February 26, 2021 – In recent days, I’ve been reflecting on our electrical industry, and I feel really proud—mostly because of the people within this great sector, all across Canada.

Clever people. People of action.

In Saskatchewan, DEEP Corp. is developing a geothermal power facility; they will drill the deepest well in the province (3530 m) to tap into an aquifer that is hot enough to generate baseload power.

On the West Coast, the B.C. Electrical Association was awarded a grant to promote diversity in the electrical industry. “We’re looking at providing tools to help our industry, as well as our members and stakeholders,” explained Barbette Igonia, president & CEO.

Next door, the Alberta Trade Contractors Coalition—which includes the Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta—worked for seven years to address the issue of slow payment in the construction industry. Finally, on December 9, Bill 37 “The Builders’ Lien (Prompt Payment) Amendment Act, 2020” received royal assent.

The Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario recently became one of the roughly 100 founding businesses and organizations that make up the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s Ontario Vaccination Support Council. “ECAO and our labour partners have offered to help the government since Day 1 [of the pandemic],” said Graeme Aitken, ECAO’s executive director.

Quebec continues to be fertile ground for the advancement of electrical energy technologies, with Hydro-Quebec launching a new subsidiary that designs, sells and operates energy storage systems, and Hitachi ABB Power Grids establishing a Digital Power Grid Centre in Montreal—an R&D facility focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning and cybersecurity.

Although we are a small nation living on a huge landmass, we’ve got the talent, drive, and smarts in this industry to rival that of any other, and I salute you.

— Anthony Capkun, acapkun@ebmag.com

This column—along with other great content—appears in the February 2021 edition of Electrical Business Magazine. Even more back issues are located in our Digital Archive.