the 25-day voyage from the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Further, a number of Canadian proposals aim to use hydroelectricity as the power source for processing, making the end-product cleaner than some competitors’.

But the value we’re set to receive from a bright energy future in 2023 goes beyond only natural gas.

A recent analysis from London-based Evaluate Energy points to the fact Canada’s five largest oil sands companies – Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus, Suncor, Imperial Oil and MEG Energy – produced a combined 3.2 million b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) of crude in the first nine months of 2022, garnering strong prices for domestic light and heavy crude benchmarks.

The report’s authors explained it this way: “Bucking a global slowdown in oil and gas mergers and acquisitions, two of the world’s top 10 most valuable mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals in Q4 involved the Canadian oilsands… (and) demonstrated some optimism for the medium-term pricing outlook.”

What’s the cause of this slowly growing optimism in the Canadian energy and resources picture? It’s hard to say exactly. But I’m prepared to go on the record in congratulating Canadians for their growing commitment to sharing a positive message about the importance of Canadian energy infrastructure, and Canada’s natural resource sector at large.

Sure, there’s still lot of work to do. But no one should underestimate the power of an informed, constructive and engaged public. With their consistent support, it’s amazing what this country can accomplish.

Cody Battershill is a Calgary realtor and founder / spokesperson for CanadaAction. ca, a volunteer-initiated group that supports Canadian energy development and the environmental, social and economic benefits that come with it.

Alberta Entrepreneur Dave Werklund Launches Story of Successes, Shortcomings and Advocacy

for Alberta Oil Patch in New Autobiography, Unconventional

One of Alberta’s most successful entrepreneurs, Dave Werklund, is set to release a new book that outlines his incredible life’s journey growing up in rural northern Alberta and his dedication to industry-leading work as an environmentalist in the province’s oil patch. The autobiography, titled “Unconventional: The Story of an Entrepreneurial Environmentalist Inside Alberta’s Oil and Gas Industry,” details Werklund’s early days in Valleyview, Alberta before leaving school in grade nine to begin an entrepreneurial life, and ultimately building a multi-billion dollar company focused on cleaning up oil field waste and pioneering environmental protection techniques.

Part of the focus of Werklund’s memoir is on his strong contention that Canada’s oil patch operates under the most stringent environmental standards anywhere in the oil world and yet Ottawa treats it as if the industry is a pariah.

“Alberta and Saskatchewan oil isn’t being refined in Saint John, New Brunswick and Montreal, Quebec, but 600,000 barrels of oil a day are being imported from the United States and jurisdictions with non-existent environmental regulations like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia...,” Werklund states in Unconventional.

While Werklund’s memoir touches on many of his career’s shining moments, readers will also learn about some of the hardships and failures that he encountered as well, including losing control of his oil services company, watching it fall into bankruptcy and having half of his billion-dollar net worth wiped out. Unconventional provides an in-depth look at lessons learned from Alberta’s most critical and volatile sector, however readers will find many of the book’s ideals and messages to be applicable to their own life.

“What I hope resonates with people that read Unconventional is the importance of living your life with integrity, and with a set of values that you can be proud of,” says Werklund.

Former award-winning journalist and bestselling co-author Robert Brehl co-wrote Unconventional with Werklund.

Brehl has previously helped pen bestselling books Relentless: The True Story of the Man Behind Rogers Communications, Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers, Canada’s Foremost Entrepreneur and Hurricane Hazel: A Life with Purpose about Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion, the longest-serving mayor of a major city in Canadian history.

In Unconventional, Brehl says Werklund’s honesty rings through the pages. “For such an incredibly successful person, someone who has so often envisioned opportunities and improvements long before others, Dave is not afraid to delve into his failings from certain business decisions to his role as a father and husband.”

Unconventional is set for release on March 14, 2023.

Get funding to train employees

Help your business grow and succeed

The Canada-Alberta Job Grant (CAJG) pays more than half the training costs for eligible Alberta employers to help invest in their employees. Employers can receive up to $10,000 to train an existing employee and up to $15,000 to train a new hire or unemployed Albertan. The CAJG also covers direct training costs, such as course or exam fees and textbooks. Applications are accepted year round. Apply today | alberta.ca/CAJG

dmg Events Launches Energy Works Career Expo in September to Support Career Growth in the Energy Sector

The new Energy Works Career Expo will help job seekers connect, engage and discover career opportunities in the energy sector

dmg events announces a new energy career expo that will bring job seekers together, with companies needing quality candidates to cope with the increasing demands of energy production and the shortage of workers. The event will host over 50 exhibitors and 6,000 attendees across two days of exhibition with full programming, knowledge bars and workshops on September 19-20, 2023, at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary, Alberta. Participants can expect to meet human resources representatives from the top energy companies in Alberta and get insight from leaders in the sector about how to stand out in a saturated job market. Please visit Energy Works Career Expo for more information.

Canada’s energy industry is working to reduce carbon emissions and become more diverse and efficient. An elite steering committee from companies including Inter Pipeline, Kastel Staffing, KPMG and University of Calgary will help drive the priorities of diversity and inclusion, First Nations talent, women and people of colour in energy to address the skills gap in Alberta’s world-class energy sector. The exhibition and conference will help job seekers connect with companies hiring in oil and gas production, as well as exciting new opportunities in the energy transition such as hydrogen and CCUS, to other areas of energy production.

According to StatsCan in the last quarter, there are over 100,000 job vacancies in Alberta alone. “Energy Works Career Expo will shine a spotlight on the critical role people are playing in the Canadian sector. By leveraging our experience of hosting world-class events around the globe, we will highlight companies that want to hire the best talent to address the skills gap,” says Nick Samain, senior vice president of dmg events, who also organizes the Global Energy Show in Calgary.

For immediate release

Energy Works Career Expo will focus on bringing together companies hiring in the energy sector and a new generation of energy professionals excited to be part of something fresh and impactful. “Energy Works Career Expo will play a vital role in connecting the unemployed and underemployed job seekers with companies that are hiring people and talent”, said Samain.

January 31, 2023

About dmg events

dmg Events Launches Energy Works Career Growth

dmg events is a leading organizer of face-to-face events and a publisher of trade magazines. We aim to keep businesses informed and connect them with relevant communities to create vibrant marketplaces and accelerate their business through face-to-face events. dmg events organizes more than 80 events across 25 countries, attracting over 425,000 attendees and delegates every year. The company’s portfolio of products includes many industry-leading events in the energy, construction, hospitality and design, coatings and transportation sectors. ADIPEC, Global Energy Show, Gastech, EGYPS, The Hotel Show and INDEX are the company’s flagship events. For more information visit www. dmgevents.com.

The new Energy Works Career Expo will opportunities

CALGARY,ALTA-(January31,2023)dmgeventsannouncesanewenergycareerexpo thatwillbringjobseekerstogether,withcompaniesneedingqualitycandidatestocopewith theincreasingdemandsofenergyproductionandtheshortageofworkers.Theeventwill hostover50exhibitorsand6,000attendeesa programming,knowledgebarsandworkshopsonSeptember19-20,2023,atthe

ConventionCentre inCalgary,Alberta.Participantscanexpecttomeethumanresources

representativesfromthetopenergycompaniesinAlbertaandgetinsightfromleadersinthe

sectorabouthowtostandoutinasaturatedjobmarket.Pleasevisit

CALGARY’S COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE MOMENTUM

FROM

VACANCY TO VIBRANCY

BY JOHN HARDY

Positive. Encouraging. Uptick. Momentum. They are just some of the early-2023 ways to describe Calgary’s commercial real estate market, particularly the recent office space situation in the downtown core. In fact, some experts are going as far as to guardedly suggest that Calgary’s industrial real estate market is even booming.

The cautious optimism is laced with important lessons learned in 2022. It was a recovery year for Calgary commercial real estate’s three-year bumpy ride of dealing with a slumped economy and the leftover fallout from pandemic disruptions which not only forced Calgary businesses to scramble but transformed workplaces, triggering alarmingly high office space vacancy rates.

Early 2023 commercial real estate stats, trends and indicators are now showing that, with a few lingering speedbumps, Calgary’s commercial real estate market is on the rebound. The positive absorption and vacancy momentum started showing signs at year-end 2022.

The latest Avison Young Calgary Office Market Report stats show that last year’s Q4 capped off one of the strongest leasing environments the Calgary office sector has seen in years. Downtown vacancy sits at 27.2 per cent, down 2.5 per cent from the year before. Overall vacancy is 23.8 per cent, down 2.2 per cent from Q4 2021.

SUBURBAN OFFICE MARKETS RECORDED A SEVENTH

STRAIGHT QUARTER OF POSITIVE ACTIVITY – WITH HEALTHCARE, ENGINEERING AND ENERGY SECTORS DEMONSTRATING THE MOST ACTIVITY IN THE SUBURBS IN 2022.

Suburban office markets recorded a seventh straight quarter of positive activity – with healthcare, engineering and energy sectors demonstrating the most activity in the suburbs in 2022.

The Report also underscored that ‘flight to quality’ remains a theme for 2023, in the war for talent attraction and retention, and that Calgary workplaces must be modernized. While the specifics of actual rates and percentages may vary slightly from expert to expert, Calgary’s commercial real estate trending is finally on a positive trajectory.

As of year-end 2022, overall stats (downtown and ] suburban) absorption was +200,000sf and average net rental rates hovered around $13.50. For AA space (downtown and suburban), vacancy was 14.8 per cent, absorption was +315,285sf, and average net AA rental rates were $22.95. Purely for comparison, A-space was a

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vacancy of 30.6 per cent, absorption was -56,887sf and average net A-space rental rates were $16.67. Commercial real estate professionals forecast that Calgary leasing rates will continue to face upward pressure in 2023.

Todd Throndson, the managing director at Avison Young Calgary points out that 2022 was an important learning curve. “It was a year where the picture became much clearer about the pandemic recovery and other tests of the Calgary market’s durability in the face of economic hardships.”

John Fisher, executive vice president at CBRE Calgary underscores the important commercial real estate lesson learned. “The Calgary market is very resilient, especially in the face of some challenging economic conditions. We have and continue to espouse an entrepreneurial approach to filling vacancy, developing new properties and re-developing old and unused ones, throughout Calgary but particularly in the downtown core.”

In addition to the all-important Class AA, A, B and C rates and vacancies, how Calgary businesses are strategizing and reacting to the new realities of the changing trends is a key factor. Three months into 2023, and with what Fisher calls ‘the entrepreneurial approach’ to managing and leasing, office space continues with some redefined dynamics. “There are two camps of commercial real estate clients. Some are looking for savings, and if they can also increase the quality of their office at the same time, that’s even better.

“Others are looking to re-imagine and re-purpose their office space, as they encourage and continue readying for employees to come back for conventional full-time or hybrid flex time in-

person office schedules. Those leasing clients spend more, researching and executing more creative interior design and seeking the best quality buildings within their affordability.”

Throndson points out a transforming new mindset as a new and important component of Calgary’s rebounding (and redefined) commercial real estate market. “There have been noticeable trends that have been picked up by landlords

ABOVE: SOME CITY STATS ILLUSTRATE THE VALUE RECOVERY HAPPENING IN THE DOWNTOWN CORE.

BELOW: JOHN FISHER, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AT CBRE CALGARY.

