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In this issue:
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Dear AQSA member: I have important news to share with you regarding our affiliate association’s name. The CIQS has made significant progress over the past few months in the initial phase of implementing our new brand identity. The foundation was laid during the June 2011 CIQS AGM with membership’s approval of the marketing strategy. Since then, CIQS has incorporated its new logo into print and electronic mediums ranging from business cards and stationery to the Institute’s website and event banners. This work has paved the way for the next step of the rebranding strategy. A highlight of this step is to change the names of the affiliates across Canada to more directly and aptly reflect our relationship with the national organization. This will strengthen the professional image of our national organization. To that end, I have had an e-mail sent directly to each AQSA member within the past week. If you haven’t received the e-mail, please read the letter sent and plan to attend the Special General Meeting or return your proxy. In summary, the e-mailed letter announces a special Friday, Jan. 20 meeting in Calgary of the AQSA membership to initiate a name change for our affiliate association, from the current Association of Alberta Quantity Surveyors (AQSA) to Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors - Prairies and Northwest Territories. The AQSA name has served our association well for some time but your Board of Directors believes the new name clarifies our relationship with CIQS and also clarifies the geographic area the association covers. These advantages ultimately strengthen the profile and prestige of our national association and, by extension, our profession. The name change will achieve many good things for all members – without changing the governance of our association. There will be no redistribution of power between the affiliate associations and CIQS. Similar processes to change the names of all affiliate associations across Canada are in progress. On another exciting front, a key position on the CIQS Council, Education Administrator, becomes open at the end of this fiscal year (at the 2012 AGM). All affiliate representatives on the CIQS Council were invited at our last meeting to forward nominees to replace David Lai, the current Education Administrator. I am very pleased to advise that the Board nominated Doug Eastwell, AQSA Registrar, for this prestigious position. Doug has accepted the nomination. This is a critically important position on the CIQS Council, carrying much influence in the evolution of our national standards. The CIQS Council will review all nominations, then the CIQS Executive Council will vote on the position during the AGM. The two-year position takes effect after the 2012 AGM (to be held in St. John’s, Newfoundland). Congratulations, Doug, on your nomination and on the tremendous job you continue to do on behalf of all AQSA members. Finally, I would like to wish all of you and your families the very best of the festive season and every good wish for 2012. Be safe, be happy – and enjoy all the bounty the season has to offer. Best
of the season,
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Jan.
17 Feb.
1-2 Feb. 7-8 Feb.
10 Feb.
22-23 March 11 - 16, 2012 June 6 - 12, 2012 Do you have other events you'd like to see listed? E-mail us the details.
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City of Edmonton responds to Advocacy Committee The AQSA Advocacy Committee gave the City of Edmonton the kick the City needed, with satisfying results. The October issue of “Cost Connections” reported the AQSA Advocacy Committee was working with the City of Edmonton to have the municipality take substantially greater advantage of quantity surveyors and cost consulting services. Following an initial meeting with Mayor Stephen Mandel and several City managers, AQSA Advocacy Committee chair Mike Swick met with Joe Kabarchuk, Branch Manager – Building and Landscape Services with the City. The result: on Nov. 24, the City issued a Request for Proposals that were due Dec. 8, 2011 for “Professional Quantity Surveying and Cost Consulting Services – Open Order” that facilitates City agreements with up to five consultants on an open order basis. The City’s intent is to use the services of independent cost control professionals for their major projects on an as-needed basis. Membership Updates Membership profile – Dave Lockyer When your resume includes references to indentured positions, Wimpey International, Chief QS in the Bahamas, potash mine consulting and wonderful Watrous, you know you’ve had a colourful career.
