Ottawa Quantity Surveyors

The Chapter invited John DeVries, who is the president and general manager of the Ottawa Construction Association (OCA), to be a guest presenter at our meeting on March 8, 2017. He discussed the work of the OCA and some of the trends in the local construction industry.

The Ottawa Chapter sponsored a Holiday Social for members, which was held on December 8, 2016 at the Merivale Bowling Centre. It was a fun and interactive event - something different, which included a three-course dinner followed by a game of bowling. It was great to see some new members in attendance.

The Ottawa Chapter held a technical information session that involved a presentation on the topic "Good Scheduling Practices - How Owners and Contractors can develop good schedules". The presentation focused on the different stages of schedules, and how to achieve good schedules that get approved by Owners/Contractors, and how they benefit everyone on the project team. The presentation was delivered by James Beckett, CET, PMP, who is a Senior Consultant with Revay and Associates Limited, based in Ottawa, ON. James is a Project Management Professional with over 25 years of experience in project and construction management.

The Chapter held a technical information session involving a presentation on Canam’s Hambro composite floor systems, including a composite girder and a transfer slab system, which is an alternative to the traditional structural steel and concrete system used by most designers and developers. Canam Group is known as the largest fabricator of steel components in North America and they specialize in designing construction solutions and fabricating customized products such as their Hambro D500 and MD2000 composite floor systems. The presentation was delivered by JC LeBlanc who is the Sales Representative from Canam-Buildings, a division of Canam Group.

The Ottawa Chapter held a technical information session that involved a presentation on the topic "Good Scheduling Practices - How Owners and Contractors can develop good schedules". The presentation focused on the different stages of schedules, and how to achieve good schedules that get approved by Owners/Contractors, and how they benefit everyone on the project team. The presentation was delivered by James Beckett, CET, PMP, who is a Senior Consultant with Revay and Associates Limited, based in Ottawa, ON. James is a Project Management Professional with over 25 years of experience in project and construction management.

The Ottawa Chapter of the CIQS - Ontario will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Thursday April 14, 2016 at the Ottawa Construction Association on Bronson Ave. starting at 5:30PM.

An information session was held on February 25, 2016 which involved a presentation on the topic Building a Culture of Innovation within your Organization. The presentation was delivered by Nilufer Erdebil, P.Eng, PMI of Spring2 Innovation Consulting. The presentation focused on how building individual innovation capacity could have a big impact on an organization’s future.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY - Ottawa, ON, Canada AMS (Armstrong Modulevsky Schutte) Quantity Surveyors has an opportunity for a Project Monitor / Cost Estimator with 5 10 years of relevant experience in the construction industry, PQS or working towards designation. If you are interested and are a resident within the National Capital Region (Ottawa, ON) please submit your resume to Yury Modulevsky at [email protected]

The Ottawa Chapter sponsored a Christmas Holiday Dinner for members, which was held on December 11, 2015 at Giovanni's Restaurant & Dinning Lounge in Ottawa's Little Italy. An informal presentation of certificates - Certificates of Appreciation - was made that evening. Everyone had a good time; the food was great and the venue was "really" lively.

The Ottawa Chapter held a meeting on November 12, 2015 to provide information on the City of Ottawa's new Vendor Performance Management (VPM) program. The new program was established to provide performance feedback and to enhance communication during projects; to address performance issues during the project, which would lead to better outcomes; and to establish standard key performance indicators (KPI) from which all performance would be evaluated. The presentation was made by Jeff Byrne who is the Chief Procurement Officer of the City of Ottawa. He leads a purchasing team that procures more than $1 billion dollars of goods and services on an annual basis on behalf of the City of Ottawa, Ottawa Police Services, and the Ottawa Public Library.

The Algonquin College Student QS club organized a meeting on November 5, 2015 to present information about the Quantity Surveying profession to new civil engineering technology students. The main presenter on the subject was Chapter member Francis Lo, MSc, MRICS, PQS, PMP, LEED Green Associate who also shared his personal experiences as a PQS in the field. Chapter member and President of Hanscomb Arthur Maw, PQS(F), MRICS, was in attendance and spoke to the group of students about his company and what they look for when hiring a PQS. The students found the discussions very informative and enlightening and the meeting served as a networking event for them as well.

The City of Ottawa Confederation Line project is one of the largest Bus Rapid Transit to Light Rail Transit system conversion in the world [source: City of Ottawa, 2015]. http://www.ligneconfederationline.ca///photo-gallery/4.jpg

The Ottawa Chapter held an information session that involved the presentation of the Confederation Line - Light Rail Transit (LRT) project by the City of Ottawa. The Confederation Line is phase one of Ottawa's LRT system, a 12.5 km line project estimated at 2.1 billion dollars. This modernized transit system is regarded as the largest infrastructure project in Ottawa, and is on track for revenue service in 2018. The presenter was Theresa Mendler, Program Management Officer with the City of Ottawa's Rail Implementation Office.

The 2015 Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (CIQS) - Ontario Annual General Meeting was held in Kingston, Ontario; hosted by the Ottawa Chapter.