“THE CALGARY MARKET IS VERY RESILIENT, ESPECIALLY IN THE FACE OF SOME CHALLENGING ECONOMIC CONDITIONS,” UNDERSCORE FISHER.

and tenants all over Calgary, to make their workplaces more appealing and inviting. For example, among those trends either adopted or considered: downsizing space, a move to open floor concepts, shared collaboration spaces, hotel desking and coworking.

“A greater shift toward the employee experience is front of mind,” he says. “This can take the form of on-site amenities like food and beverage offerings, recreational space and other essential services. On the wellness side, more natural light, improved ventilation and modern furniture are becoming more and more important, not just nice-to-haves but must-haves.”

Another indicator of Calgary’s rebounding commercial real estate market is the sometimes-astronomic figure that is the actual assessed value of, particularly, downtown commercial real estate.

Year-to-year stats track that the combined value Calgary’s downtown commercial buildings has been in a slump since 2015, just about the time when Alberta and Calgary were broadsided by various factors of the sagging economy. The assessed value of office buildings, just in the city’s core, dropped some 68 per cent, between 2015 and the end of last year.

“Ever since 2015, the reduction in oil prices mixed with the pandemic and an increase in the work-from-home routines led to many of the offices becoming substantially more vacant than we have typically experienced in our downtown’s history,” explains the upbeat Eddie Lee, city assessor and Calgary’s director of Assessment and Tax.

Calgary commercial real estate assessment facts and figures show that, in 2020, downtown offices were worth a staggering total $10.63 billion. As of the 2022 valuation, total downtown office was worth $8.19 billion. “While the 2019 to 2022 totals represent a 23 per cent drop in downtown office buildings, we did see a four per cent increase year over year,” Lee says.

“This year’s increase in downtown office value has been driven mostly by the strength of AA and A class properties, due to the continued flight to quality.” He adds that lower B

and C class properties still experience valuation pressures, due to high vacancy and limited demand.

But now that the storm has abated, and Calgary’s commercial real estate pendulum is swinging back, Eddie Lee cites another indicator of positive momentum. “For the first time in eight years, the value of office buildings in the city’s core has increased by nearly four per cent to $8.2 billion from the previous year. Definitely a positive sign, especially to the downtown market.”

An exciting positive in the Calgary commercial real estate market, often misleadingly focused on high-profile, downtown office buildings, is the sometimes-overlooked boom in industrial space.

“The industrial market was moving at a blazing pace through 2022,” Todd Throndson adds, “which is the continuation of a trend of the past few years. Vacancy is at an all time low, rental rates are on the rise, and space is in high demand. Alongside these key metrics, the story has mainly been the delivery of space, with the city and region experiencing a run on industrial land that is unprecedented and a record amount of space in the construction pipeline. This has been pushing delivery timelines of new builds further and further back.”

CBRE’s John Fisher echoes the industrial space enthusiasm. “Industrial continues to be a shining light within the Calgary real estate market. There has been immense growth in this sector pushing the total inventory to nearly 150 million square feet. The driver of the historically low vacancy of 2.1 per cent has been primarily e-commerce users however, the emergence of data centres, life science users and a resurgence in manufacturing have all contributed.”

There’s a commercial real estate consensus that 2023 and beyond looks steady and mostly strong. “Downtown offices will continue to experience value recovery in the highest quality properties,” Eddie Lee says. “Uncertainty around hybrid and remote working arrangements, and the overall economy, may impact lower quality properties. But investment in the downtown, like expanding Arts Commons, renovating the Glenbow Museum, revitalizing Olympic Plaza and refreshing Stephen Avenue, will continue to turn vacancy to vibrancy.”

AN EXCITING POSITIVE IN THE CALGARY COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE MARKET, OFTEN MISLEADINGLY FOCUSED ON HIGH-PROFILE, DOWNTOWN OFFICE BUILDINGS, IS THE SOMETIMES-OVERLOOKED BOOM IN INDUSTRIAL SPACE.

SCHOOL’S BACK IN

RESKILLING, UPSKILLING LEADING MANY CALGARIANS BACK TO THE CLASSROOM

BY JAMIE ZACHARY

Breanna Geelen never saw herself as an entrepreneur. Today, she’s waking up as one.

The journey to the corner office happened quite naturally for the 27-year-old founder and CEO of Crux Laboratory, a Calgary-based manufacturer of custom orthotics and arch supports.

Geelen started working as a lab technician for a local orthotics company about eight years ago. After moving her way through the organization for several years, she saw an opportunity to catapult into a management role, but first needed to head back to school and upgrade her skills.

Geelen landed at Mount Royal University, where she enrolled in the Human Resource Management and Pillars of Management extension certificates.

“I was looking for something that was best suited to the skills I felt were missing, and I found those programs really bridged the gap for me,” she says.

Geelen started with a sneak peak – a seminar series at the university to determine if it and material was the right fit.

“I was absolutely intrigued by how easy it was to apply the information. That’s when I decided to go all the way and commit to doing the full extension certificates,” she says, noting the additional appeal was being able to complete the certificates while still working. In fact, she notes that helped as it allowed her to immediately apply at work what she was learning in the classroom.

Since then, Geelen likens the certificates to pouring rocket fuel into her career engine – which first landed her as laboratory manager and then as director of operations.

This past August, Geelen branched out and founded Crux Laboratory.

“It’s been absolutely amazing so far. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she says.

LIKE GEELEN, MARIA BALCAZAR, 40, SAW AN OPPORTUNITY TO MOVE UP WITHIN HER ORGANIZATION. SO, SHE HEADED BACK TO SCHOOL TO GAIN THOSE FEW “MISSING” SKILLS.

ABOVE: MARIA BALCAZAR

The decision was prompted by an opportunity to lead communications at Valard Construction, where she has worked at since 2015. Notably, Balcazar saw it as a way to “refresh” her previous education and best match with the new role.

“I recognized that a lot had changed since I was last in school – especially on communications side,” recalls Balcazar. “It’s not just buying ads anymore. It’s so much more, whether that’s managing different social media platforms or making sure your website is optimized for search engines.

“It’s really about managing the brand in whole different way, both externally to the public and internally to our employees.”

Balcazar completed the 200-hour certificate the past spring and credits the experience for her recent promotion to communications manager at Valard.

“I really got everything I could out of it,” says Balcazar.

Balcazar’s thirst for learning wasn’t done there, though. She later went back and completed the Digital Marketing Certificate, also offered by the University of Calgary.

Balcazar says one of things she liked the most about both certificates was the flexibility they both offered – the writing certificate took her about a year and a half to complete, while the 100-hour digital marketing certificate took just a few months.

This flexibility, which included both online and in-class components, were important to Balcazar given she continued to

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work a full-time job while also being mom to two young children – and during the pandemic, nonetheless.

“I needed a program to take at my own pace – to be able to take a few courses and see what I could handle,” she says, noting many of her classmates were similarly working while completing the certificates, or reskilling after recently being laid off from their previous jobs.

That was certainly the case for Calgarian Shane Mark, 48. The welder by trade had been working for more than a decade across Western Canada. In spring 2017, however, the company he was working for at the time closed its doors.

With a tight employment market and few prospects on the near-term horizon, Mark and his wife regrouped with Mark taking on the primary responsibilities of running a growing, and increasingly busy, home.

Eventually, Mark started looking at options for reskilling with his initial focus on what was then the Health and Safety Certificate at the University of Calgary –later becoming the Occupational Health and Safety Diploma.

“At the point it changed, I had already started the certificate. So, with the support of my family, I changed course to do the entire diploma,” says Mark. “I saw it as an opportunity to get off the shop floor. Plus, I’ve always had a personal interest in workplace safety.”

The 400-hour diploma took Mark about four years to complete, with him graduating at the end of 2021. He took all the courses virtually through the university’s Design2Learn (D2L) delivery platform, which he says initially took a bit of getting used to.

“There certainly was an adjustment to being a student again, and then trying to do it all in an online format after being a welder for 15 to 16 years,” he says. “But there ended up being a real benefit to it being all online.”

He says the self-paced program provided him not only the flexibility to still balance a busy home life, but also allowed him to work part-time with the Calgary Board of Education, where he started when his daughters were in elementary school.

“The most I ever took in a semester was three courses,” says Mark. “It allowed me to continue to do everything I still wanted to do outside of the diploma.”

Looking back, Mark says the diploma provided him with a wide range of courses that he found both relatable and yet challenging. Looking forward, he says his eyes are open to more opportunities in the job market than he once thought –not just in oil and gas or fabrication, but any industry where safety is important. In the meantime, he might not be done with his schooling just yet.

“An end goal of mine is to write the Canadian Registered Safety Professionals exam,” says Mark. “Letters after your name can set you apart from others with similar work experience. Completing this diploma program satisfies the education part of that application.”

ABOVE: SCOTT BOLTON, CEO, UFA CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED.

PHOTO SOURCE: RIVERWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

KEEPING US FED

BY MELANIE DARBYSHIRE

It’s difficult to overstate just how essential Alberta’s farmers are. Year in and year out, through variable weather, economic and political conditions, they provide the food that Albertans, Canadians, the world, needs. From oilseeds and grains, to beef, poultry, hogs and other animals, from dairy and milk, to vegetables, fruits and tree nuts, Alberta’s farmers – numbering approximately 120,000 – are the often unseen faces and hands that keep our food supply operating. Without them, we’d starve.

A look at the numbers underscores their import: agriculture is the province’s second largest sector by value, with nearly $14 billion in foreign sales in 2021; agri-food contributed $7.9 billion to Alberta’s GDP in 2021; the number of farms in Alberta is increasing; and the province has the second largest total farm area in the country (behind Saskatchewan). Notably, Alberta is one of the few places in the world that produces more food than it consumes.

The latter point is particularly salient considering the global population is expected to grow by another 2 billion people by mid-century, with estimates suggesting we’ll have to increase food production by 70 per cent by 2050 to meet this demand.

All this is to say that Alberta farmers are very, very essential. And poised to become even more so as the world continues to grow.

Yet they find themselves the unwitting targets of a federal government intent on tackling climate change at all costs, including their livelihoods. Arbitrary caps on fertilizer emissions (a national target to reduce GHG emissions from fertilizer application by 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030), the so-called Just Transition (the plan to transform Canada to a low-carbon future) and an ever-increasing

federal carbon tax are federal policies with the potential to harm Alberta farmers.

“Our members are very worried about the direction of some of these announcements and the possible policies that will follow,” says Scott Bolton, president and CEO of UFA Co-operative Limited says candidly. “And it’s not that we disagree with the proposition of doing more with less. That’s precisely what we’re very good at doing; we’re all about being more efficient, reducing our costs and doing more with less. But the challenge is that these announcements – for example the federal government’s pledge to reduce fertilizer emissions by 30 per cent – were announced without any consultation with the people who will have to deliver on that pledge. There was no scientific evidence provided as to how these targets were determined.”

Bolton notes it’s not the goal (tackling climate change) that Alberta’s farmers and ranchers have an issue with, but rather it’s the lack of consultation and scientific backing behind these announcements. “The problem is there isn’t enough detail,” he continues. “It’s difficult to quantify what the impact will be. But frankly speaking, we won’t be able to produce the amount of food we do today with 30 per cent less fertilizer used, without significant advances in technology and application approaches.”

