Training the Next Generation

Even in his semiretirement, Moore still wants to give back to the trades and continues to train technicians at HiMark.

After 47 years of working in the trades, Bill Moore has turned to training the next generation of technicians. By Leah Den Hartogh

Life just doesn’t always follow the set plan. With no intentions of following in his father’s footsteps, Bill Moore expected to find himself working as an electrician in his career. But it just worked out that there was an opening for a refrigeration apprentice, so he signed on. The rest is history. This was back in the 1970s. Since then, he has found himself working in several aspects of the trades, including on the tools, as a supervisor, service manager, and now as a semi-retired journeyperson, he has put on his trainers hat.

“It’s been fun. There have been plenty of opportunities in this trade for me,” explains Moore. “I just thoroughly enjoyed it, working on the tools, working with my hands, to being a supervisor, to actually designing projects and managing them. It’s been a pretty awesome opportunity for me in our industry.”

Although Moore took on plenty of different roles in his career, he states that his favourite has to be projects. “I like going and being a problem solver for people. I wore a service hat and that was fun, but my favourite was getting projects and implementing a solution for a customer. Seeing a project from start to finish and seeing the success of it. Another part of it that I loved was just encouraging young guys to get into the trades and watching them grow and learn.”

He took on many different apprentices over his career, with more of them sticking to the trades than not. “I took guys on from high school, we did co-op programs through

schools,” explains Moore. His son, Nathan Moore, was even one of the apprentices he took on and the individual to nominate Bill Moore for our Industry Champions series.

Of the apprentices that Moore has worked with over the years, there are countless technicians still in the trade that will reach out to Moore for advice on a job.

Now that Moore is semi-retired, he still wants to give back to the trades and as such operates a consulting business where he works with technicians and also trains through HiMark at their Rexdale and Barrie locations.

HiMark offers gasfitter, refrigeration and air conditioning, HVAC, safety, pre-exam courses. According to Moore, they are best known for their gas training courses as it is TSSA-approved. He admits that he could go fully-retired, but he has such a continued passion for teaching.

“It’ s a great opportunity to inject into the trade some of the things that I’ve learned over the last 47 years,” explains Moore. “It’s nice to be able to inject some of those opportunities to be able to just teach them how to do certain things of the trade that are unique or maybe just they didn’t pick up basic.” Currently Moore teaches the 313D certification course

for residential air conditioning mechanic and the pre-exam course for also 313A certification for refrigeration and air conditioning systems mechanic.

When asked what pieces of advice he gives to those entering the trades, he stressed the importance that continual training will have on their career.

“There’s a lot of learning opportunities outside of the day-to-day routines — talk to suppliers and keep taking courses whenever you can,” said Moore. “Even after you are licensed and certified by the government, that’s just when the learning starts. I had an uncle that told me once when I was just starting the trade, he said, “That drinking fountain outside the manager’s office is just as important to him as the chiller that runs the plant. We got to fix both. You got to be able to be diversified to be able to do as much as you can for your customers.” The more licenses and more training are very, very important.”

Moore takes pride in every teaching moment he has with his students and doesn’t believe in mediocracy. If a technician doesn’t know an answer to a problem, this just present itself as another learning opportunity to grow, explains Moore. :

Even after you are licensed and certified by the government, that’s just when the learning starts.

People The

Caleffi, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announces the promotion of six employees. Mike Schreiner has been named chief technology officer after joining the company in 2002. He is the latest member appointed to the board of directors. Mike Mary Olson has been promoted to Schreiner director of marketing. She most recently served as manager of digital communica- Mary tions and joined the Caleffi team back in Olson 2007. Jesus Saavedra has been named warehouse manager. His management development includes operational training at Caleffi facilities in England and Italy. Dan Phelps has been named senior Jesus manager of planning and customer serSaavedra vice. He joined the Caleffi team in 2015 as warehouse manager and head of inventory planning and purchasing. After joining the Caleffi team seven years ago, Cody Mack has been pro- Dan moted to product manager. He recently Phelps served as training and education manager and will be joined by a new plumbing manager currently being reCody cruited. Mack Max Rohr has been named manager of education and industry engagement. He joined Caleffi in 2020 and served as training and education manager. In this newly created position, Rohr Max will take on the lead for Caleffi’s engagement with trade Rohr associations, committees, industry initiatives and collaborative manufacturer partners.

