The Future Of Project Management

The Canadian construction industry is one of the most substantial establishments in the Canadian business industry, and with many other partners, is responsible for the prosperous growth of the Canadian economy. It not only provides many jobs in Canada but also overseas, creating construction jobs for members of other countries. Though the past and the present of the Canadian construction industry have proved to be prosperous, an absence of investment in the future of the Industry will prove to be the industries downfall. When traditional resources run out, Canada will be left behind because it has relied so heavily on existing technologies geared to these natural resources and does not have readily available new procedures and materials to replace old technologies. “Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.” – Kahlil Gilbran (Quoteland.) And unless the Canadian construction industry is willing to start investing in the construction technologies of tomorrow, the now prosperous industry will ultimately lose its reputation and see its own downfall.

The Canadian construction industry made a name for itself in the past based on its innovative ways of dealing with its vast terrain, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast and from the Arctic Ocean to the Great Lakes. (Industry Canada) While the Canadian construction industry is ninety-four percent Canadian owned, it is made up of ninety to ninety-five percent of firms operating with 20 or fewer employees. (Poh, S.H.) Even though Canada is not named one of the top five growing countries in the construction industry, (Poh, S.H.) Canadians are known world wide for having carved a highly developed and connected nation out of its huge and rugged geographic area. To do this, they built railroads by tunneling through the Rocky Mountains, linked the Great Lakes in a navigable St. Lawrence Seaway, and constructed mammoth hydroelectric dams in the remote Canadian North. (Industry Canada) The extremes of the domestic terrain have made Canadian companies capable of tackling the most challenging infrastructure development problems around the globe and because of this, Canada’s consulting engineering sector ranks fourth largest in the world in terms of international billings. (Industry Canada)

Whether working in a private consortium or in partnership with governments and international financial institutions, Canadian firms continually demonstrated their ability to successfully manage and successfully complete large-scale integrated projects. Canada is known for such world renowned buildings as the CN Tower, The Sky Dome, The BC Centre and The Toronto Airport. But the building, which probably earned Canadian architecture, the most recognition, is the award winning design of the Festival hall, an entertainment and movie complex located in the Heart of Downtown Toronto. (Industry Canada) The architects Ellis Galea Kirkland and Michael Kirkland, have received international reputations in such countries as Europe, United States and Asia. (Industry Canada) Worldwide, Canadian design, engineering, project management and construction teams are meeting the infrastructure challenges of the 21st century, (Industry Canada) but unfortunately Canadians are not researching and developing new technologies to meet challenges in the future. The industry appears to be depending on past successes instead of continuing the innovation that propelled it to prominence in the first place. Sir Winston Churchill once said, “To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” (Quoteland) In terms of the Canadian construction industry, it is obvious that although Canada has spent years building its much deserved reputation, the reputation can be easily lost if the industry falls behind other countries in the area of research and development of new construction technologies and methodologies. Through the past few years the Canadian Construction industry has done well when compared with pervious years. In 200, the gross output was 119.2 billion dollars, which was an amazing 9.5 percent increase from 1999. (Aggregates and Road Building Contractor.) Even the amount of men and women the construction industry employed in 2000 increased by 1.2 percent over the previous year, (Aggregates and Road Building Contractor.) yet the Canadian construction industry seems to have the same attitude towards development as Charles H. Dwell had in 1899, when he said: “Everything that can be invented, has been invented.” (Quoteland) Japanese construction companies have probably spent more on research and development in residential construction during the last decade than has the entire Canadian residential building industry during the last century. (Lessons from the Future) While other countries are busy making astonishing strides forward in the construction industry, Canada has made no little effort to use anything other than its traditional methods.

Similarly, Canadian construction contractors and engineers who specialize in ski resorts and have had a large part of the world market, are being left behind by the new ‘Urban Slalom’ operations of Tokyo’s avant-garde designer Kazunobo Abe, Chief Architect for the Kajima Corporation. He is building downtown ‘mountains’, wrapping a building around them and providing 24 hours a day, year-round skiing. Mondays you are able to ski ‘on the moon’, Tuesdays ‘over Manhattan’ and on Wednesdays ‘through a coconut plantation’. All of these effects are made possible with holographic-like visual projections. Skiing will become more cost effective and as convenient as playing tennis or squash downtown after work. (Lessons from the Future)