“And there is a real concern that this will increase food prices and may cause some farmers to be uneconomic,” Bolton continues. “That could cost jobs in rural communities and is the exact opposite of what we want to achieve.”

In addition to the fertilizer cap, the so-called Just Transition is expected to affect approximately 292,000 agriculture jobs in Canada. The nature of this effect is unclear.

UFA CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED CEO SCOTT BOLTON ON THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY ALBERTA’S FARMERS

“Another major impact will be on the global food system,” Bolton says. “Many parts of the developing world are importers of our food. We’re already seeing, with the invasion of Ukraine, how the cost of food and commodity prices have gone up, particularly staples like wheat. Further increases will put the most vulnerable at risk. These are the consequences if we’re not careful.”

The federal carbon tax is also set to increase again on April 1, adding to farmers’ expense sheets. “It’s an additional tax, an additional cost of doing business,” Bolton says. “And in challenging times, increasing costs are problematic. So it is a big concern in the agriculture industry.”

These challenging times include sky-high inflation, supply chains still recovering from the pandemic, and fears of a recession looming.

Luckily, Alberta’s farmers enjoyed a good year last year, as did UFA. “We’ll be reporting record results for the co-operative for the year 2022,” Bolton reports. “In general, Alberta farmers – specifically grain farmers – did

pretty well last year too. The 2022 crop was a good one. Yields and quality were good. And prices are high. Overall a good year.”

Founded in 1909, UFA has grown alongside the industry it serves, and today has several successful and growing business divisions. Its agricultural division comprises a network of 34 farm-ranch stores located in rural communities. These stores stock everything from gloves and coveralls to hardware items, gates, fence posts, fertilizer and seed, among many other items. “They are full-service agricultural one-stop shops,” Bolton says.

ABOVE: UFA MEMBER, KAITLYNN BOLDUC FROM CUDLOBE ANGUS, USES UFA’S PROSTOCK BRAND.

PHOTO SOURCE: FRITZOLOGY INC. FOR UFA

UFA’s fuel business – its largest division – includes 115 sites across Western Canada (predominately in Alberta, with some in Saskatchewan and northeast B.C.). These are typically cardlock fuel stations, and many include bulk fuel facilities as well. “We can deliver fuel right to the farmer or other industries,” Bolton explains. “Or they can fill up right at our site. We are quite a significant supplier of diesel fuel and gasoline to rural communities.” UFA also sells lubricants and other transportation related products at these locations.

A complimentary business to the agriculture division is UFA’s construction business, which is focused on farm construction projects like sheds and barns. “We sell the raw material if you want to build it yourself, or we’ll build it for you,” Bolton says.

Additional business divisions include a livestock division focused on the feed lot sector, and a division which provides maintenance support to the cardlock facilities themselves.

With the financial capacity to invest for growth, Bolton and his team are looking to grow UFA’s business geographically, particularly into Saskatchewan and Manitoba. “Our neighbours to the east are on a roll and have invested in agriculture as a province,” he notes. “And we think we can be part of it with an offer that will be well received.”

A new store in Red Deer is also something to celebrate. “It’s going to be in Gasoline Alley,” Bolton reveals. “Great access of Highway 2. We’ve acquired the land and will build a full service farm-ranch store and cardlock, with a drive-through bay for

some larger product offerings. A big yard and modern store with all the bells and whistles. We hope to have it open in 2024.”

The other area primed for growth is the digital realm. “We are expanding our e-commerce offering so our members can buy a number of products from a number of key suppliers that we don’t normally carry in our stores, online,” Bolton says. “They can then pick them up at our stores. We’re quite excited about this phase of our digital expansion.”

With a little over 1,100 employees, UFA provides particular benefits to its members. First, it stocks the products and delvers the services its members need. “We have a complete offer of product that you can’t find anywhere else but UFA,” Bolton notes. “And we make sure we’re competitively priced.” Second, UFA employs a lot of rural Albertans. Third, as a forprofit business, the profit is returned into the community because members own the business.

“At the end of the year we pay a portion of our profit back to our membership,” Bolton says.

Closely connected to the communities in which it operates, UFA, through its Rural Communities Foundation, provides support to local community initiatives that would otherwise have trouble finding funding, for example, 4H, Ag for Life and other local, lesser-known causes.

“Ultimately we’re a grassroots organization,” Bolton notes. “So that’s where we focus our efforts, at the community level. We’re one member-one vote, so it stands to reason that our community investment is in a similar vein.”

ABOVE: ARTIST RENDERING OF AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE NEW UFA RED DEER FARM SUPPLY STORE & CARDLOCK

Originally from a small town outside Edmonton, Bolton obtained his chartered accountancy designation from the University of Alberta before joining Pricewaterhouse as a young accountant. He worked in Toronto and Europe before landing in Calgary. He became a partner and eventually PWC’s energy practice leader. A desire to work in industry led him to the position of CFO at UFA in 2013. He became CEO in 2019.

The married father of four boys (including one with developmental disabilities) has a personal passion for the special needs community. He sits on the board of Calgary Quest School and is involved with organizations such as Inclusion Alberta.

He is also passionate about the agriculture industry, and points to the Business Council of Alberta’s recent publication, Define the Decade, which lists agriculture as the first pillar, as evidence of its importance to the province. “Agriculture is really under-recognized and it will only continue to grow,” he points out. “Part of the role of a cooperative is to be an advocate for the membership and the industry. Our organization tries promote the opportunities in agriculture to the government.”

From the provincial government, he continues, farmers want agriculture treated strategically, given the enormous opportunity for growth and for creating economic prosperity for all Albertans: “It’s very important for the provincial government to recognize that and provide the investment and attention to the industry that is warranted. I think we’re hearing good things on that from the provincial government, to be fair.”

Farmers, Bolton adds, would like to be at the table with the federal government when it’s making policy, to be able to provide their own fact and science-based policy.

With the potential to feed a growing world, Alberta’s farmers and UFA have much to look forward to. They have the land, the tools, the experience and the skill to produce the food our growing world needs. The federal government may be their only obstacle to success.

TOP: UFA MEMBER MAURY MCLEOD TALKS WITH SCOTT BOLTON, PRESIDENT & CEO, UFA.

MIDDLE #1: SCOTT BOLTON, PRESIDENT & CEO, UFA (LEFT) DURING HARVEST WITH UFA MEMBER MAURY MCLEOD.

MIDDLE #2: TATE SUTTER AND CLAYTON SMITH, UFA CUSTOMER ACCOUNT MANAGERS CONSULT WITH CUSTOMER, KYLE HAFNER.

BOTTOM: UFA FARM & RANCH SUPPLY STORE TEAM MEMBERS LOAD UP PRODUCT FOR CUSTOMERS IN THE NEW LETHBRIDGE LOCATION

PHOTO SOURCE: FRITZOLOGY INC. FOR UFA

A CRIME OF OPPORTUNITY

SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

BY JOHN HARDY

It’s maddening and frustrating, particularly for small and midsize businesses (SMBs), but sometimes cybersecurity can feel like mission impossible!

The more diligent businesses get about cybersecurity, the slicker and more evil the cyber criminals get, and the more vulnerable and less protected the business is.

And there is the insult-to-panicky injury. The begrudging realization that in many cyber attack situations, the business is the cause and the problem.

The facts and figures – and case files – illustrate that with some gigantic exceptions, size really does not matter. Cybersecurity is an urgent and hot topic among most business leaders and managers, and the frequency and business costs of cyberattacks are spiking.

Simplified and generalized: cyberattacks and fraud can lead to business disruptions, financial losses, reputational damages and trust loss – all negatively impacting a business’ performance and competitive advantages, because all businesses have reams of digital assets, from company strategies, secrets, sales, cash flow, vital customer data and other confidential information.

MNP, one of the largest and most respected business advisory firms in Canada, is focused with extensive experience advising business leaders and small businesses on cybersecurity risks, trends and opportunities about improving their resilience to attack.

“There is little doubt that there is increased attention to cybersecurity over the last several years,” warns Albertabased John McLaughlin, partner with MNP Digital.

“Several high-profile breaches, international conflict and the explosion of ransomware has brought the issue front and centre. Particularly since the pandemic disruptions and more people working from home, the attack surface has expanded and cybercriminals have taken advantage of the increased vulnerability of hacking access via remote workers.

“Also, the rise of cloud computing, IoT devices and expanding networks has added new layers of complexity to the threat landscape. All things considered, it makes it more challenging for organizations to protect against cyber attacks.

“As a result, cybersecurity has become a top concern for organizations of all sizes, and it is more important now than ever to invest in strong security measures to protect against cyber threats.”

IT analysts and consultants are reluctant to imply that big corporations are better protected from cyber attacks than small and midsize businesses, but the business bottom line suggests that SMBs often have limited resources to invest in security, leaving them more susceptible.

“SMBs are particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks because, too often, the primary focus is on the organization’s operations, and IT security is something that is seen as an add-on, rather than a top priority,” McLaughlin points out. “Cybercriminals have started to focus more on SMBs, realizing that they can be an easy target with limited security measures in place.”

The alarm bells are ringing for small and midsize business owners and managers. Seven in 10 (72 per cent) of SMBs are more concerned than ever about cyberattacks, according to a recent joint survey from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 95,000 members across every industry and region, and Mastercard.

One in four (24 per cent) small business owners reported an increase in cyberattack attempts against their businesses in the past year. “The last two years saw a huge number of small businesses increase the amount of business they are doing online, which has many benefits but also introduces new risks,” says Laura Jones, executive vice-president of CFIB, “It’s critical to make it easy for business owners to protect themselves in this new environment.”

According to the survey, eight per cent of SMBs were victims of a cyberattack that cost time, money and usually both. On average, these businesses lost $26,000, plus the value of lost time.

“The impact on small firms can be immense, with some losing as much as $500,000, and others reporting a longterm impact on their operations and reputation,” she adds. “Cyberattacks include attempts to damage a business’s computer system, digitally stealing money, or stealing banking or client information.”

As risky and frustrating as it may be, some otherwise efficiently run organizations cause their own cyber problems. It is resoundingly documented fact! Employees can make a business vulnerable for cyber attacks. While precise statistics vary by area and industry sector, it is undisputedly proven that a high proportion of data breaches are caused by insiders who, either maliciously or carelessly, give cybercriminals access to a business’ insider info.

As more and more employees in Calgary, and around the world, work remotely, cyber security for business has become more important than ever. Many small businesses use cloud-based technology and tools for their daily operations, including online meetings, advertising, buying and selling, communicating with customers and suppliers, banking transactions and more.

IT experts warn that, for both financial and reputational reasons, employees are the hidden culprits, and critical for businesses to protect data and cloud-based systems from hacks.

MNP’s John McLaughlin highlights some common curses, especially for SMBs with smaller teams of employees.

• Remote access and personal devices. With remote work being such a popular trend. SMBs may not have secure remote access protocols in place, making it easier for cybercriminals to get access to company information. Also, employees may use personal devices for work reasons, and their devices may not have proper security measures.

• Identity Management. Many smaller businesses do not have multifactor authentication and employees too often use weak, easily guessable passwords, making it easier for cybercriminals to gain access to the business’ systems.