Dave started down his long and winding career path in 1964 when he began a two-year National Diploma building construction course in England. As work experience, he got his first taste of construction sites as a labourer laying sewer pipes and catch basins. After he completed his National Diploma, he enrolled at Sheffield Polytechnic, now the University of Sheffield, and earned his Higher National Diploma in construction management and structural engineering. He also made a pivotal career decision; he accepted an indentured position with George Wimpey Construction Ltd., then the largest construction contractor in Europe – and stayed for the next 24 years. Initially, Dave turned his hand to various professional tasks including site layout and surveying, site engineering and high rise construction. “You learn more from the Irish crews than from anybody else,” he observes. In London, he gained experience in purchasing, planning, architectural design and estimating where he stayed for a year. Other estimators had a quantity surveying background and knew about the preparation and commercial use of Bill of Quantities, so Dave decided to research quantity surveying. “I found a job in Leeds with Wimpey’s opposition but Wimpey offered me a QS post in Manchester. They had invested a lot in me when I was indentured so they were protecting their investment,” Dave says. After four years in Manchester, Wimpey offered Dave the opportunity to expand his horizons abroad, with options in Tehran or Toronto. “Luckily, I chose Toronto.” He was responsible for the east side of Toronto’s roads and public works infrastructure. Dave was quickly promoted to regional quantity surveyor, where he served from 1977 to 1982. Moving west, Dave was responsible for quantity surveying on all the construction work including three large projects: one in Grande Prairie, a mining job in southern B.C. and the Key Lake tailings pond for a uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan. “I liked the West although I admit to missing the sailing in Toronto.” Wimpey pulled out of western Canada in 1984, a result of the Canadian recession. Dave stayed in Edmonton, moving to A. V. Carlson Construction, a Wimpey subsidiary, as cost analyst for projects including condos, offices, theatres and shopping centres. This position evolved into Manager, Project Administration and Cost Control, where he set up a costing system that allowed site computer communication and on-site printouts. “This was a ground-breaking concept in the mid-‘80s, well before today’s technology made it simple.” In 1988, Dave assumed the Branch Manager position in Saskatoon, expanding the office’s horizons to include school renovations and work on a Meadow Lake pulp mill. Around this time, A. V. Carlson was sold to The Matthews Group, Inc. (TMG) out of Toronto but Dave’s career sailed on without a hitch, running the Saskatoon office and expanding the operation to Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Inuvik. Matthews ran into financial troubles in 1993, and the Saskatoon office closed. When that door closed, Dave opened another by launching his own consulting firm, Rosedale Consulting Corp. His clients included Graham Construction and Quadra Management, which offered work on development of pig barns in support of Saskatchewan’s hog farming industry. But enough about western Canada! An advertisement in the Globe and Mail caught Dave’s attention. A few months later, in March 1999, he started his duties as Chief Quantity Surveyor for the Ministry of Public Works in the Bahamas. Here, he supervised a staff of up to eight quantity surveyors, most of whom were construction management graduates of American universities. “These young professionals had no professional association qualifications. These were difficult to attain in the Caribbean so my senior QS, already a CIQS member, suggested I join the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors.” By 2005, four of the QS’s achieved their PQS status, a first for the Bahamas. After Dave left the Ministry, he worked for two years as General Manager for a Bahamian contractor. By late 2006, he decided to retire but let the allure of sun and sand woo him for three months before returning to Watrous, where he had already bought a house. That summer, AMEC Americas Ltd, consulting engineers working with the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, approached Dave for some consulting work. Since then, he’s accepted as much contract work – ranging from potash mine design drawing measurement and design checking to mortgage monitoring to being an expert witness – as the leisure time on his deck allows. That leisure time gives him the space to think about the profession of quantity surveying. “It’s always been difficult selling quantity surveying in Canada because of the North American bidding system, but the profession is coming more to the fore in the past few years. In western Canada, Vancouver is well established, Alberta somewhat less so. With Saskatchewan and Manitoba are still in the early stages of professional development.” He adds that Saskatchewan’s potash mines are of major interest to BHP, an Australian company that is more QS oriented. “Saskatchewan would do well to cultivate this avenue to the profession” since, traditionally, Saskatchewan architects and engineers operate outside the culture of working with quantity surveyors. “Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the virgin areas of Canada left to really develop quantity surveying.” Dave adds that Saskatchewan has a somewhat better foundation for the profession now than when he was working in Saskatoon. “If the construction industry has any sense, they will be looking for more accurate cost control. Our profession should be looking to promote itself.” Dave observes that one consultancy has moved into Saskatoon. “This is a sign of good things to come. The more there are here, the greater the chances of a more local profile for the profession. After all, the Saskatoon region has the highest per capita number of building permits in the country. Let’s seize the opportunity!” Education and PD Updates Edmonton International Airport – only a few spaces left! Thanks for your response to the invitation to join a back-of-house tour of the new terminal at Edmonton International Airport (EIA).
