July 6, 2009

Project phasing keeps Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario industry near full employment

ELAINE DELLA-MATTIA

correspondent

SAULT STE. MARIE

If a global economic crisis is still occurring around parts of the world, it’s not being felt by the construction industry in Sault Ste. Marie.

“We’re swamped this year, but that’s OK,” says Rick Thomas, manager of the Sault Ste. Marie Construction Association.

The projects currently on the books for association members are in a variety of stages and that spreads out the work to the different sectors in the construction industry.

“Some of these projects are a little rushed, while others are not,” Thomas said.

The “mini boom” that began in Sault Ste. Marie more than one year ago continues, but has changed focus, he said.

“Last year it was the new hospital and Essar Steel Algoma that was creating the brunt of the work,” he said.

The hospital project is beginning to wind down, Essar Steel Algoma’s cogeneration plant is about to fully launch, and the steelmaker has scaled back its construction plans in its attempt to ride out the recession.

In their place come a number of new projects.

While the new Sault Area Hospital is still using a number of inside trades, the early trades including equipment operators, labourers and carpenters are busy and very close to maximum employment, Thomas said.

That trend is expected to continue for at least another year, he said.

The local industry is seeing some unemployment in electrical and plumbing trades, but Thomas expects those to pick up shortly too.

The recent stimulus funding announcement means more jobs on the horizon including a $22 million, 70,000-square-foot Algoma Public Health building to be built on the Sault College campus.

Sault College will also begin its first phase of a massive campus renewal project which includes a new 100,000-square-foot academic wing, valued at $26 million.

Algoma University counterpart will soon be issuing a tender for a $16 million project, a 32,000-square-foot biosciences and technology convergence centre.

Thomas said that at least one of two previously announced new schools is also expected to go to tender within weeks.

Construction has already started on other “nice size projects,” Thomas said, including a 22,000-square-foot Northern Credit Union building, a Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel, an expansion to the local WalMart store and renovations to the Waterfront Hotel.

Thomas predicts that if another local cogeneration facility is ready to start by the end of the year and the global markets rebound, there will be a resurgence of work in the industrial sector.

Thomas said that he expects companies from other Northern Ontario communities, many of whom are in weaker construction stages, to make bids locally.

“It’s one large market and that’s how we like to see it and we like our members to bid elsewhere in other communities too when things are a little slower here.”

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