• Weak passwords are a notorious cause. Research shows that 63 per cent of data breaches result from weak passwords, and most passwords take hackers seconds to crack. Email phishing is a common attack vector and one of the main sources of cyber crime, and 91 per cent of all attacks start with a phishing email. The infected email can download viruses or give access to data and possibly trigger a hack.

• Insecure home networks. Many employees may not have secure home networks, leaving them vulnerable to cyber attacks. This increases the risk to the organization, if employees are accessing corporate systems from these networks.

• Difficulties in monitoring and enforcement. It can be more challenging to monitor and enforce the company’s security policies when employees are working from home.

• Outdated applications or infrastructure can cause problems. SMBs may not have the resources to regularly update their software or configuration, making them easier targets.

• Lack of backup and disaster recovery. Unfortunately, many SMBs do not have adequate backup and disaster recovery plans in place, making them victims for data loss and downtime from a cyber attack.

“To protect against threats from within, SMBs should invest in cybersecurity training for employees,” he suggests. “The training should include the importance of using strong passwords and spotting phishing emails and establishing clear policies describing how to handle and protect customer information and other company data.

“A third-party consultant can do a detailed risk assessment of the company’s network, systems and information, to determine where and how the business’ data is stored and who has access to it.”

IT experts offer a vexing reality check. The cybersecurity bottom line is that, due to the growing frequency, sophistication and magnitude of cybercrime events, it is more and more difficult to foolproof a business from hacks and cyber attacks.

They also add an important PS. Cyber attacks are crimes of opportunity.

DataHive

HAS TECH WORLD BUZZING

with photos by Riverwood Photography

There are businesspeople and then there are entrepreneurs; Marjorie Zingle fits firmly in the second category. She has an innate ability to successfully lead companies. After selling her last business, she found the entrepreneurial pull remained too strong to ignore. She quashed the idea of retiring and instead set out in a completely different direction.

“Being an entrepreneur has to do with the ability to look into the future and not really care that much about ‘business’,” says Marjorie Zingle, CEO and founder of DataHive. “All entrepreneurs know is they want to go to the moon or build gasless vehicles or build a company in a new way. Then they must surround themselves with the right people to make that dream happen.”

After she sold her third successful service company, an associate pointed her toward a failing data centre. “The facility was in desperate condition with few paying clients. The power was spasmodic, and the connectivity was almost zero. It was just a terrible mess,” she says. She purchased what was left of the data centre, then bought a small web hosting business that was being run by two SAIT students and dove headfirst into finding out more about what was necessary to turn the business around.

Zingle cleaned and painted the space, removed non-paying customers and set out to secure Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to support the business she intended to grow. With a couple of ISPs in place who believed in her, she began hosting client websites as she generated her vision for a data centre to be named DataHive. Over the next four years she grew the business, bringing in knowledgeable professionals along with new equipment to open the door for expanding DataHive’s offerings. She built upon the website hosting base and moved into the ever-evolving world of data centres, providing clients with efficient, cost-effective and secure IT solutions.

The result was an early iteration of today’s DataHive: an accomplished data centre offering secure solutions from colocation and hybrid cloud to deep-dive security testing.

Next, DataHive brought 30 top-tier ISPs on board, including five highly respected international providers. Her team fosters incredible relationships with all Canadian telecom companies to ensure clients’ IT needs are always met.

“We offer thousands of Points of Presence (POPs) worldwide to give our clients reliable, secure

Gavin Chen, Tomas Florian, John Zhao and Jesse Kutas.

international reach. Additionally, DataHive has installed POPs in five different downtown buildings to provide state-of-the-art Edge service,” Zingle says. These services attract clients of all sizes from many sectors and geographic regions. Whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a start-up just finding its footing, DataHive has become a valued and trusted IT partner.

WHAT DATAHIVE CAN DO

The company learned early on that when it comes to Internet connectivity and response, seconds count. Clients look for both reliable and fast connectivity to support their global interests. To deliver this, the team offers tech solutions made easy with agnostic connectivity, boosting clients’ performance and scalability. With strict constantly monitored temperature control, 24/7 technical support, and three 100 per cent-dedicated bandwidth usage capacity at all times, this and other services help ensure the client experience is never compromised.

Clients have the option to colocate in customized cabinet space, from single servers to locked cabinets for multiple servers to an entire suite. This private colocation was the genesis of DataHive secure services, which is now celebrating its 20th year in business.

Jesse Kutas and John Zhao.

BUSTING BARRIERS TO BREAK THROUGH

The quality service and product that clients enjoy at DataHive have come from a determined work ethic and drive that started decades ago with founder Marjorie Zingle. She is a trailblazer in business, advancing as a sales rep at 21 years old by facing chauvinism head on and then continuing to fight against sexist notions in the business world as she ran her own businesses, all of which featured strong women in key roles.

“Chauvinism has changed but it’s still here. I’ve experienced it to varying degrees all my life. You do get some respect after you’ve proven yourself, but it’s just that you shouldn’t have to prove yourself over and over again,” says Zingle.

Now, this accomplished entrepreneur combats ageism and has battled to lay to rest the idea that technology, and starting a business in it, is just a young person’s game. She was recognized for her achievements with a “Seven Over 70” award given to prolific entrepreneurs who launched

new ventures at an age when others were retiring. Zingle has also recently been recognized with 40 other much younger Calgarians when she received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for her entrepreneurial contributions in Alberta.

Zingle shares her experiences earned over decades in the working world with aspiring young people, and her mentorship has contributed to the success of the next generation of business leaders. Her advice to them is to be a sponge and soak up as much information as they can in order to learn to build their own success. Just as three amazing senior entrepreneurs helped guide Zingle in her business journey, she endeavors to do the same for others as they seek their own life dreams.

Zingle ensures that DataHive helps support important causes including the Red Cross, Salvation Army and War Amps. Her favorite is the THIRD ACTion Film Festival which celebrates positive aging and a productive third act in life. From starting her own charity or supporting her team buying gifts for the Secret Santa Service program, focusing on people in both philanthropy and business is a vital pillar of the company.

Krisztina Ivaszuk, Toni Guffei (standing), Eunice Abiona and Katrina Reodica.

STAFF GOES SEVERAL STEPS FURTHER

The company has been driven to serve, both the community and its clientele since the beginning, and a focus on exceeding expectations is ingrained in the business.

“It is part of the corporate philosophy to provide unparalleled service to clients,” says John Zhao, Operations Manager.

That means employees answer the phone and are available for questions and concerns 24/7. The team also educates clients about how the Internet and data transfers actually work, and the techs are happy to come in early or stay late to accommodate a clients’ schedule or timezone. The staff of 10 professionals – and growing – are dedicated to DataHive’s success and take pride in contributing to their clients’ success as well.

Zingle’s entrepreneurial leanings had her seeking out people who possessed certain skills and were wired to learn and grow. As a result, she has amassed a diverse group of people whose unique experiences and backgrounds introduce a different way of looking at challenges and situations that arise. This cross-functional thinking, along with the personal attention given to large and small clients alike, has led DataHive to grow and establish itself as a respected player in the industry.

“Working in a relatively small company like DataHive brings greater visibility. Having the opportunity to enjoy wider responsibilities and tasks, plus a closer relationship with coworkers creates a more collaborative environment. DataHive’s staff has an amazing teamwork ethic no matter the situation,” says Krisztina Ivaszuk, Communications Development at DataHive.

Tomas Florian and Gavin Chen.

Katrina Reodica, Gavin Chen, Jesse Kutas and Toni Guffei

Krisztina Ivaszuk and Tomas Florian.

ALBERTA TO THE WORLD AND WORLD TO ALBERTA

Alberta businesses know the importance of reliable, secure, high-quality Internet to interact globally. When moving data around the world, speed and productivity become a priority. Security is also an absolute necessity when moving data back and forth between timezones.

“I first realized the necessity of a strong international Internet service when a message from New York peered to Chicago, Seattle and Russia before arriving in the client’s server in Calgary. From that day on, we actively pursued a goal to offer our clients the fast, consistent, quality transfer needed in the 21st Century,” Zingle says.

Now, DataHive clients have neutral connectivity and direct access to over 30 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) physically located in DataHive. Collectively this represents some 6,000 points of presence worldwide. In fact, the service allows clients to negotiate directly with the provider of their choice.

Clearly, DataHive’s status as an ISP hub opens an exciting new vista for Western Canada businesses looking to expand their operations across continents. With two decades of expertise and counting, DataHive possesses the ability to facilitate global data transit no matter the scale –from start-up to enterprise.

Cybersecurity is serious business and business leaders understand how crucial it is to ensure their data is protected. To reinforce this, DataHive goes the extra mile employing two Certified Ethical Hackers (CEH) who continually monitor

network and data transfer intrusions at entry points. By diligently seeking out anomalies, possible vulnerabilities are identified, and this constant oversight helps ensure prevention of unwanted intrusions.

To stay on top of illegal eventualities, a security framework is continually updated, which has resulted in over 16 years of freedom from data centre compromise for clients.

“Every server in the world is under threat of hackers every moment, even as new software is created. The competition amongst black-hat hackers is very serious,” says Tomas Florian, Enterprise Architect. “By working with a client, our CEH can help reveal the presence of unwanted, illegal activity.”

Occasionally, it is necessary to help clients protect data from threats within their company as well. Recently, for a client who suspected his confidential emails were compromised, DataHive’s CEH helped create a plan to verify his suspicions and then safeguard future communications.

MANAGED SERVICES

DataHive maintains strong relationships with clients and the team goes above and beyond to ensure they are providing great service in all areas 24/7/365. With the company’s managed services, clients based outside of the city can work with DataHive’s specialists on changes needed for their servers.

Knowledgeable and skilled technicians make these managed services important value-added time savers and offer peace of mind for clients.

Also, with the ever-increasing need for a safe way to connect client-to-client securely, DataHive became the first data centre in Western Canada to offer an Internet Exchange Point (IXP). This infrastructure allows client-to-client data exchange directly without going onto the Internet. This not only provides faster inexpensive service but also helps keeps client data secure by isolating it from public networks.

One area that has captured the attention of clients is private cloud storage as a way to secure active data. As a Canadian company with strict privacy laws, clients are assured safekeeping of important or often-used data.

We wish you many more years of continued success.

“What sets us apart is definitely our client-focused approach to everything. We recognize the uniqueness of each client, go several steps further to uncover their specific requirements and then creatively provide solutions that fit like a glove. ‘One-size-fits-all’ doesn’t exist at DataHive and that’s what makes it exciting,” says Eunice Abiona, Business Development.

The culture and core values instilled from day one are of innovation and service through teamwork and respect. There are regular meetings and lunches and special recognitions to celebrate great work. This also helps to ensure the work each staff member undertakes matches what he or she is most passionate about.

THE NEXT ACT

DataHive’s vision is one of staying ahead of the curve and the team is proficient at keeping both technology and business practices on the cutting edge. For example, while no clients have asked for it yet, the data centre is ready with 5G for when they inevitably will. It also is regularly upgrading systems, technology and equipment to ensure clients enjoy the best service to meet their efficiency goals.

“It’s a matter of always looking to see what it is you can do next or what opportunities the demand will bring,” says Zingle.

Opportunities abound and DataHive has expanded its offerings to include virtualized services. Clients enjoy the advantages of operating their own business without the expense of purchasing and maintaining hardware, the operating system, automatic data backups and the benefits of an Edge data centre. This allows client data to be quickly processed locally before connecting to other networks further afield.