There are only a few spaces left for the tour. If you’re interested in joining the group, register online. Reserve your place on the tour now! Don’t delay! Tour size is limited. After the tour, join the group for a meal (at your own cost). Details to be confirmed. Expansion 2012 at EIA promises significant new services and more convenience for travellers and airlines. Highlights include:
The site was under PCL’s control until Nov. 1, thereafter EIA has control until February 2012 for training and implementation. CIQS Updates CIQS rebranding implementation, Phase II The initial CIQS rebranding “to do” list is getting shorter. That means our national organization is ready for Phase II implementation. With the new CIQS logo approved, the national organization is now equipped with new letterhead, business cards and other business essentials. Complementing the fundamentals are new event banners, with more marketing tools in the works. Work is also progressing well on revamping the CIQS website – both content and the association server – to ensure the website is more responsive to member and industry needs, easier to update and more reflective of the needs of the affiliate associations across Canada. The major task now before the Institute and its cross-Canada affiliates is to effect the name changes for all affiliates so the names reflect the relationship with the national organization and more closely support the CIQS. Each affiliate has begun the process of name changes, ensuring they are enacted in accordance with each affiliate’s bylaws and other legal requirements. Following are the names to be ratified by each affiliate association with geographic descriptors in brackets. Please note, geographic descriptions are not included in the official name of the affiliate:
The affiliate associations will continue to have local chapters. For example, our associate will continue to have chapters in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, and can add others in Saskatoon and Regina.
CIQS/CCA sign certification agreement A new certification agreement between CIQS and the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) holds significant benefits for both associations. Signed Oct. 26, the agreement allows CIQS members and CCA Gold Seal Certificate holders to pursue dual certification. CIQS members are given access to the Gold Seal Certification Program, one of the construction industry’s premiere certification programs. CCA Gold Seal Certificate holders can further their professional qualifications through CIQS certification standards as internationally recognized best-in-class construction professionals. “In the case of Gold Seal, many of our members know that Gold Seal is a compatible certification to their existing professional designation(s) and that it is recognition of excellence in the construction industry,” said Roy Lewis, President of CIQS. “We are pleased to be a part of this certification agreement, and to provide both CIQS members and Gold Seal Certificate holders with the value-added benefits of pursuing recognized Professional Certification.” This new certification agreement also establishes a framework for any future agreements that Gold Seal may pursue. Industry Updates Students get a lesson in “construction outside the box” Red River College (RRC)
construction students are gearing up for a first-hand lesson about careers in
the construction industry. AQSA President Dave Burns and AQSA Board member Roger Ward, also representing the Chartered Institute of Building (CIB), will team up with Alec Reichert, Senior Project Manager, Public Works & Government Services Canada, on Feb. 8 in Winnipeg as he offers a presentation on the construction of federal government research facilities. This is the fourth year AQSA and CIB have staged the luncheon presentation to provide students an insight into the various segments of the construction industry from the perspectives of both the owners and the contractors. Presenting at RRC gives both professional bodies, representing cost management and project management, a direct opportunity to connect with interested students – the next generation of our profession. The theme of these presentations is “Construction Outside the Box,” with presenters focusing on the message that professional membership is the key to advancing one’s career. Both Dave Burns and Roger Ward welcome an opportunity the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 7 to connect with Winnipeg AQSA and CIB members. Interested in getting together? Please e-mail AQSA. |
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And Dave Lockyer, AQSA
member enjoying life in Watrous, about 100 km east of Saskatoon, has enjoyed
his 45+ year career immensely.