The Canadian Construction Association (CCA) announces that Brendan Nobes will be the new chair of the board of directors for 2022 to 2023. Nobes is the director of major project for rcs construction, a general contracting firm in Atlantic Canada. He is a 35-year veteran of the construction industry, having worked as a site superintendent, senior estimator, senior project manager, and project manager representing the owner. Nobes is CCA’s representative to the Canadian Construction Brendan Documents Committee. He is also the past chair Nobes of the Construction Association of Nova Scotia. Equipco has promoted Jared Bonnett to managing partner. Previously, he was an associate partner and joined the Equipco team back in 2012. Groupe Stelpro announces the appointment of Patrick Charest as vice president, sales, and business development. Charest will provide leadership in the planning and execution of sales and customer service strategies across all distribution channels and territories. He has over 25 years of experience in the manufacturing industry in sales, marketing, and general management, mainly at Permacon. He will take up his new duties on March 28.

Jared Bonnett Patrick Charest

Carlo Gavazzi has appointed Dany Lavoie to their Canadian sales team. Lavoie has 20-plus years of experience in the electrical industry and will be responsible for the new area sales manager for the greater Montreal region. Brett Dany Horst will be the new sales manager for Lavoie the southwestern Ontario region. Horst has more than five years of experience in the electrical industry, having worked with a variety of industrial and OEM customers.

Watts welcomes Steve Hocurscak as the senior product manager, regulators, and automatic control valves (ACVs). He will be responsible for Watts regulatory and ACV product management, as well as for developing and executing new strategies focused on business growth. Hocurscak brings with him experience in product management for large product portfolios across several indus- Steve trial verticals. Hocurscak At its 77th annual general meeting, MCA Saskatchewan announced its 2022 – 2023 board

Brett Horst

of directors. Ken Swann, Interwest Mechanical Ltd., Saskatoon, is now the new president, and Joanne

Ken Swann

Harpauer-Dignean, Welldone Mechanical Services Inc., Saskatoon, is the first vice president.

The Companies

Kohler kitchen and bath products will now be available at Wolseley Canada outlets across the country. Orders for products from the

Kohler Canada lineup are now being taken across Wolseley Canada’s 220 stores. Products will be available in branches and showrooms, nationwide, and through online through its eBusiness platform, Wolseley Express.

Saniflo Canada has announced a partnership with Plumbers Without Borders (PWB) as a mission supporter sponsor. Saniflo says that its ultimate goal is to support the group’s mission to connect volunteer plumbers and industry resources with organizations working to increase access to safe water and sanitation worldwide.

Daikin unitary, ductless, and light commercial products in North America is unifying its core Daikin, Goodman, and Amana HVAC brands under a new top level corporate name and structure — Daikin Comfort Technologies. The name change and new organizational structure becomes effective on April 1.

Ideal Warehouse Innovations introduces a new product lineup that now features AtomikAir. Able to process one million cubic ft. of air per hour, the AtomikAir is built for warehouses. The system has a MERV 13 air filter rating and washable/reusable filters. The new family of products also features air purification solutions, including the Jade 2.0 and the wall-mounted Onyx systems. The lineup also includes a pair of stand-alone ultraviolet systems. The VK-250 and VK-1500 air purification systems cover a range of room volumes and are ideal for offices, retail, and public washrooms.

Jim Garrett and Simon Feddema have teamed up to establish a new company, Boardroom Consultants. Combined, they have nearly 80 years of experience in leadership roles — Feddema previously was Grundfos Canada’s president and Garrett was Taco Comfort Solution’s general

Jim Garrett Simon Feddema

manager. Through their new company, they will help build strategic plans and annual budgets with tactics to support the execution of the plan, and then follow-up to ensure a successful outcome. Boardroom Consultants will target small to medium sized companies striving to build their business in a sustained and consistent manner.