Data centres have a reputation for being big energy consumers, and Zingle is involved with a group of industry professionals across North America seeking efficient ways to reduce energy demand and operate in the most energy efficient ways possible. Last year, the company increased the data centre power efficiency by 20 per cent’.

“Every year our plan for the future is when a door opens, go through it. If it slams shut in your face, another door will open,” says Zingle. For 20 years, DataHive has been encountering doors and breaking through them to bring clients the best, most modern data management and security options possible.

“I foresee nothing but a promising future for DataHive. With so many growing opportunities in Edge computing, cybersecurity, hybrid storage and so many other industry verticals, these are exciting times for DataHive,” says Abiona.

And as a consistent fixture in an ever-changing global landscape over the past 20 years, DataHive looks forward to being part of these exciting opportunities ahead.

DataHive’s mission is to empower clients with state-of-the-art technological solutions designed for specific applications.

As Guardian of sensitive data, DataHiveSecure seeks to provide innovative resolution of corporate safety challenges, increasing security, reducing operational costs and latency.

340, 840 – 7th Avenue SW

Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 3G2

Calgary sales: (403) 313-1106

info@datahive.ca • datahive.ca

Marjorie Zingle.

Diversity

AND DECISION MAKING

High-achieving beyond biases and barriers

BY JOHN HARDY

One of the many reasons why Calgary’s business culture is so unique and invigorating, is the momentum of awareness about the importance of diversity across all areas of business, including C-suite leadership and board representation.

It’s also the dynamic focus of Axis Connects, the Calgary nonprofit group, established to connect, collaborate, champion and provide career development resources for gender diverse professionals in Calgary’s business community.

“Our organization is led by a group of women and men who understand the value that diverse leadership brings to businesses and our community,” says the gung-ho Nuvyn Peters, executive director, of Calgary’s Axis Connects. “We strive to strengthen diverse representation in decisionmaking roles, and we do this through our robust network of organizations and programs that advance and accelerate female leaders here in Calgary and beyond.”

It is a vitally important mission. And the goal is ambitious, sometimes challenging and unconditionally success-driven. It is also very current, timely, relevant and necessary.

Although specific stats and trends are invariably fluid, and despite encouraging progress throughout the developed world, Canada continues to lag in terms of gender representation in C-suites and on boards. Unfortunately, Alberta is even farther behind. A recent survey showed that women comprise 13 per cent of board seats on Alberta-based TSX Composite Index companies. The national average is 21 per cent.

As Axis Connects proves with every event, activity, forum and networking opportunity, change is happening. And Calgary is positioned to play a Canadian leadership role in so many ways.

“Diversity at the top of the organization ought to be one of the pillars that we, as a community, are so proud of,” Peters adds. “Axis helps connect leaders with professional development opportunities, and seeks to recognize those leaders, organizations and corporations that are making strides towards gender diversity. But we still need to actively promote and position women in decision making roles. We are well on our way.”

She underscores that the Axis Connects mission is simple and straightforward. “To strengthen diverse representation in decision-making roles.”

How that is achieved is a lot more complex and in-depth, and with what Axis calls its formula of “four pillars.”

• Connect: a “hub and spoke” model to connect and share information between Calgary organizations and initiatives to advance diverse professionals in the Calgary business community. It happens through multiple networking events like quarterly Career Development Dialogue sessions, in partnership with strategic management consulting firms; the Women’s Leadership Forum, with a roster of leadership experts, coaches and executives and a highly engaging and

ABOVE: NUVYN PETERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CALGARY’S AXIS CONNECTS

interactive one-day summit, focused on building community and professional development opportunities for women advancing into leadership positions; as well as various Partner events throughout the year.

• Collaborate: uniting organizations advancing women and diverse professionals in Calgary’s business community.

• Career: detailed professional development resources are available to guide Axis Connects members through their career journey.

• Champion: setting the bar for excellence in Calgary’s corporate community and celebrating women and men whose professional success and commitment to the Calgary community deserve to be recognized.

In Calgary business, and throughout North America, women in business are not only talking-the-talk about decision-

making change, but they are focused, organized and walkingthe-walk. Achieving diversity in business is very much a dynamic and a change-in-progress.

One recent example of the changes, according to the 62-page Women in the Workplace 2022 Report from McKinsey & Company, the iconic global management consulting firm, is that women leaders are switching jobs at the highest rates ever, and ambitious young women are prepared to do the same.

The Report highlights that some reasons why women leaders are stepping away from their companies are telling. Trends show that women leaders are just as ambitious as men, but in many companies, they face headwinds that signal it will be harder to advance. Some are more likely to experience belittling microaggressions, such as having their judgment questioned or being mistaken for someone more junior. McKinsey also notes that women are already significantly underrepresented in leadership and that, for years, fewer women have risen through the ranks because of the “broken rung” at the first step up to management.

The wealth of Calgary’s Axis Connect research underscores that 45 per cent of employees at Canada’s largest firms are women, but female representation diminishes considerably up the leadership ladder.

A vital part of the Axis Connects focus is that there is a tremendous need for improvement to bring more women into C-suite and leadership roles. It is why the group provides skills, resources and networking opportunities for Calgary women to create a clear path for career advancement.

Diverse representation in decisionmaking Calgary business roles is positive, an undisputed work-inprogress, but making a definite

business transformation. “Ultimately the measure of success will be to move the

Modern Mentoring in Today’s Hybrid Workplace

By Lloyd Suchet, Executive Director, BOMA Calgary

Over the last three years, much has been written about the future of work and what the new, postpandemic workplace culture will look like. What is the future of the office? How will hybrid work arrangements be defined by employers? How do we manage employee expectations on working arrangements and flexibility? Suffice to say, the answers we would have provided to these questions in 2021 look very different to those in 2023, and in fact these questions are in many ways still being settled. Here in Calgary the situation differs somewhat from other major markets in Canada, as our figures show a stronger return to pre-pandemic employment trends with higher levels of in-office work. This has allowed us to explore some of the new trends and gaps, and pay particular focus to some of the unintended consequences of this new normal.

Conventional wisdom says that younger employees are more inclined to favour working from home owing largely to technological comfort and more extensive experience with online communication and collaboration tools, however there is more to this. While young

people may be able to better manage remote work, they are also the employees that have the most to gain from the type of mentorship that happens naturally with

Conventional wisdom says that younger employees are more inclined to favour working from home owing largely to technological comfort and more extensive experience with online communication and collaboration tools, however there is more to this.

BOMA Calgary News

BOMA Calgary News is a co-publication of BOMA Calgary and Business in Calgary.

Business in Calgary

1025, 101 - 6 Ave. SW, Calgary, AB T2P 3P4

Tel: 403.264.3270 • Fax: 403.264.3276 info@businessincalgary.com www.businessincalgary.com

BOMA Calgary

Suite 225, 550 11th Avenue SW, Calgary AB, T2R 1M7

Email: info@boma.ca • Web: www.boma.ca Tel: 403.237.0559 • Fax: 403.266.5876

Executive Officers

CHAIR

Rob Blackwell, Aspen Properties

CHAIR- ELECT

Candace Clark, Triovest Realty Advisors

TREASURER

Tanya Befus, Cadillac Fairview

PAST CHAIR

Richard Morden, QuadReal Property Group

Directors

Aaron Pratt, Allied Properties REIT

Art Skow

Colin Norris, Insignia Asset Management

Blair Carbert, Carbert Waite LLP

Carla Fedele, Choice Properties

Dan Lindsay, Surety Technologies

Dominik Hubaczek, Oxford Properties

Graham Halsall, ONE Properties

Kevin Morgans, Avison Young

Laurel Edwards, Avison Young

face-to-face interaction. Much has been written about the “water cooler conversation” or the benefit of open office door side-chats, and indeed these are the precise types of social interactions that strengthen team bonds and bring added joy to the workday. So while social interaction is a key benefit of in-person work and a basic human need, additional focus ought to be placed on finding ways to ensure that younger employees receive the same support and mentorship that more veteran employees benefitted from in their careers. This not only makes for more effective employees, but plays a major role in retention, a challenge for many in the current labour market.

For hybrid workplaces with employees on-site a few days a week, replicating the organic office mentorship of the past may be difficult, and requires some innovative and deliberate solutions. This could take the form of more formal mentorship where younger employees are paired with mentors, as well as increased focus on professional development. The key point being that the mentorship and learning that naturally occurred will now need some prodding by companies and managers. BOMA Calgary has played a role in this space for many years with a well-established mentorship program that directly facilitates the mentor-protégé relationship and supplements oneon-one time with formal workshops focused on professional development. This successful model has helped catapult countless young professionals onward in their careers, while also helping our members invest in and retain talent. When understood fully, mentorship is a true win-win that is a key to many high performing organizations.

For hybrid workplaces with employees on-site a few days a week, replicating the organic office mentorship of the past may be difficult, and requires some innovative and deliberate solutions. This could take the form of more formal mentorship where younger employees are paired with mentors, as well as increased focus on professional development.

BOMA Excellence Awards will take place on Thursday, May 4th at the Hudson Event Venue. Registration will open in March. Stay tuned! Contact BOMA Calgary for available sponsorship opportunities. Thank you to everyone who joined us on December 7th at the Westin Calgary Hotel for the SOLD OUT BOMA Christmas Luncheon.

It was a great event and wonderful to have 700 members together in the same space after 3 years.

WEALTH MANAGEMENT REDEFINED

EMOTIONAL, FINANCIAL, SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL PREPAREDNESS

BY JOHN HARDY

Although wealth management 2023 is still the art and science of educated guesswork, factors like flux in the Canadian economy, inflation, two-plus years of pandemic business disruptions and some dramatically shifting demographics, continue to impact and redefine wealth management strategizing.

From technology, disrupted Baby Boomer retirement plans and some unprecedented personal and business broadsides continue to transform wealth management. To suggest there have been some changes made is a gross (and mild) understatement. And the changes are many.

The new wealth management bottom line is that Canadians are hitting the brakes on their retirement plans, mostly because fear that they can’t afford to stop working, with spiked inflation having eaten away at their savings and making life pricier.

Recent wealth management research from Fidelity Investments Canada shows that more than 60 per cent of people who have not yet retired say they are delaying their targeted retirement date because everything has gotten so expensive. The responses emphasized inflation as a primary worry, with 66 per cent worrying that it will erode their savings and their way of life. Another 55 per cent said that things were already tight, and they did not have enough saved.

According to the survey, the weak stock market is only making things worse for those who planned to quit working. Close to half, or 45 per cent, are delaying retirement and worrying about their investments. More than 33 per cent felt that high debt levels are also discouraging their wealth management plans.

“In the past five or so years, financial well-being became an important point of emphasis,” explains Michelle Munro, director of Tax and Retirement Research with Fidelity Investments Canada. “With stubborn inflation, market volatility and global uncertainty, it is not surprising that Canadians are anxious about their future and their retirement.

ABOVE: MICHELLE MUNRO, DIRECTOR OF TAX AND RETIREMENT RESEARCH WITH FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CANADA

“Fidelity’s survey has been asking Canadians about their emotional, financial, social and physical preparedness for retirement, since 2016. Last year, only six in 10 preretiree respondents felt emotionally or socially prepared for retirement.”

