Episodi
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Movember is back with an added focus. The popular fundraising drive for men’s health has added support for mental health to its efforts along with prostate and testicular cancer. Mitch Hermansen joined Annex Business Media publisher/editor, Patrick Flannery, to talk about why these issues are important and what we in the construction community can do to help the guys who work for us.
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Those of us who ship product across provincial borders have probably noticed that it can be easier to ship to the United States than inside our own country. Recently, the federal Committee on Internal Trade has announced a pilot program that would see any province’s trucking regulations acknowledged in all the others’. Duncan Robertson, senior policy analyst for Nova Scotia, joins the podcast to talk about this small step toward actual free trade within Canada.
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Canada’s architectural glass show comes to Calgary Oct. 16 – 17 and Glass Canada’s intrepid brand manager, Leslie Osborne, joins GlassTalk to give you all the details. We’ll be touring the local glass fabrication plant of the might Oldcastle Building Envelope. We’ll be talking about office-to-residential conversions. We’ll be looking at the future of glass. We’ll be debating contract changes from performance modelling. We’ll look at ways to certify different glass sizes. And we’ll be celebrating Alberta’s fine young glazing apprentices. It’s going to be a great couple days – see you at Top Glass West!
Register here: Canada’s architectural glass show comes to Calgary Oct. 16 – 17 and <em>Glass Canada’s</em> intrepid brand manager, Leslie Osborne, joins GlassTalk to give you all the details. We’ll be touring the local glass fabrication plant of the might Oldcastle Building Envelope. We’ll be talking about office-to-residential conversions. We’ll be looking at the future of glass. We’ll be debating contract changes from performance modelling. We’ll look at ways to certify different glass sizes. And we’ll be celebrating Alberta’s fine young glazing apprentices. It’s going to be a great couple days – see you at Top Glass West!
Register here: https://www.topglasswest.ca
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New standards for energy efficiency and low carbon impact in construction are demanding new skills in the trades – skills your young workers might be more familiar with than you are. Chad Flinn, associate vice-president of academics at Red Deer Polytechnic, and Judi Varga-Toth, manager of the ImpAct-Climate program at Colleges and Institutes Canada, are working to educate today’s construction industry in how to design and install the elements of net zero buildings. Learning needs to be ongoing in this time of rapid change, and Flinn and Varga-Toth share insights and free online resources in this episode of Glass Talk.
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Glass Canada editor Patrick Flannery has a big announcement for you! Top Glass, Canada’s trade event for the architectural glass industry is coming to the Best Western Premier in Calgary on Oct. 17. And that’s not all…on Oct. 16, you can tour Oldcastle Building Envelope’s Calgary fabrication facility and see advanced glazing components being manufactured before your very eyes. Tune in as Flannery goes over all the details. Then register at topglasswest.ca. See you at Top Glass West!
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Helen Sanders, general manager at Technoform and chair of the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance Glass Products Research Committee, celebrates her 30th year in the industry by joining GlassTalk to talk about their work on the cutting edges of glass technology. The Committee is looking at new ways to confirm the amount of argon fill in IGUs; developing industry Product Category Rules for fabricated glass and load-testing vaccuum insulating glass, among other things. It’s red meat for glass nerds on the dock this summer.å
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By Anton Van Dyk’s count, there are now up to 15 separate areas where fenestration products have to demonstrate compliance to one regulatory regime or another. Embodied carbon will soon become another, yet both end users and manufacturers have been slow to understand things like Environmental Product Declarations and how they will affect product development. Van Dyk and Layton think the approach to lowering the carbon cost of our buildings has created confusion. They join the podcast to outline their vision for how we should go forward.
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When information technology is the topic, media outlets across the country turn to Carmi Levy to explain what is going on and give them the deep background on the issues. So we invited him to Glass Talk to share some very practical advice on how to think about your IT department and personnel and how to source and vet providers that will make your life and business better, not worse. Choosing the right people, in-house versus outsourcing, common pitfalls to avoid, how to choose the right product, what to expect from a vendor – Levy has seen it all and we discuss it all.
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When Andrew Haring announced he was leaving his role as business development director for the National Glass Association, it set off a mini-storm on social media. Why? Because in his time with the NGA Haring became one of the better known and respected personalities on the North American glass scene. His blend of humour, honesty and deep familiarity with our business has made him someone we’d all like to listen to and converse with. Well, here’s your chance. Haring joins Glass Talk to reflect on his time at NGA, his career so far, the state of the industry, certification, attracting young talent, marketing strategy and more.
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It’s happened – a Canadian jurisdiction has mandated a maximum allowable temperature inside a dwelling space. The Vancouver rule is related to health and safety rather than energy efficiency, but it seems likely that requirements for cooling homes will soon put pressure on fenestration designers to restrict solar heat gain in addition to insulating against heat loss. Is the market reacting? How will this change our designs? Guardian’s Pacific Northwest ADM, Geoff Shellard, returns to Glass Talk to shed some light on the topic.
