September 17 in BC | Civic Hotel
By Jessica Kirby
SMACNA Canada invites contractors, workers, and industry leaders to attend the 2026 Canada Mental Health Summit — a half-day event focused on mental health awareness, reducing stigma, workplace support, and practical strategies for fostering healthier workplaces in the trades.
The SMACNA Canada Mental Health Summit, scheduled for this fall, is a half-day event held in Vancouver and Toronto to address the construction industry’s most pressing issues in mental health.
Why hold a Mental Health Summit?
A study by the Construction Industry Rehabilitation Program says 83% of construction workers experience moderate to severe mental health challenges during their careers, and trades workers account for more than 20% of toxic drug deaths in British Columbia. According to EllisDon, studies show that suicide is roughly three times more likely than a workplace fatality in the trades.
That’s why the Canada Mental Health Summit is important. Presenters Geoff Moffett, workplace mental health facilitator for Canadian Mental Health Association; Caitlin Kantor, outreach worker with Canadian Mental Health Association; and Zachary Hensch, director of corporate health and safety at Vets Group, will bring together contractors, workers, and industry leaders for education, conversation, and community-building around mental health in the trades.
“Understanding mental health concerns is important to helping people be the best they can be,” Moffet says. “Workplaces are a source of stress and mental health concerns. It is important to discuss how mental health appears in the sheet metal industry and how to understand supporting each other. Better mental health leads to better productivity, wellness, and overall job satisfaction, as well as leading to fewer accidents and health concerns.”
The Summit content addresses the full spectrum—from recognizing early warning signs and understanding substance use to building supportive workplaces and knowing when and how to access help. Expert-led sessions will deliver practical tools to help reduce stigma and sharpen awareness so every attendee can support themselves and their colleagues.
What Attendees Will Learn
The summit curriculum features sessions in four areas: mental health awareness in the workplace, understanding addictive behaviours, reducing stigma and supporting colleagues, and having effective mental health conversations. Throughout, it will address misconceptions around mental health and additions—an essential opportunity for growth in the workplace and as a community, Moffet says.
“This event will help people understand that mental health and addiction concerns are common, and the more we understand, the more we can normalize these as conditions we all go through at times in our lives,” he says. “There are beliefs that mental illness and addiction are things that happen to other people and that people with substance use disorder and addiction should just ‘get over it’. This belief stops people from understanding how complex and challenging living with these conditions is and the value of supporting each other in working through them.”
Explore the Curriculum
The session titled Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace offers a comprehensive overview, grounded in the core belief that recovery is expected when individuals receive timely and adequate treatment. Using the Mental Health Continuum Model, participants will explore the distinction between mental health as a state of well-being and mental illness as a health condition—and how diversity, systemic barriers, and neurodivergence intersect with mental health outcomes. Facilitators will also address key risk and protective factors, common conditions such as anxiety and depression, and the importance of early intervention.
Understanding Addictive Behaviours will provide an in-depth exploration of the biological and behavioral complexities of addiction and its frequent co-occurrence with mental health conditions. The group will examine addiction as a chronic disease that rewires the brain’s reward system, manifesting in behaviours such as substance use, gambling, and compulsive shopping. The session explores self-medication, navigates the Substance Use Spectrum, and teaches attendees to recognize signs of distress through performance changes, cognitive difficulties, and physical fatigue—while connecting participants to specialized resources, including Indigenous-specific wellness supports.
Getting into practical tools to help strengthen the workplace, the Reducing Stigma and Supporting Colleagues session identifies and works to dismantle the social and structural barriers that prevent people from seeking help. It examines three forms of stigma—structural, public, and self-stigma—alongside the role of implicit bias in shaping our perceptions. Practical tools include the STOP method (Stereotype, Trivialize, Offend, Patronize), to help attendees recognize stigmatizing attitudes in real time. The session concludes with strategies for adopting accurate, sensitive, and person-centered language to reduce barriers to care.
The final session, Having Effective Mental Health Conversations, is a practical, skill-building session focused on how leaders and colleagues can initiate supportive conversations about psychological health. Participants will learn about the legal “duty to inquire” and “duty to accommodate,” how to recognize Signs of Struggle (SOS), such as withdrawal or emotional distress, and a five-step conversation framework: Prepare, “I notice,” “I’m wondering,” “How can I help?” and “Take a moment”. The session also addresses responding to critical distress with empathy, immediate referral, and the implementation of ongoing workplace accommodations.
“I believe that knowledge is power and hope that participants leave with facts that might challenge any negative biases that may be present around mental health,” Moffet says. “I hope people feel comfortable approaching colleagues when there are concerns with any mental health or other concerns. The earlier we address mental health challenges, the better the outcome for everyone. We want to build workplaces that are supportive of each other’s wellness.”
Registration opened June 1, and space is limited. The summit takes place September 17, 2026, at the Civic Hotel Autograph Collection in Surrey and in Toronto on September 30, at the Eagle’s Nest Golf Club. Reach out to the SMACNA-BC office for the link to register. ♣