2022 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.

Although the COVID pandemic is now behind us, many of the issues that came about during the pandemic remain. The roofing industry is still seeing material shortage and material price increases, although some building categories have decreased in both prices and lead time – some remain quite high and lengthy. One area that the entire construction is still struggling with is finding workers. The worker shortage will continue and some have turned to immigration and temporary foreign workers to solve the shortage. As you will read in my message CRCA is working with our advocacy partners to continue to push the federal government to help us resolve the labour shortage. The CRCA Board of Directors has recently tasked their Workforce Solutions Committee to take on the labour shortage issue and work to help our members on this matter. More details will follow in 2023 on this topic.

CRCA advocates at the federal government level along with our partners the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) and the National Trade Contractors Council of Canada (NTCCC). CRCA sits on the Board of Directors with NTCCC and they are made up of 10 national trade associations. Together NTCCC represents some 10,000 trade contractors and 450,000 workers in our sectors. By pooling our forces together, we can speak to the Federal government as One Voice for all trade contractors across Canada. Since 2019 our lobbying efforts have focused on the following issues facing all trade contractors:

  • Accelerate committed infrastructure investments to projects
  • Structurally address the growing workforce deficit
  • Take action to resolve supply chain and procurement issues
  • Ensure Prompt Payment Regulations get finalized

CRCA is one member in a coalition of 11 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, 2022 and will also be available in 2023

Why should I participate?

  • When you have a solid grasp of market conditions and future trends, your company—and the roofing industry— will benefit
  • Help with supply chain issues. When manufacturers can better plan and forecast material needs, they can better coordinate production and supply
  • It takes less than 5 minutes
  • Remember that you must participate in the survey to access the results. Accessing the full results is a great way to benchmark your roofing business to other survey participants in Canada, the USA or North America.

CRCA is actively involved in numerous research projects related to the roofing industry including but not limited to: Special Interest Group for the Dynamic Evaluation of Roofing Systems (SIGDERS), Energy Resistance of Commercial Roofs (ERCR), Ridging and Wrinkling of Modified Bituminous Membrane Systems, Protected Membrane Roof Assemblies (PMRA), Canadian Climate Resiliency Requirements for Asphalt Shingle Roofs (CCRR-ASR) (SIGDERS – Residential), Nature-based solutions on Commercial Roofs (NBS-CR), Alterations to Existing Commercial Roofs for Climate Adaptation (AECR-CA).

A reminder that CRCA has several big events planned for 2023. ROOFTech is back and takes place at the International Centre in Mississauga on April 4 and 5, 2023. As well CRCA’s 2023 Conference and AGM takes place in St. John’s, Newfoundland from May 26 to 28, and we hope to see many of you there. Finally National Roofing Week will take place from June 5 to 9, 2023 and we look forward to seeing your roofing pictures during the week.

Finally, I would also like to share that CRCA’s Executive Director, Bob Brunet has advised the Board that he will retire on June 1, 2023. Since 2012, Bob provides the leadership, overall management, and operations of CRCA according to the strategic direction and policies set by the Board of Directors. Bob’s replacement will have very big shoes to fill and the Board has started the process to staff the Executive Director position. Thank you, Bob, for all of your contributions, for making the roofing industry a better place and for always being there for our members!

With 2023 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 2023.

Happy Holidays to all and the very best for 2023!