2021 CRCA President’s holiday message

On behalf of CRCA and the Board of Directors, I would like to wish all of our members, provincial affiliates, and everyone involved in the roofing and construction industry a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope that each of you will relax and spend some quality time with your families and friends.

Well, I really thought we would be out of this pandemic by now and not looking at a new COVID variant of concern called Omicron impacting Canada. The construction industry is doing its best to keep our workers safe, and many contractors are opting for mandatory vaccines for their offices and worksites. Material shortages and price increases have remained a constant throughout the pandemic. These concerning issues affect not only roofing but the entire construction industry. The past few years have brought many challenges to the roofing industry.

At CRCA we have taken the opportunity to increase our advocacy efforts with the federal government. There is strength in numbers and CRCA joined CCA (Canadian Construction Association), NTCCC (National Trade Contractors Council of Canada) and ACEC (Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada) to lobby the federal government throughout 2021 on infrastructure spending. Together this group launched Building for Recovery Coalition asking for support to deliver infrastructure investments to help rebuild the Canadian economy in the wake of COVID-19. The coalitions efforts continued throughout the year and will continue in 2022. There were also two key advocacy campaigns where CRCA, NTCCC and CCA joined forces. The first campaign was to lobby the federal government on their proposed VPM (Vendor Performance Management) scoring system, whereby all GC’s and subcontractors – such as roofing companies – that contract directly with the federal governments departments on tender projects. The second advocacy campaign targeted the federal government’s Contract Security Program (CSP) screening process where we were able to have the government halt the proposed September 1 changes to the program and agree to work with the construction industry to create a faster and more efficient system that works for everyone.

CRCA was also pleased to have partnered with the National Women in Roofing (NWiR) to establish a Canadian council of the organization. The NWiR Canada council launched in March and CRCA’s Technical Manager Wendy Fraser now sits on NWiR’s board of directors for the Canadian council and serves as their Membership Committee Chair.

CRCA is one member in a coalition of industry trade associations representing contractors, consultants and manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada, that introduced the Market Index Survey for Reroofing in 2020. The survey continued for 2021 and will also be available in 2022. The coalition includes the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association, Canadian Roofing Contractors Association, Chemical Fabrics & Film Association, EPDM Roofing Association, IIBEC, Metal Construction Association, National Roofing Contractors Association, National Women in Roofing, Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association, Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association and Single Ply Roofing Industry. The survey takes the pulse of the reroofing industry on a quarterly basis and serves as a regular barometer of the industry’s business conditions. By asking a handful of business questions and measuring responses across a number of demographics, the survey helps give an indication of the reroofing market strength and trajectory. It is also a great tool for roofing contractors and consultants to benchmark their business against similar businesses in Canada and/or the USA.

With the pandemic forcing CRCA to cancel all of our live events during 2020 and 2021, we introduced webinars to help our members better manage their business and to receive insight on relevant topics. A special thank you goes out to CRCA’s partner Cotney Construction Law who delivered many key webinars to our members including: Adapting to Material Shortages and Rising Costs, Expert Tips for Contract Negotiations, How to Adequately Protect Your Roofing Company with Insurance, Vaccine Mandates – What You Need to Know and Challenges of Immigration and Labour Shortages.

CRCA is actively involved in numerous research projects related to the roofing industry including but not limited to: SIGDERS (Special Interest Group for the Dynamic Evaluation of Roofing Systems), Energy Resistance of Commercial Roofing, Vegetative Roofing Assemblies and Photovoltaics. This research provides indispensable information and testing requirements for the standardization of roofing products and/or roofing systems. Our research partners include National Research Council of Canada (NRC), National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), CRCA Associate Members, and other industry stakeholders.

With 2022 right around the corner, the CRCA Board of Directors and staff would like to wish our members and everyone working within the roofing industry a successful and prosperous 2022. COVID permitting, we hope to see many of you at CRCA’s 2022 Conference & AGM in Edmonton from May 13 to 15.

Happy Holidays to all and the very best for 2022!

Murray Tysowski | CRCA President and Board Chair President, Aurora Roofing Ltd. PO Box 70 Coombs BC  V0R 1M0 Tel.: 250-248-2202|Cell: 250-248-0756 | Fax: 250-248-3217