In addition to the numbers crunching and stock market watching, demographics and dealing with lingering pandemic worries are also proving to be significant factors.

“One of the big trends among wealth management clients is an increased focus on health and wellness as they age,” says Cal Malhiot, vice president of RBC Dominion Securities for Alberta and Prairies. “The pandemic got people thinking about later-in-life planning, about their legacy for the next

life changes is essential.” He cites a recent RBC Wealth Management poll found that only 48 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they have a will, which is the basic building block of any estate plan. Among those aged 35 to 54, that dropped to 34 per cent.

While COVID commotion accentuated health worries about retirement and wealth management, age, circumstances and facts of Canadian life are key disruptors of classic clichés like neatly retiring at 65, investing in the stock market and happily enjoying the good life with golf, travel and procrastinated hobbies.

According to demographics research, Canadian workers have never been older. The Statistics Canada 2021 census showed

In addition to inflation, spiking interest rates and stock market broadsides, the nearing-retirement age group is also worried about high health care costs denting their financial security when they finally retire, and health benefits are no longer what they used to be.

Wealth management is taking a detour. The Fidelity survey tracks that with financial worries keeping older Canadians working for longer, more than half who are still working say it’s for financial reasons. About 60 per cent of not-yet-retired people expect to keep working in their golden years.

The new normal of wealth management strategizing also focus on the importance of savings versus investments. “Our survey continually finds that Canadians (over the age of 45) are prioritizing putting savings towards retirement over other savings goals,” Munro points out. “Less than one in four survey respondents have a written financial plan for retirement, although other surveys have shown that those with a written financial plan feel better prepared for retirement across four different aspects: socially, physically, emotionally and financially.

“Many Canadians are delaying when they choose to retire, which affects sources of retirement income and sequencing of those sources,” she adds. “For those already retired, technology and the ability to work from home is also a big motivator for individuals to work in retirement. In fact, one in four working retirees said that technology, and the ability to work from home, was a reason for continuing to work in retirement.”

The limitless, game-changer opportunities of technology are combining with longer life spans and dramatically impacting contemporary wealth management planning. “Some people may continue investing in the stock market for a longer period after retirement, instead of simply investing in fixed-income investments like government bonds or GICs,” Malhiot says. “For many retirees, having a certain percentage of their portfolio invested in highquality stocks, and the rest in guaranteed investments, adds some long-term growth potential, helping them reduce the risk of outliving their savings. The right balance between growth-oriented and guaranteed investments varies, depending on factors like risk profile.”

Many seasoned financial advisors suggest a new, multidimensional shift in attitudes and priorities about wealth management. “The ‘new rules’ are really about understanding and articulating a person or family’s life goals, and not just financial goals, to help them realize dreams,” says Michael Wood, region head, TD Private Wealth Management, Prairies. “For example, some people want to retire at the earliest possible moment, and some want to continue being productive well past retirement age.

“Three trends that have emerged in the last five years include, virtual client engagements and digital advice delivery, the acceleration of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing, and the role of behavioral finance – the effects of psychology and emotion –on investor decisions.”

On the professional, fund manager side of wealth management, there are also changes. In a perfect and simplified world of wealth management strategizing, a pension fund manager’s role is to deliver a well-balanced and globally diversified portfolio that will maximize sustained long-term returns without incurring undue risk. The portfolio is structured to be resilient in the face of wide-ranging market and economic conditions, and covers all major asset classes, manages and mitigates significant risk factors, and encompasses multiple distinct investment strategies.

Because pension plans are basically retirement plans that require an employer to make contributions to a pool of funds which is set aside for workers future benefits, the pool of funds is invested on behalf of employees. The earnings on the investments generate income for workers on retirement, so pension fund assets must be prudently managed to ensure that retirees receive the promised benefits.

For many years, it meant that funds were limited to investing primarily in government securities, investmentgrade bonds and blue-chip stocks. Not so basic or simple today. Pension fund managers are now updating and redefining their perspectives and their focus. In a sector with few strategic rules, pension fund managers increasingly invest in a variety of asset classes, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure and securities like gold that can hedge inflation.

The Calgary Chamber exists to help businesses thrive. As the convenor and catalyst for a vibrant, inclusive and prosperous business community, the Chamber works to build strength and resilience among its members and position Calgary as a magnet for talent, diversification, and opportunity. As an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization, we build on our 131year history to serve and advocate for businesses of all sizes, in all sectors and across the city.

The Road Ahead: 2023 Election and Beyond A

lberta is at an inflection point. Following years of economic hardship, the province is on track to regain historic levels of economic activity, making us a leader among Canadian provinces in the post-pandemic recovery. Forecasting a $12.3 billion surplus, in large part due to high energy prices, Alberta businesses are driving our economic growth to ensure our future is bright.

The role of government initiatives including red tape reduction, competitive tax policies and incentives, affordability measures and economic diversification cannot be understated as factors in the recent success of Alberta businesses. The policies geared toward business have made Alberta’s advantages clear: we are a province where business can succeed.

However, challenges persist and the road to recovery is uneven. Inflationary pressures and labour challenges tamper businesses’ expectations for the future. With

rising costs and an increasingly acute labour shortage, only 57 per cent of businesses are optimistic about their economic future, a decrease from 65 per cent in Q3 2022.

With a provincial election on the horizon, as a convenor and catalyst for business, the Calgary Chamber has developed ACCELERATE: Driving Alberta Forward, a roadmap that identifies roadblocks and highlights opportunities to advance Alberta’s economic strength and resilience.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

With a $12.3 billion windfall expected for 2022-23, it’s critical that the Alberta government allocate the surplus responsibly and use the funds to promote the province’s economic success today and tomorrow. The Calgary Chamber recommends:

• 30 per cent allocated to debt reduction, targeting eight per cent debt-to-GDP in the near term

• 40 per cent invested in the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund to reduce dependence on non-renewable resource revenue over the long term

• 20 per cent on strategic investments in our economic diversification and liveability

• 10 per cent towards affordability supports for businesses and the people behind them

The Calgary Chamber recommends an increased focus on savings, understanding that compound interest will provide liquidity which the province can leverage for use on future capital projects and buffer the impacts of boom-and-bust cycles associated with commodity prices.

AFFORDABILITY AND RISING COSTS

Capital constraints and rising inflation remain top of mind for businesses; 59 per cent of businesses are currently worried about rising inflation and 44 per cent are concerned by rising costs. Given the current inflationary environment and the need to keep our industries competitive, the Calgary Chamber recommends:

• Ensuring the corporate tax does not exceed the current rate of eight per cent

• Eliminating the small business tax, acknowledging the critical role of SMEs in our economic growth and employment

• Maintaining affordability supports including fuel tax relief, natural gas rebates and low-income transit passes

• Investing in supply chain infrastructure to reduce the cost of importing and shipping goods

• Funding community service providers focused on issues of social disorder, homelessness, mental health and addictions

ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION AND COMPETITIVENESS

Alberta’s economic resilience hinges on the strength of both foundational and emerging industries. With competitive taxes, a highly educated workforce and Calgary ranked as the third most livable city in the world, we are well-positioned to succeed. To diversify within and beyond our strengths – from energy to tech, and tourism to critical minerals – the Calgary Chamber recommends:

• Implementing tools to de-risk innovation in traditional and non-traditional sectors

• Supporting carbon capture utilization and storage and hydrogen developments, driving down emissions while bolstering our economy

• Investing in arts, culture and entertainment to make Calgary a magnet for tourism

• Enhancing transportation and supply chain infrastructure to support agri culture and manufacturing

• Leveraging existing expertise in natural resource development to advance critical minerals, biofuels and nuclear projects

TALENT AND LABOUR

The labour shortage continues to be a major concern for the business community. Alberta saw over 100,000 vacant jobs at the end of 2022 – access to talent is the limiting factor challenging many businesses. However, as world-class destination for talent and capital, Calgary is well positioned to attract and retain talent. To mitigate the labour shortage, the Calgary Chamber recommends:

• Increasing and stabilizing base funding for post-secondary institutions and further investments in upskilling and reskilling programs

• Refining immigration systems and facilitate credential recognition so newcomers can move with ease and apply their skills

• Bolstering accessible and affordable childcare by reducing red tape and topping up funding in line with inflation

• Creating an inclusive workforce that enables the participation of underrepresented groups

STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS

Strategic infrastructure is critical to community vibrancy and public safety and provides a platform for economic growth. Investments in infrastructure promote Alberta as a great place to live, work and play while helping retain talent and attract capital. The Calgary Chamber recommends:

• Investing in our downtown core, from office conversions to public spaces

• Funding arts, entertainment, sporting and cultural infrastructure

• Enhancing public safety, including both personnel and physical security

• Developing new transportation infrastructure, including public transit within and beyond the city

Alberta remains a place of opportunity for businesses and the people behind them. To ensure the continued success of businesses across the province, Alberta’s government must remain responsive to the ongoing concerns of the business community. Maintaining our advantages requires forward-looking policy, collaboration with other levels of government and sustainable fiscal stewardship.

NO LIMITS: APEX AUTOMATION CONTINUES TO GROW

The innovative brand celebrates 10 years

By Nerissa McNaughton

Lippiatt

with photos by Rebecca

Adam, Tanner and Aaron.

With a clear purpose, Apex Automation grew quickly. The first employee was hired in 2013 and new office space was required by 2014. In 2016, Apex became a Rockwell Certified systems integrator. This program helps develop and promote integrators that lead with Rockwell Automation technologies. The certification helped launch Apex technically and commercially, while also helping Adam, Aaron and Tanner add to their team. The move to the west side office in Edmonton was the first of what would grow to offices in Lloydminster (2020), Calgary (2021), Saskatoon (2019) and Vancouver (2022), along with the recent formation of Apex Automation USA. The team grew alongside the geographical expansion, reaching 75+ members in 2022.

Fueling this growth and success is a commitment to outstanding business practices. Tanner explains, “We work in an extremely challenging engineering environment. When mistakes happen, which they will, we work on minimizing risks by ensuring our quality and even subsidizing the costs ourselves. We consider every client a partner; we put the accountability on us and our staff.”

The team have enjoyed a number of impactful projects over the past 10 years, logging more than 700,000 man hours of experience over 600 projects and alongside more than 20 industry partners. This includes the remote operations center for Cenovus, the tele-remote operation of under ground mining machines for Nutrien and several PLC/DCS turnkey project solutions.

To understand the many ways Apex Automation can revolutionize a business, one needs only glance at their list of industry accomplishments. For example, creating autonomous positioning on a UG machine has allowed Apex to reduce human/machine interaction by 90 per cent. This drives up efficiency, lowers human error and

dramatically improves safety. Another project saw the integration of multiple control rooms into one centralized location – with zero productivity interruptions during each phase. More innovations of this kind can be viewed at www. apexautomation.ca/projects.

Apex Automation was an early adopter, and quick to see the full potential of AI. This has paid off in rapid growth – and that comes with its own challenges.

“Keeping up with our growth while ensuring employee morale and exceeding our clients’ expectations can be a challenge,” explains Adam. However, as with every issue Apex Automation faces, they rise to the occasion. By holding fast to the vision started 10 years ago, the authentic business practices and great employee work culture mean everyone pulls together through thick and thin.