What levels of cybersecurity does your business have in place? By Ron Coleman

Many of us have a love/hate relationship with technology. The phone isn’t simply a telephone anymore. It is a powerful communication tool, in both our personal and business worlds. We know that technology is getting more powerful and that we need to stay on top of it for us to run our businesses effectively.

The federal government also recognizes how important digital technology is for small and medium size businesses and has introduced the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP). It is set to provide $4 billion over four years with $1.4 billion in grants and $2.6 billion in loans from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). The funding will help small and medium sized enterprises leverage ecommerce opportunities, upgrade or adopt digital technologies, and digitize their operations.

Digital footprint

Grow Your Business Online funding provides micro grants of up to $2,400 and youth e-commerce advisors’ support to help small businesses implement digital storefronts and e-commerce capabilities. The Boost Your Business Technology funding provides grants covering 90 per cent of costs up to $15,000 to access advisory services to develop a digital adoption plan, access to zero per cent interest loans from the BDC, as well as opportunities for student placements. To determine eligibility, there are a few basic questions which need to be answered. For either program you must have at least one employee, to be eligible for the Boost Your Business Technology, you must have revenues of at least $500,000 in one of the previous three years and must complete a digital needs assessment. The applicant must be an owner or director of the business.

CDAP makes this a great time to set up or fine tune your social media programs and deal

with other key technology issues. The process requires expertise and ongoing maintenance. The objective of this two-part article is to provide you with a sound foundation of what you need to do, what social media programs are available, what their key strengths and weaknesses are, and what other areas you need to explore.

Locking the back door

Before delving into social media, let’s look at some other areas that the CDAP financing can help with. Cybersecurity has become a major issue. We need to protect our critical systems and sensitive information from digital attacks. Just imagine the horror of not being able to access your computers. Your business would come to a halt and might never recover. My first recommendation is that you use some of the funding to beef up your cybersecruity. A huge growth opportunity for businesses in its infancy is augmented reality (AR). This uses a real-world setting while virtual reality (VR) is completely virtual. AR users can control their presence in the real world; VR users are controlled by the system. VR requires a headset device, but AR can be accessed with a smartphone. According to Procore, there are five main areas that are set to impact construction businesses over the coming years.

The first is safety training. Augmented reality simulates tools, equipment, and other safety scenarios to give trainees a safe learning environment where nobody gets hurt. Thus, they can safely learn from their mistakes. The programs are richly detailed so that the new skills carry over to the real world. The cost is significantly lower than the current methods.

Next is real-time project information. Thanks to AR, field workers can walk a job site at any time and see how the finished project will look. The technology helps an empty shell of a building floor come to life with the location, style and size of windows and doors, pipes, and HVAC systems. Using an AR headset, the worker sees these details as if they were right in front of them. They can compare what they see to the building plan to ensure everything is in order. This can significantly cut time spent correcting minor mistakes like wrong outlet covers as well as major errors, such as incorrect positioning of a door or window.

Thirdly is team collaboration. Augmented Reality allows remote workers to inspect the job site as if they were there in person. It enables real-time collaboration to solve problems and fix errors without having to wait for a particular contractor or decisionmaker to be physically present. AR also allows workers to take photos or videos of issues, which can be viewed and commented on by remote teams.

Virtual walkthroughs

New technology will allow for more easily streamlined project planning. AR lets owners, engineers, and other lead people take virtual walkthroughs of buildings in progress or see how changes will be incorporated in the design without throwing the job off track. Being able to visualize changes’ effect on a project in real-time can help find mistakes early and guarantee every project principal is on the same page.

Lastly is modifying projects. Using an AR headset with a digital overlay of a project, engineers can easily change the layout of walls or other essential structural components and systems. AR gives them a view of how those systems work together. It can also show incompatibilities or instances when a fix will create a problem down the line. Accepted changes update in real-time, so the risk of workers following outdated plans are greatly reduced. Using AR here can avoid budget-killing oversights, lowering the chance for major rework once the project is underway.

We would encourage you to get a head of the curve by exploring these areas now. Be proactive. Check out Microsoft HoloLens to see how this is impacting our industry.

These are two major areas that you could review to see where you might want to use the CDAP support in your business. In Part 2 of this article, we will focus on social media. Social media is critical to your success as studies have shown that 74 per cent of consumers rely on social media when making purchasing decisions. :

We would encourage you to get a head of the curve by exploring these areas now.