In another technological advance, the La Foret Engineering and Information Service Company of Tokyo has already provided 75 installations worldwide with their ‘Himiwari’ type of zero-voltage interior illumination system. The name ‘Himiwari’ is Japanese for sunflower, which is an appropriate named for these satellites like rotating dishes that each contain a packed cluster of Fresnel lenses. These dishes with their lenses follow the movement of the sun, collecting and intensifying sunlight and feeding it, via fibre-optic cables, to building interiors. Along the way they subject the light to a ‘light-shift’, removing the harmful ultra-violet rays and converting the infra-red to heat if desired, and bringing only ‘pure’ sunlight to the people and plants in building interiors. (Lessons from the Future) Canadian technology cannot even begin to compete with this type of innovation today. It is a sad comment on the Canadian construction industry especially when you consider how much of Canada suffers from lack of sunshine many months of each year. The continuing geographic challenges of the Canadian landscape provides a huge opportunity to the construction industry to develop and test more effective technologies and methodologies which in recent years it has ignored, content to rest on its past laurels. If Canadians don’t return to the innovative approaches that won them international acclaim soon, the country as a whole may find itself not only descending the economic totem pole to a much lower status, but also accelerating the drop in that direction. The “construction industry should be a part of the solution to avoid such a fate and not a contributor to it.” (Lessons from the Future) While many other countries are doing their part to add new technologies to the future of construction, especially in the area of alternative use of resources, Canada seems to be dragging behind in this area. When traditional resources run out in the future, Canada will be far behind in having readily available new procedures and materials to replace old technologies used in the construction industry because it has relied so heavily on existing technologies geared to these natural resources.

The earth, and especially Canada, is a land of massive energy resources. Canada boasts everything from hydroelectric power to tar sands, from huge natural gas deposits to a unique nuclear capacity. (Industry Canada) But our world of resources, space and energy are being consumed faster than the earth is able to reproduce them. At this rate of use, there will come a time when there are no longer trees which are able to be cut down and commodities such as gas, oil, and hydro are no longer the main sources of energy. The Canadian construction industry is going to have a hard time coping with these changes while countries who have invested in the future of building technology, materials and space will be well on their way to keeping their construction industries alive. The number of forest fires in 2002 in Canada, were 5416 resulting in the loss of 1,027,711 hectares of forest. (Statistic Canada) This sounds horrific until you compare it to the 924,188 hectares that were lost from clear cutting. (Statistic Canada) The consumption of water intake has steadily increased since 1981. While in 1996 the consumption of water in Canada was only 4740 million cubic metres, the constant consumption of water is going to eventually create problems for Canada’s hydroelectric dams. (Statistic Canada. 10-10-03) Greater consumption equals less water to run through the dams creating less power. On top of this, the energy consumption has been rising in Canada since 1998. (Statistic Canada) For the Canadian construction industry to be able to survive such decrease in resources and available materials, it is going to have to start investing in the future of construction technology and the future of the Canadian construction industry just to remain viable in Canada. In order to continue to compete on an international scale, in countries that have not been blessed with Canada’s wealth of natural resources, that investment is going to have to be intensive and immediate.

Though the past and the present of the Canadian construction industry have proved to be prosperous, an absence of investment in the future of the Industry will prove to be the industries downfall. When traditional resources run out, Canada will be left behind because it has relied so heavily on existing technologies geared to these natural resources and does not have readily available new procedures and materials to replace old technologies. A review of current trends in the Canadian construction industry and the accomplishments it has made over the years would leave you to believe the industry is in for a booming future, especially when you consider Canada has one of the roughest terrains to design and build on. However, the future for the industry does not look so bright. It might not occur in the near future, but without the investment in Canada’s own construction industry, decline will be inevitable.

Bibliography

Aggregate and Road building Contractor: Robust predicted for Canada’s construction industry. http:///rockoroad.com//rubust.html. Accessed on October 10, 2003

Industry Canada: Building the Future. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ce01271e.html, and http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ce01269e.html, and http:///strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ce01266e.html. All accessed on October 11, 2003.

Lessons From The Future: Canadian Building Industry – Falling Behind? http://www.drtomorrow.com//lessons//lessons6/34.html . Accessed on October 10, 2003.

Quoteland: Search by Topic. http://www.quoteland.com . Accessed on October 13, 2003.

Statistics Canada: Environmental. http://www.statcan.ca/engish . Accessed on October 10, 2003