What We Learned from
T
2020
Chris Atchison.
By Chris Atchison, President, BCCA
he construction industry is used to dueling. In fact, we thrive on it. We go where others don’t, every day, facing down myriad
people we look it in the face and weigh our
risks inherent in the work we do. Whether
ects for which we hold responsibility, the
its extreme weather, physical hazards on a job site, opaque procurement documents in the office, late payments, labour or sup-
choices based on experience, knowledge, and instinct. We know that the decisions we make affect our families, the projworkers we employ or work alongside, and the British Columbians who will live and work inside the structures we build.
ply shortages, equipment malfunctions,
If there are miscalculations along the
biased political moves, new taxes, tariffs,
way, we learn from them. It’s when we
or demonstrators, we face challenges every
achieve our goals and stand back to recog-
day. And we prevail. And we build.
nize a job well done, that the payoff comes.
Risk, carefully calculated and balanced,
This has been a year for risk like no oth-
is part of the construction life. Each day
er. We added pandemic to our list of chal-
as owners, as employers, as skilled trades-
lenges. And we learned a few things.
20 Vancouver Island Construction Association
Most obviously, we learned how to manage the risks of COVID-19 on our job sites and continued as essential workers throughout the pandemic. This doesn’t mean that our industry escaped unscathed. Contractors already struggling to make ends meet were pushed into closure, projects were cancelled or delayed, costs got bigger and margins smaller, workers lost their jobs, a handful of sites had COVID outbreaks. It was stressful. But overall, we iterated, we kept going, and we did it safely. We learned how well we can collaborate. The level of competition in this industry is legendary and can be our Achilles heel: sharing what works for us helps our competitors, and so it doesn’t come easily. But during COVID-19 that melted away like the snow in spring. Larger contractors with more resources willingly published protocol guidelines and best practices. Industry associations and stakeholder groups came together to amplify each other’s work, everyone pitched in, communicated, and served for the greater good. British Columbians learned something about the construction industry. Thousands of employees from other sectors had to stay home, and if they walked their dogs past a job site they saw our teams going to work every day. They saw our skilled tradespeople deemed essential continue to earn, contribute, and provide for their families. The role of our industry as the #1
