Q&A with VICA CHAIR
CHRIS LYONS
As the new Chair of VICA, what VICA initiatives are the most important to you? What initiatives are you hoping to develop or expand this year?
With the ongoing labour shortage, we need to promote careers in the trades and construction industry to young people and new workers. It is critical we continue to encourage this through outreach in our committees and the Construct Your Future program. VICA has also created a harm reduction program ‘The Tailgate Toolkit’ to support existing workers in the industry. It’s important that we support our existing workers manage the stresses of the increased workload put onto them by this labour shortage. From your perspective as the director of construction at Omicron Construction, what do you see as the biggest challenges facing the construction industry on the Island?
With no end in sight to the high volumes of construction work on the Island we are going to continue to face challenges with skill shortages and supply chain issues. As we report these issues to the public, hopefully that will help them understand our challenges within the industry. By bringing these challenges to the forefront and raising awareness, it gives the industry hard facts to point to as they communicate and work through these challenges with their clients. It also helps us promote our initiatives within VICA where we try to address these issues for the industry and more importantly our members.
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