“It is an unprecedented number. That level of activity is unheard of in all sectors of the province,” says Manley McLachlan, president of the B.C. Construction Association (BCCA).

The stats are based on a project inventory list provided by the B.C. government which details projects over $20 million in the Lower Mainland and over $15 million in other regions of B.C. The province’s number was actually bigger than $107 billion, but the BCCA culled the list for projects “that are pipe dreams,” points out McLachlan. Through a labour market committee (part of the Construction Sector Council) every sector of the building industry assesses the government list.

For sheet metal contractors, these are high times. “We’re looking busy even into 2012,” says Bruce Sychuk, Executive Director, SMACNA-BC. 2007 should rival ’06—a year in which the association’s member contractors ran at full capacity.

While residential construction could taper off a bit in 2007, commercial building is expected to remain strong. “We’re hoping that industrial will pick up but the slowdown of the U.S. economy will have an impact on us. Their housing has slowed for quite a few months in 2006, which will reflect on our lumber (sawmills). It could put a bit of a damper on our industrial sector.”

Although the Lower Mainland leads the way, the boom is widespread in the province. “It is a phenomenal period of construction throughout B.C. All sectors are going strong,” says Keith Sashaw, Executive Director of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA). With more than 675 members, the VRCA is British Columbia’s largest regional construction association, representing both union and non-union trade contractors, manufacturers, suppliers and professionals throughout the Lower Mainland from Hope to Whistler.

About 25 percent of the major projects on the government’s inventory list are in the northern region, an area that makes up only seven percent of B.C.’s population. Oil and gas, transportation, pipelines and port upgrades are propelling the northern boom.

Albert Benning, SMACNA-BC president, points out sheet metal contractors will see contracts tendered in the Prince George area as a result of project sawmill and waferboard mill start-ups aimed at dealing with pine beetle kill. Also in the works is a large rail transfer station project in Prince George. It is part of the transportation network for the expansion of Prince Rupert’s port.

Sashaw says the Lower Mainland’s construction boom, which started in 2004 will easily continue into 2008. In the first 11 months of 2006, non-residential building permits were up almost 16 percent over the same period in ’05. But building permits don’t tell the whole story of the region’s boom because permits aren’t issued for engineering projects such as the $1.7 billion Canada Line rapid transit link between downtown Vancouver and Richmond. Contracts will be tendered this spring for about $100 million for station construction along the line. Also flying below the building permit radar is the $300 million Golden Ears Bridge which will link Maple Ridge to Langley across the Fraser River.

While those projects may not contain sizable sheet metal contracts, expansion of the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre will have a major impact on the trade, says Sychuk. The project will triple the size of the existing facilities at a cost of roughly $470 million. Some of the tenders for above foundation work have been tendered and the project is slated for completion in 2009.

The 2010 Winter Olympics will see between $550-$600 million worth of facilities construction but sheet metal contractors won’t get a high proportion of the work. Among the projects that will tender sheet metal contracts, include the hockey arena at the University of British Columbia, the speed skating rink at Richmond and a curling rink in Vancouver.

While the winter games represent a significant economic injection to the B.C. economy, Sashaw describes them merely as “the spark that lit the investment flame in B.C. The games turned on the tap for capital investment but in terms of overall construction projects they represent a very small number.”
Meanwhile, in B.C.’s interior major industrial projects are going ahead as the economy there continues to hum. “We’re seeing retooling and opening up of mineral projects in the Kootenays that will certainly help areas like Creston, Cranbrook and Nelson,” says McLachlan.

In the southern interior construction times have never been better. From 2000 to 2005 building permits in the Central Okanagan alone rose from $162 million to $775 million. The Southern Interior Construction Association’s president Debra Hicks says contractors that have been in the region since the 1980s tell her the current boom is the biggest they have seen. And 2007 is projected to be more active yet. University projects, particularly in Kelowna at the UBC-Okanagan campus, have been announced while hospital upgrades are on the rise. Just as in many hot building economies, however, the downside is a growing shortage of labour and management people.

SMACNA’s president Benning advises sheet metal contractors to be cautious about taking on more work than they can handle. “It is as dangerous trying to grow when it is this busy as it is when the economy is slow. To go out and find jobs and then try to find people to staff them is a dangerous way to do business.”

Only the top general contractors seem to keep their projects fully staffed says Benning, who is also president of Surrey-based Ames Metal Fabricators 82 Ltd., a full-service sheet metal fabrication shop dealing almost exclusively with commercial and residential buildings. “You have to be very wary of taking a job with a general contractor or owner that you haven’t worked for before. It’s like playing Russian Roulette.”

He adds that Ames’ original plan to add another 6-10 workers to its 30-person workforce was scrapped because many projects are slow getting out of the ground. “Everything is moving at a snail’s pace.” That is largely because major expansion projects such as the Sea-to-Sky Highway (Hwy 99) and Vancouver’s rapid transit line have depleted the province’s supply of such key trades as ironworkers.
While China’s boom swallowed up a lot of the world’s supply of steel a couple of years ago, steel should be less scarce in the foreseeable future, according to McLachlan. “One of the things I believe will start to happen will be that China is moving from being a net importer to a net exporter of steel.” Still, the BCCA encourages owners and developers to bring their projects to market quickly so suppliers can secure materials and price their contracts appropriately.

Adds Benning, “Nobody guarantees you pricing six months down the road. As a contractor you always have to keep that in mind. You can get a forecast (for steel prices) with a couple of months lead time, but on most of our bigger jobs we’re not on site for six to eight months or even a year.”

The BCCA wants the provincial government to take a closer look at its project budgets before tendering them because some government projects have had “unrealistically low budgets. They should engage industry in some form of pre-bid consultation,” recommends McLachlan.

Overall, there’s no question that the boom continues to spell good times for the sheet metal trade. However, some contractors might get carried away by a promising year and make unwise business decisions that could leave them reeling. Now’s the time to be extra careful, advises Benning.

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Official Journal of Record for SMACNA-BC