Be proactive.

Ronald Coleman is a Vancouver-based accountant, management con sultant, author and educator spe cializing in the construction industry. He can be reached by e-mail at

ronald@ronaldcoleman.ca.

ASHRAE conferences taking over Toronto

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) celebrates its Toronto Chapter’s 100 year anniversary by holding its annual conference and ventilation conference at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto this June.

From June 22 to 24, the Ventilation 2022 Conference will be held at the Sheraton followed by ASHRAE’s Annual Conference from June 25 to 29.

Ventilation 2022

Established in 1985, the “Industrial Ventilation Conference” is a chance for international engineers, practitioners, researchers, scientists, and regulatory personnel working in the specialized industrial ventilation field to share recent advancements from a global perspective. The conference is held every three years, allowing time to develop new research and technology applications and document findings.

The theme for this year’s conference is leading edge industrial ventilation technologies for a low-carbon environment, and the conference will cover various issues through educational programs and seminars. Some of the topics that will be discussed during the conference include occupational health, innovations in ventilation system, and thermal hydraulic modeling.

During the educational programs, participants can expect to see 24 technical sessions (including 12 hybrid sessions), eight workshops (including three fully virtual sessions), three keynote presentations, a half-day post-conference HVAC 101 course, networking reception and sponsor information tables, and post-show recordings of all presentations.

For more information on the ventilation conference, please visit https://www.ashrae. org/conferences/topical-conferences/ ventilation-2022.

Annual Conference 2022

This year marks a big year for the 2022 ASHRAE Annual Conference, as it’s the Toronto Chapter’s 100 anniversary. This year’s conference will be a hybrid experience, with both in-person and virtual options available for attendees.

Running for five days, the annual conference has released its schedule at a glance. It features professional development seminars, meeting of the members, keynote speakers, welcome parties, and so much more.

On June 25, the day will include committee meetings, ALI professional development seminars, meeting of the members, plenary session with keynote speaker, and a welcome party at the CN Tower. For the second day of the conference, it will feature technical sessions, committee meetings, board of directors meeting, sponsor tech talks, ALI short courses, and a young engineers in ASHRAE hospitality reception.

On June 27, the day will feature technical sessions, committee meetings, a president’s, sponsor tech talks, ALI short courses, women in ASHRAE happy hour, and region dinners.

The fourth day will feature ALI short courses, technical sessions, committee meetings, life members’ lunch, sponsor tech talks, and a members’ night out.

The final day features a relatively light schedule, with technical sessions, committee meetings, and a board of directors meeting.

For anyone in town early, a celebration will be held on June 24, at 6:00 pm, honouring ASHRAE Toronto Chapter’s 100 anniversary. The celebration will be held at the Hart House in Toronto, and tickets cost $80.

For more information about the annual conference, visit https://www.ashrae.org/ conferences/2022-annual-conference-toronto.

INDEXto ADVERTISERS

Bradford White ....................................8 Canarm .............................................33 CB Supplies ..........................................2 Flocor ................................................26 Giant ................................................. 35 Honeywell ..........................................48 Mitsubishi ..........................................14 Napoleon ...........................................20 Plumbing & HVAC magazine ........10, 30 RWC ..................................................39 Training Trades ...................................22 Watco ................................................27 Wolseley ............................................16 Woodford ............................................4 Ziehl -Abbegg ....................................18

Calendar

April 26, 2022:

OGA Annual Conference 2022,

Hilton Mississauga/Meadowvale, Mississauga, Ontario. For more information, please visit www. ontariogeothermal.ca/ogaconference-2022.

May 4 – 5, 2022:

MEET 2022,

Moncton Coliseum, Moncton, New Brunswick. For more information, please visit www.meetshow.ca.

May 29 – 31, 2022:

2022 National Apprenticeship Conference,

Halifax Convention Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia. For more information, please visit http://www.caf-fca.org/nationalapprenticeship-conference.

June 2 – 3, 2022:

Supporting Women in Trades Conference,

St. John’s Conference Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. For more information, please visit www.caf-fca. org/2022-swit-conference.