Aaron shares, “One of the most rewarding things, for me, is watching our team become leaders in the automation industry while making significant impacts to our clients’ bottom line. I also find growing industry relationships into friendships to be an unexpected bonus in this career.”

“What most people don’t know,” Tanner adds, “is that Apex started in a little farm shop about 45 minutes northwest of Edmonton.” He, Adam and Aaron couldn’t be prouder to see the company grow to be an industry leader with teams across Western Canada, and now pushing into the States.

“We did not arrive here on our own. Our clients fueled our growth, pushed us to think in creative new ways and have been with us, loyally, every step of the way. We cannot thank our clients enough,” says Adam. He continues, “We are also grateful to our Edmonton community. The charitable spirit and willingness to help one another is inspirational and very unique to the city of Edmonton.”

Being on the forefront of automation is a never-ending journey. The processes and products available 10 years ago have already changed and improved many times over. Apex is not only keeping pace but innovating many of the changes needed for the engineering, fabrication and automation spheres. Edge computing, machine learning (ML), data visualization, connected workers, integrated apps – Apex does it all, and more.

“Businesses with a culture of acceptance of technology and automation will prove to be economically resilient despite regional, international and political influence,” says Aaron.

Tanner discusses how Apex Automation helps businesses integrate AI, ML and other innovations that save time, increase safety and improve revenues. “We generally offer free automation assessments, executive level power points and honest commercial terms allowing flexibility with initial costs and payments to help spark a great, initial collaborative conversation. We ensure that the operator experience for all of our automation systems are intuitive and simplistic. This allows faster reaction times to problems or disruptions in addition to allowing staff and management to learn and engage our systems with ease.”

One hurdle to overcome is the commonly held belief that automation will reduce the need for human interaction and labour. The opposite is often true. Companies that embrace automation free up their teams from basic, repetitive tasks

that could cause repetitive strain injury – or worse – over time. This moves those workers into better positions where they can oversee the equipment or retrain into higher skilled areas. Automation is not about replacing the workforce; it is about enhancing it. Apex’s growing client list is a testament to industries’ growing commitment to improve efficiency and safety, but not at the expense of their teams. It is truly a win-win situation, and Apex is pleased and humbled to help willing companies through this exciting journey.

In addition to revolutionizing the workforce, everyone at Apex is equally focused on the communities they serve.

“Over the years we have supported numerous charitable organizations throughout the provinces and cities where we are active,” says Adam. “Giving back is a huge responsibility that we take very seriously.”

It’s been a whirlwind 10 years but Adam, Aaron and Tanner wouldn’t have it any other way. They thank their team, clients, vendors, families and everyone that has been a part of their success so far. Apex is a young company that has an exciting future in a fast-paced industry where constant innovation is the goal. The team looks forward to continued growth in both Canada and the U.S. over the next decade.

Learn more at apexautomation.ca and follow the journey on LinkedIn.

Tanner, Adam and Aaron.

SumoQuote. “Especially in the residential roofing space it has been recognized as the best-in-class tool to help contractors close more deals.”

Above all, people are at the centre of the Epic Group of Companies. These six companies operate independently but a culture of collaboration and support flows seamlessly through the group’s Calgary and Red Deer offices. Merlin Bartel, Lance Merrifield, Ryan Shantz and the rest of the seven-member ownership team hold a shared vision and values that express how they already function and reflect the culture of the group of businesses. They invest in people, both through staff training and professional development and advancement, and even hired a chief culture officer to provide coaching and training throughout the organization.

“Our commitment to relationships is there as an end to itself not as a means to a different end. We value people. We value each other,” says Bartel.

That shines through with the team’s dedication to volunteering with industry associations as well as the communities in which they work. From a Christmas pop-up market featuring ethically sourced goods from organizations helping people escape poverty and oppression to flying across the world to help communities rebuild after a disaster; from offering microloans for people in developing countries to allocating a portion of annual revenues to charity, the thread of service connects them all.

As the group continues to strategically grow its brand and diversify, it will preserve its focus on being global citizens who operate with integrity while offering the best product and service in the business. With a staff of 200 incredible people, representing over 20 countries, and expertise that is expanding all the time, it’s clear that the Epic Group of Companies is just getting started.

JA Southern Alberta: preparing youth for success through digital literacy and STEM education

By Melissa From, President and CEO, JA Southern Alberta

At JA Southern Alberta, we work to educate youth about financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. The world is rapidly changing and our team and volunteers are working hard to prepare students to enter a workforce that is unrecognizable from that of their parents. Today with the advancement of technology, there are many jobs available that didn’t exist ten years ago. With that in mind, it is extremely important that students are exposed at a young age to the foundations of STEM.

In recognizing the importance of STEM, we have started to integrate STEM programming into our offerings, including a program called RoboGarden which is designed as a fun and easy way for elementary and junior high students to learn about computer coding. Through the program, students learn about different coding concepts, STEAM subjects, and good morals through a game-based environment. As a part of the program, students are challenged to apply their own creativity and problem-solving abilities to the online universe by building an app. As technology continues to become more and more integrated into our workforce and education system, exposing grade school students to STEM opportunities is important for a number of reasons.

One of those reasons is that with the rapid advancement of technology in the past decade, STEM fields are growing and are increasingly important in our modern economy. Many of the fastest growing and highest paying jobs require a strong foundation in STEM subjects.

In Alberta, by providing students with opportunities to learn and explore STEM fields, we can help them to develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in these careers. Today, there are STEM applications in nearly every sector, so whether a student chooses to pursue a career in agriculture, energy, healthcare, or business, to name a few, they are very likely to come across the need for STEM applications.

Another reason a STEM education is so important is it helps students to develop important skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. These skills are valuable in any field and can help students to succeed in a wide range of careers. By providing students with hands-on STEM experiences, we can help them to develop these skills and prepare them for success in the real world.

Exposing students to STEM fields starting at a young age also contributes to breaking down stereotypes and encouraging more diverse participation in these fields. Women and minorities are often underrepresented in STEM fields, and by providing students with early exposure to STEM opportunities we can help to break down barriers and encourage more diverse participation in these fields.

Providing grade school students in Southern Alberta with opportunities to learn about and explore STEM is important for their future success, as well as for the growth and success of our economy and society.

By supporting STEM education, we can help to create a more knowledgeable and skilled workforce, and pave the way for a bright and prosperous future for both our children and our homegrown tech sector.

To learn more about this amazing offering, please visit jasab.ca!

McElhanney Celebrates 50-Year Alberta Legacy

The West is a land of dreamers and entrepreneurs that was built by the hardworking trailblazers who shaped Canada’s industries and communities. William McElhanney set up shop in Vancouver in 1910 and went out armed with little more than determination and a compass to survey lands for new settlements and railroads for forestry operations. Now 113 years later, McElhanney Ltd. has become the oldest employee-owned engineering and geomatics firm in Canada, with more than 30 branches across Western Canada and with offices in Newfoundland and Labrador and Florida.

In 1972, McElhanney expanded into Alberta with its acquisition of Dabbs Control Surveys. The Calgary branch hit the ground running, completing survey work for seismic programs and mineral exploration, pipeline and well surveys and navigation positioning for offshore rigs using what was cutting-edge Doppler satellite technology. Revenues soared and McElhanney grew exponentially to meet the demands of this booming industry.

After the heyday of the 1970s, the 1980s popped the oil & gas bubble. McElhanney’s dedicated team weathered the turbulence of the National Energy Program and continued to grow the business throughout the 1990s and 2000s under the leadership of Bernie McKenna and Craig Hughes.

“One of the unique aspects about McElhanney is that we are employee owned,” says Dr. Robert Radovanovic, McElhanney’s regional vice president for Prairies South and St. Johns. “We are all partners, so we push through when times are tough. When you have that mentality, you can weather the downturns because you can make decisions based on ‘how do we keep the lights on?’ And people dig in and they figure out how to make those times good.”

Through the multiple downturns and challenges

Alberta has faced over the past 50 years, McElhanney has succeeded in making those good times great. The company is perched among the top in the industry, with its 1,400+ employees across the organization bringing

Photo by Dotun_og

expertise in a wide range of disciplines to deliver the best solutions to clients. As McElhanney isn’t an asset business, the true value lies in the exceptional professional services that help clients grow and succeed.

WHAT MCELHANNEY DOES

The company is comprised of talented professionals working in everything from geomatics to landscape architecture on small-scale one-day jobs right up to multidiscipline multiyear nameplate projects. Small projects could see the team preparing a climate resiliency assessment to determine future at-risk infrastructure in Bragg Creek Trails while large-scale projects like the 600-kilometre KAPS pipeline running from Fort Saskatchewan to Grande Prairie involved around 300 McElhanney employees in the various stages of the nearly finished project.

Whether projects are large or small, the team offers any combination of geomatics, civil engineering, remote sensing, planning, landscape architecture and environmental services, and clients know they will get the best outcome from the best in the business.

“Once upon a time we were just doing one type of survey or one type of engineering but now we make it a point to promote the cross-selling of our multi-disciplinary services. We’re using all our expertise and bundling them together for clients,” says Scott Dufour, Calgary Geomatics branch manager.

Bundling makes for a more efficient and convenient experience for clients. McElhanney has become a one-stop shop and the team is proud to wear a multitude of hats on projects to get them done well.

“It’s a holistic solution for the client, start to finish, so they don’t have to go to three different firms to get the project done. We take it from inception right through to completion,” says Troy McNeill, division manager of Municipal Services at McElhanney.

There is technical specialization that occurs within the groups, but the collaborative culture of McElhanney

leads to these varied services merging to produce comprehensive custom solutions. Through bundling of these diverse offerings, the 10 Alberta branches serve clients operating in three main areas: energy and resources, transportation and transit and cities, communities and parks.

Energy companies bring their wellsite and pipeline projects to McElhanney for planning and survey services as well as civil engineering and earthworks for building facilities. As the sector changes, so does McElhanney, especially in response to the push toward renewable energy and transmission lines that require new investments in infrastructure.

On the transportation and transit side, McElhanney works closely with City of Calgary, Alberta Transportation and Parks Canada on a variety of projects that cover everything from designing road widening and bridges to installing wildlife overpasses and fencing. The team helps keep people moving through the extensive transportation network of Canada’s parks and cities.

McElhanney is also committed to improving communities through strategic planning, land use and development approval, sustainability, urban design and tourism initiatives. The company is proud to partner with First Nations groups to design and install critical infrastructure and transportation links to better their communities.

Photo by Dotun_og

“We have vast technical specialties working together, and in many of those fields we are working at the verge of new ways of doing things, of new technologies,” says Radovanovic.

Innovation and a desire to be ahead of the curve runs deep in McElhanney’s DNA, and its employees are always looking for better ways to do their jobs. As a technology leader in the industry, McElhanney regularly performs 3D modeling via scanners and remotely collects measurements and data courtesy of the largest drone fleet in Canada. The company also has specialists who can create photorealistic visualizations of a design so clients can better picture the end results. McElhanney operates at a very high technical level to provide the best solutions for clients and communities.

To keep a finger on the pulse, the company monitors market developments so it can adopt or pursue innovations early and quickly.

“The most transformational change that we’re contemplating is the movement into this data economy. People are calling it the fourth industrial revolution so that’s one thing that we’ve had our eyes on for a while,” says Radovanovic.

