b'PRESIDENTS MESSAGEHAPPY NEW YEAR AND GOOD RIDDANCE 2020! I n my Christmas message in the closingBut it is the way you performed thatlest we forget, our industry did have some weeks of 2020, I borrowed an analogyessential service that I applaud. Youformidable pre-pandemic challenges that that I think accurately describes theknew what you had to do to keep ourare likely to be considerable in theirsensation of discovering, early last year,workforce from harms way and youown right. that a global pandemic had landed on ourdid it. Our health and safety record as shores. It felt like we had arrived at thea sector during the crisis is actuallyWhat matters most in the here and now, intersection of a new year, looked bothremarkable, and I have no doubt we willas vaccines are distributed and we begin ways before crossing as we have done forcarry that same make-it-home-safelywhat I expect will be a very slow recovery 102 years in succession and then got hitsense of urgency forward into 2021. from COVID-19, is that our business by an airplane. survives. Ours is a $10-plus-billion-a-year Just to be crystal clear, our sector didcash flow business, at least in Ontario, At an absolute minimum, I think we canwhat it had to do to protect our workforceand we are already seeing credible all agree a crisis this big only comes alongand soldiered on as an essential serviceevidence that the pie is going to shrink once in a lifetime. God help us if thatsin 2020, but our productivity lossesthis year and, in 2020 dollars, will very not the case. A crisis this catastrophic,have been considerable. It is thereforelikely keep shrinking for the foreseeable however, is also transformative and causesimperative that governments not mistakefuture. Now might not be a bad time to a ripple effect that will inevitably be felt our willingness to stay the course asfollow Dave Holliss advice and decide for decades.evidence of a reduced dependencywhich parts of normal are worth rushing on much needed economic support.back to. Food for thought!Some of the changes that are occurring asFor example, we will need the CanadaAt a minimum, consider this. Once the a consequence of COVID-19 will be moreEmergency Wage Subsidy in 2021 andCOVID virus landed in Canada in late devastating than others, of course. Take,we will need COVID-related cost recoveryFebruary 2020, each month of the year for example, the debt that governmentsmechanisms. We also need publicgot progressively worse. Good riddance are amassing to combat the virus andbuyers of construction to rethink riskto 2020! support businesses that are decimatedtransfer, and contractors who choose financially, ours included. In Canada, ourto shoulder risk to rethink how theyMy best guess is that while I am not deficit grew in 2020 from roughly $30price elements over which they haveoptimistic 2021 will be a stellar year, it is billion to $400 billion in round numbers.absolutely no control. safe to say that each month of 2021 is You dont need to be an economist tolikely to get progressively better for most. appreciate the cost of paying the piper. Perhaps the silver lining in the cloudAnd thats a damn good start. called 2020 is that the number of In many ways, the construction sectornew lessons learned is enormous.Happy New Year TCA members.has actually fared pretty well since theDave Hollis, an American author and onslaught of COVID. And that, my friends,businessman, coaches business owners is a credit to you. We were an essentialwho are in a rush to get back to normal service, which gave us a reason to keepto consider using this time to reflect on the lights on when our families and friendswhich parts of normal are worth gettingJohn Mollenhauer were in lockdown.back to. I think that is good advice. AndTCA President & CEO6Quarter 4 2020 BUILDERSDIGEST'