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Our fast-changing world of tightening energy standards and embodied carbon is challenging us all to look at different design approaches and different materials. Enter a true Canadian glass innovator – Advanced Glazings in Sydney, N.S., and their Solera and SoleraWall products that use an aerogel fill to make translucent architectural glass products with energy performance similar to vacuum insulated glass. CEO Satterwhite and founder and president Milburn join the podcast to explain aerogel; discuss the performance characteristics; talk about how daylighting can meet aesthetic, health and energy conservation needs; and reveal how they have found success with a product few glass companies in the world have the expertise to make.
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Storm clouds are gathering over the architectural glass industry as 2024 starts. FenCan Commercial business development director and Glass Canada columnist Rich Porayko joins GlassTalk for a New Year episode looking back at the top stories from 2023 and ahead to what they might mean for 2024. Embodied carbon, bankruptcies, VIG, new organizations and events, labour…it’s all on the table in our wide-ranging conversation.
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Another year has gone by and it’s time for a high-level view of our business conditions and results in 2023. Marvin Cruz, research director, and Christina Santini, national affairs director, for the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses join Glass Talk to tell us what they are hearing from small and medium-sized businesses across the country. We hit inflation, labour shortages, regulations and red tape, credit card fees, housing and more. Happy holidays to everyone and all the best for 2024!
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Jeff Dalaba, program director for North American Contractor Certification and Architectural Glass and Metal Technician, joins Glass Talk to update us on recent developments with these important certification organizations. Interest and participation in these certification programs continues to grow, with U.S. states demanding it for public project bids and major general contractors joining the board. When the industry hits a rough patch, as it has right now, what do you have except your reputation? As Dalaba explains, third-party verification of your business practices and your employees’ skills is the way to wear your reputation on your sleeve for all to see, both arming you and defending you in the marketplace.
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It’s everyone’s least favourite part of the project – the value engineering phase. When general contractors and project owners turn to finding ways to save cost while preserving specs, we often feel the squeeze. But there’s a difference between the way it is supposed to work and how it gets implemented when people are just looking to save costs without regard for other considerations. And, surprisingly, tightening sustainability standards might create an environment where there’s less pressure for us to sharpen pencils. Geoff Shellard has been advising on and supplying glazing projects for a long time and is well positioned to comment and give some tips and tricks on how to navigate the world of value engineering. And there’s a special bonus at the end of this one for anyone who makes it all the way through!
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Specialty Fenestration Group makes commercial fenestration for two of the toughest applications there are: security glazing and drive-through windows. Marketing director Brian Hanson joins GlassTalk to tell us all about ballistic and blast-resistant glass – what it is; what the standards are; how it’s made; how it’s tested and what works in what situation. And yes, they do get to shoot, smash and blow up their samples in labs. As concerns about occupant security and extreme weather rise here in Canada, Hanson brings some key information we will all want to bear in mind.
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When you look at the big picture for yourself and your business, what do you see? Dawn Bloomer is a business consultant who helps small business owners get out from under the day-to-day grind of putting out fires and fixing leaks to take a look at their goals and find ways to organize their businesses to meet them. She joins Glass Talk to offer some sage advice on issues like delegation, succession planning, strategic thinking, maximizing Episode value, effective hiring and planning for the future. Take Dawn’s advice and take an hour out of your day to hear what she has to say…we promise you won’t regret it.
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It’s safe to say Kelly Doran is one of the people driving Canada’s approach to limiting the carbon dioxide emissions in our built environment. He’s an architect by training who has counseled Toronto on embodied carbon standards for its Green Building Standard, worked with NRCan on its plans for meeting Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments, attended UN climate conferences and is speaking to architecture and construction groups across the country. So who better to give us the heads up on what the new focus on embodied carbon may mean for those of us who build with two of the highest embodied carbon materials in the industry: glass and aluminum? Doran’s perspectives give us a great insight into what the architecture and environmental community are thinking about how building design will evolve…critical information as you position your business for the changing world ahead.
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Suhel Kachwala’s last name means “glass man” in Parsi. It doesn’t get a lot more fitting than that, because Kachwala is the second-generation managing director of FG Glass, one of India’s largest glass fabricators. His father and uncle started the business in 1976, the year he was born, and now he runs it alongside his brother and two cousins – all engineers. Kachwala’s business brings him to North America several times each year, so he is in a perfect position to tell us about the Indian glass industry, what is trending in Asian façade design and how the North American and Indian businesses are different. It was a fascinating conversation…enjoy!
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Amy Roberts, Canadian operations and glass technical director for the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance, has been looking into where we might find the skilled and unskilled labour we are all lacking in our operations. Roberts’ research has revealed that there are several provincial and federal programs – some with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding – aimed at helping you recruit, train and pay new entrants into your workforce. Especially if those workers are from under-represented groups. She joins the podcast to discuss what that challenges are in finding the staff we need; what the barriers might be to our system generating those workers; and how the present system works and could work better. Immigration, apprenticeship and inclusion are all on the table.
Federal resources for recruiting and training
Construction Career Pathways – BuildForce Canada
Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot – Immigration and Citizenship Canada
Temporary Foreign Worker Program – Ministry of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion
Skilled Trades Awareness and Readiness Program – Employment and Social Development Canada
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