As an organization that collects information and generates knowledge, McElhanney is developing new ways to combine data so project delivery is more impactful. This helps the company anticipate what types of projects need to happen and formulate solutions even before clients know they need them.

The incredibly talented McElhanney team, which in Calgary includes more than 180 employees plus field personnel, works hard to develop strong relationships and exceed expectations at every turn. Having long-tenured staff paired with long-time clients leads to a comprehensive knowledge base for the client’s portfolio and the two become partners on current projects leading to future ones.

To retain staff long term requires a positive culture that puts people first, and from the beginning McElhanney has emphasized community, both within the company and outside of it. Despite its size, the company maintains a family feel that has the team looking after clients like they would their neighbours and fostering a family atmosphere among employees. People know that management cares about them professionally and personally, and the company is flexible and supportive when life events happen.

That flexibility is born from a nimble business model that encourages collaboration between all levels. Being a relatively flat organization, employees are encouraged to think outside the box and propose innovative initiatives to any of the management team.

“We’re very entrepreneurial so if there’s an idea and there seems to be a business case for it, it’s not going up the chain to the top and back down. It’s at the local level and we’ll go for it and see if we can make it work,” says Walter Johnson, executive vice president at McElhanney.

Parks Canada Agency

Overpass

This type of thinking also allows staff to explore other areas of the business through mentorship as well as branch-to-branch staff sharing. Management urges people to pursue professional development in-house as everyone wins when employees grow their knowledge and skillsets.

“What sets us apart is our philosophy when it comes to people and progressing their careers to try to build a lifetime of service at McElhanney,” says Nathan Sikkes, Major Projects branch manager. “So often you have to move companies in order to take that next step forward but being a people-focused organization, you’re encouraged and supported to evolve here.”

McElhanney prides itself on being the kind of company that people want to work for and is proud at how many employees come on board immediately upon completion of their studies and never leave. In fact, the organization targets potential employees early in their careers, hosting high school students to teach them about the scope of McElhanney’s work, providing scholarships for students to study related streams, offering internships and co-ops and even having Dr. Radovanovic teach graduate courses on infrastructure asset management at the University of Calgary. Its efforts are being noticed: McElhanney was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 2022/2023 and has been named among Canada’s Best Managed companies each year since 2016.

McElhanney invests in its people as well as the future of the industry, all while supporting the communities in which its teams work and live. Employees volunteer with a variety of charitable causes, from helping at the Mustard Seed to designing community baseball diamonds pro bono, and the organization leads by example through McElhanney Cares – its charity committee. Its initiatives have recently included providing underprivileged children and their families free admission to TELUS Spark to grow their love of science. With support from McElhanney’s staff, clients and partners, the

non-profit saw their most successful year-end fundraising, with more than $120,000 raised to ensure more than 6,000 young minds will have their imaginations sparked as they develop their future ambitions.

McElhanney’s people focus, whether that’s staff, clients or communities, is an intrinsic value that attracts and retains the best employees and clients, and is something that will continue to guide the company as it moves forward. Just as its founder did 113 years ago, today’s McElhanney will continue to build a team that will dream big, innovate to realize those dreams and lead the industry into the next 50 years.

Mark Eleven Photography

SMALL BROKERAGE FIRM DELIVERS BIG

by Rennay

Craats with photos by Rebecca Hardcastle

Jon Mook

In his 25 years in the brokerage business, Jon Mook has been part of both large public entities and smaller private boutique shops. He learned the ropes in one of the large firms, and after a dozen years he’d earned the position of partner and senior vice president. While it was a great company, he found that being public forced them to focus on generating revenue for quarterly returns and he wanted to find a smaller private company that could offer more independence and control of his team’s direction.

He moved to Barclay Street Real Estate, a locally-owned, full-service brokerage firm that allowed Mook to come in with his own team and operate out of their own office.

“It was a great experience. The owner gave me a lot of freedom, full autonomy and we were very profitable every year,” says Jon Mook, president and managing director of Lee & Associates Calgary.

Mook was essentially running his own business within a business for a decade, but there was one thing missing: ownership. With his three children expressing a desire to join the family business after they complete their business degrees, Mook was looking to build a legacy

that the next generation could carry on. In November 2022, he was given the opportunity to establish a branch of Lee & Associates, the largest broker-owned firm in North America.

Lee & Associates has a stellar reputation as a top-tier international commercial real estate brokerage and integrated services provider, with 70 branch offices across Canada and the United States that employ around 1,400 industry professionals.

Lee & Associates has a stellar reputation as a top-tier international commercial real estate brokerage and integrated services provider, with 70 branch offices across Canada and the United States that employ around 1,400 industry professionals.

Emily Goodman and Jon Mook.

“With Lee, they really like an entrepreneurial kind of individual. It’s a unique model, as you own your firm but you’re part of a bigger group. There’s a ton of collaboration and support,” he says.

The transition from being a satellite office of Barclay Street to the Calgary branch of Lee & Associates was a simple matter of new signage and an office refresh as Mook already had his team of six in place to provide leasing services, acquisitions and dispositions for clients under the new Lee umbrella. It also created a middle point for Lee’s Vancouver and Toronto offices for better connectivity across the country.

Lee & Associates offers full-service brokerage services in disciplines including industrial, suburban office, downtown office, retail and investment, and the Calgary office is adding to its team to better fill out all of these asset classes. As a broker-owned firm with profit sharing, the team is invested and agile, capable of implementing quick decisions and pivoting to keep projects running smoothly and successfully. This contributes to the shop’s end goal: to outwork the competition, partner with clients to deliver more than they expect and become indispensable to clients’ current and future projects.

The firm goes over and above in all areas to achieve this, servicing clients beyond the scope of a traditional

brokerage shop. If traditional firms can’t assist a client with tenant improvements or a renovation, Mook’s team can assist with their development arm, something very unique to their firm. The alternative is having a landlord do the work and charge a fee for such services. As a result, Lee & Associates is far from traditional. Jon Mook has the skillset and experience to do new construction and design build projects through his complementary business, the Mook Group of Companies. This development arm operates parallel to Lee & Associates to offer more expansive service options for companies seeking real estate solutions in Alberta.

“Development always starts with a client looking for land and I would broker the acquisition but then step in as a development manager to help them pull together a team to design the building, work on drawings, take it out for tender, price it, pick a general contractor, help with construction documents and then shadow-manage the project all the way to the end,” he says.

Some clients also look to the team to teach them about the ins and outs of their mortgage agreement and help with securing financing to ensure they are putting the best package in place.

“I’m the only guy in the market offering this set of services,” Mook says.

He started offering development services hand-in-hand with brokerage back in 2002 and then established his own property portfolio in 2008. Now the Mook Group has 11 buildings in the portfolio, and he has completed 45 facilities going back to 2002. His latest venture is near completion in Grande Prairie for a repeat client where they are in the final stages of construction for a cross dock terminal, the third one in Alberta with the same client.

This high-level expertise makes Lee & Associates the one-stop shop for industrial development, a market that represents more than 150 million square feet of space in Calgary. Mook and his team have been involved in many incredible projects, both as part of the brokerage and the development arm, and there is no greater compliment than being invited back to work on subsequent facilities in other locations or asked for sophisticated solutions to challenging needs. The firm has proven it’s up to the challenge of complicated projects, with one of the most significant being the PTW Energy Services project. The team was asked to unite several of that company’s facilities into three new buildings measuring more than 200,000 square feet built on 40 acres of land. Mook and his team spent more than two years guiding the client through the specs, design and construction for the 20-year design build lease.

Now, Lee & Associates is working with a private developer to bring to market a 185-acre northeast

industrial park that is situated on the last tract of land in the city that fronts onto Deerfoot Trail. The team will sell off large 30- and 40-acre parcels as well as some smaller owner-user ones to create a park that fits a wide range of needs. It’s an amazing project and Mook and his team have a strong base of experience on which they can build to be successful.

“I’ve been involved with two other industrial parks in the past, bringing them from absolute farmland to serviced land that you can sell, so just having a skillset beyond a traditional brokerage has allowed me to work with clients in a greater capacity,” Mook says. “We’re really excited bringing this park to the market.”

While the team prides itself on its properties and delivering the services surrounding them, it’s the relationships that elevate the company. Mook believes

This high-level expertise makes Lee & Associates the one-stop shop for industrial development, a market that represents more than 150 million square feet of space in Calgary.

Emily Goodman, Jack Mazury, Ann-Marie Muldoon, Diana Didi, Jon Mook and Angela Falagaris.

that the most important client is the existing one, and his team is dedicated to exceeding the expectations of their long list of repeat customers. Relationships extend well beyond the boardrooms as clients have become more like good friends you work with.

“Even though we’re selling real estate, the core of our business is relationships and trust. That’s the backbone of brokerage,” he says.

team

accounts and projects, and clients are confident that the Lee team

care

That trust is something the whole team at Lee & Associates takes seriously. They are handling huge accounts and projects, and clients are confident that the Lee team is taking care of the details. For decades, Jon Mook has been partnering with clients on their leasing, acquisitions, dispositions, land and construction projects and now, with the expertise and resources of Lee & Associates behind him, the sky’s the limit for this small brokerage firm that delivers big.

Parker’s Pen

BY DAVID PARKER

Forgetting can be very frustrating, especially when it centres around the simplest and more frequent things. I often get a smile watching people park their car, walk into the grocery store, and then turn back – hoping no one is watching – to pick up a bag to carry out their purchases.

Soon it will be remembered just like switching off the car, but I hope people take a good look inside the bags once in a while, because surely there’s a danger they can be infected with all kinds of bacteria from vegetables, fruits, meats and even the bottom of some cartons.

I applaud the Calgary Co-op for fighting to keep their disposable plastic bags which seem so convenient, safe and eco-friendly.

And on the subject of grocery stores, I worry about the ever-increasing number of Co-op’s and Safeway’s own brands filling the shelves. Maybe Cal & Gary and Compliments are a good buy, but imagine the day when you walk into a grocery store and only see one label!

I like to select my olive oil from bottles with good graphics, telling me where they were produced, and give a thought to the people who made my Branston pickle or baked beans.

It’s interesting to see that the west end is being bantered around again as a location for the new arena.

Doesn’t make sense to me when the land is available at the Stampede grounds where it is so easy and familiar to get to, and will be a big boost to the developing East Village and Victoria Park.

Maybe it’s just being dangled before us again to make us think that council is thinking hard about a decision.

One of the problems with a west end location would be LRT connections, especially from the northwest which would certainly mean changing trains.

Better council members and transportation gurus spend time solving the safety issues along the LRT lines. I was talking to friends recently who bemoaned the fact that they had given up going to the theatre downtown because they were uncomfortable – maybe even used the word frightened – to sit on the train because of too-regular disturbances at Sunnyside and Lions Park stations in the evenings.

Hope the wind blows hard and the sun keeps shining bright, because when we get our fleet of electric buses they will have to be fully charged to make it around this big city.

I see that even Rolls Royce has entered the production of electric cars. The first deliveries of Sceptre will be made in the fourth quarter of this year. Price suggested by car buffs at around $400,000. Another $40,000 will get you a Phantom, but not too many of us could afford a Phantom Gold priced at $550,000 – USD of course – but at that price who cares?

Final Words

Earning a living is mostly earning not enough living.