October 7, 2009

CCA fall board meeting

Canadian Construction Association creates Building Information Modeling taskforce

Association admits it ‘let members down’ by not getting on BIM bandwagon sooner

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

The Canadian Construction Association will now go full gear to cover the early ground it has lost in learning about Building Information Modeling.

Bill Hildenbrandt has been appointed as the CCA’s representative to the Canada BIM Council (CBC) after its request to have a member on the council was accepted.

The CCA will now also create a BIM Task Force to determine the resources, direction and possible policy the association needs concerning BIM.

These two developments were a priority identified by the CCA’s executive heading into the association fall board meeting in St. John’s, N.L., said the association’s chairman.

“The executive feels that we are behind on this issue, that somehow we did not focus on it early enough and, in a sense, let our members down in the process,” said Brad Greene, CCA chairman. “We have a duty to find out what the process is about. It is a tool and it appears to have the ability to affect business in the future and therefore our members are affected.”

The Canada BIM Council was formed this past March and it is a non-proprietary advocacy, resource and standards council dedicated to supporting business, professionals, educators, purchasers of construction and related services in navigating and applying best practices when deploying BIM.

The council is funded wholly by membership revenues. Among its members are the Ontario General Contractors Association, Kenaidan Contracting and PCL.

The CCA has stated that the governance structure in place at the council is not one it typically prefers to operate under. However, catching up and being involved in the work done by the CBC is of greater concern.

“We lost the opportunity of being a voice for our members (on BIM) and the Canada BIM Council popped up,” added Greene. “We might find a partnership with them (CBC) is useful. The message from our executive is: ‘This is urgent, let’s get at it’.”

Derek Smith of CBC presented a council update to the CCA’s e-construction committee noting the council has grown in membership and that a white paper proposing a series of protocols for the use and adoption of BIM is under review.

The council’s website is still under development and it was meeting this week with the buildingSMART alliance in the United States to develop a memorandum of understanding to promote the sharing of information and resources.

Smith told CCA board members there is a key role for the national association as well as local construction associations to support the mandate of the council and several areas where they can become partners noting the areas of training and education.

The CBC also said it is prepared to entertain discussions about the concerns expressed by the CCA.

The appointment of Hildenbrandt will help shape the role of CCA within the CBC and on its own when it comes to BIM.

A federal official spoke at the e-construction committee about Public Works and Government Services Canada and the Department of National Defence proposed approach for the adoption of BIM for the procurement of their projects. Although the government wants to use BIM they are prepared to work with the CCA and the industry to provide time for companies to adopt the technology.

It was also noted the Alberta government has made it compulsory all government projects, $10 million or more, starting in 2011, will have to be done using BIM technology.

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