Estimating
The design work continues on the North Bay GoodLife Fitness Club. The City of North Bay has approved our revised site plan and building location, so we can now get on with the final drawings and site plan layout. We are in the process of trying to hire an Architect to join our design team. We approached John Osburn of Osburn and Associates but we were informed he is retiring this year. Good for you John! We have another Architect to approach that was recommended by Sandy Graham of Kenelex Builders. Sid should be able to get in gear on this one within a few months.

Tom and Clinton continued to work on the Fantasy Island project. Clinton met with the MNR to discuss any issues that they might have. They received pricing from Purvis Marine for barging the equipment and materials to the island. Tom and Clinton submitted their price and it was substantial. We will have to wait to hear back from the Developer. We hope he was sitting down when he read the proposal. Derek Rice, from BDO, has offered his services as a freighter canoe operator and shuttle service for men and materials in exchange for their Villa on the island. Derek says Mya's ecstatic with the idea and he says that he can be the "Island IT" guy! I am thinking he can be "Tattoo" but he is a bit too tall, perhaps he will have to be Mr. Rourke! Can Mya fill in for Tattoo? The plane! The plane!

We have received and submitted several tender packages for the Praxair T-900 Oxygen Plant. Praxair is marching full steam ahead on a fast track basis and we hope to be the successful bidder on a lot of the tendered packages. We are hoping that Louis Parant will be the on-site guy as we all miss him and haven't seen him since the Inco project.

We are still waiting for the word on the Nobel project. Tom is working on the Kirkland Lake project as well as the South Porcupine one. He has also been asked to submit pricing for a much smaller one in Wawa from the same client. This work will be scheduled through to 2010. Good thing that we just leased another crew cab and bought a 9 passenger van! Now we can only pray that the price of gas does not hit $2.00 a litre.

The ASI Bent Foundations will be retendered and Tom will submit pricing once again. He will also be pricing the No. 7 Blast Furnace bag house foundations which involves about 75 steel bearing piles and 660 cubic meters of concrete in one continuous pour over a two day period. That should be interesting! ASI has a lot of work coming and Tom will be kept busy estimating for a while yet. Trouble that we see is if they don't start awarding some of it soon, our plate will be full and we will not be in a position to do any of it!

Mike submitted his final pricing for the Mini Storage Complex and is waiting for the approval to proceed. The re-zoning of the property was passed so it shouldn't be long before we get our approval to commence. Pricing for another mini storage facility has been requested for a different client. We have been in discussions with the Owner regarding the Potato Storage Building in Sudbury. Mike is also working on another building in Sudbury for an automotive dealer, a service garage in Espanola and has submitted a budget price to Worley Parsons Inc. for a 150 foot by 200 foot Steelway building for a dry storage facility in Sudbury.

Ken received the "word" on Monday, March 10th that we were being awarded the East End Husky Station project. This project is a very nice one and Ken was thrilled with the result. With our current work on hand plus this $4.7 million job, we are now well over our highest year's volume ever and it is only March! There is no doubt that 2008 will be one exceptional year for our firm both in and out of town.

The cat is out of the bag now so we can tell everyone about the Restaurant job Ken has been working on. We have been working with JJ Hillsinger for the last two months on this project. It involves changing the existing restaurant into a Casey's Roadhouse, the newer version. Work will commence on Monday, March 31st and be completed in three weeks. Sid, who is vacationing in Florida right now, will be back in time to do this project before "shipping out" to the North Bay job. Sid, guess you made it through Customs this year as we didn't receive a phone call from them!

We had a meeting with PGG in February and things are starting to move forward on this project. Mike will be flying to Albuquerque, New Mexico in April to review the project schedule and hopefully work out the contract details. We are hoping that this project will be under way by mid summer and carry on through to 2010. There is a substantial amount of concrete and tower erection involved. Hopefully, we can provide firmer details next month.

We have also been invited to bid on a project on the Inco Copper Cliff Deep Project for the Collar House, Sub Collar, Ventilation Plenum and Service Tunnel worth about $4 or $5 million and includes over 3,800 cubic yards of concrete. Unfortunately, we are still trying to figure out where we would get all of the workforce that would be required.

Mike is waiting to hear about the two monster buildings he budgeted last month and is now waiting for information for another 300,000 square foot monster. Wow, that would be 940,000 square feet of buildings! Wouldn't Steelway love this to happen, wouldn't we love this to happen! Stay tuned.

Some late breaking news, Tom has received word that the Doctor's Residence in Jack Purvis's building will proceed on a down graded version of the original plan. David Ellis has to complete the drawings with our input on cost savings and we have to meet the budget that has been set. This project should be ready to start very soon.

New Employees
None to add at this time but we anticipate hiring more people in the near future.

OPP Forensic Lab

Wayne is very happy to finally be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We will get Substantial Performance this month and the OPP "CSI guys" will be moving in. We will have the final lift of asphalt and some landscaping to complete in the spring. This job was a very tough one on everyone and I can't remember when we had a project with so many change orders, I believe Blair is well over 125 changes AND they are still coming! That many change orders would make any job a nightmare for the General and the Subtrades. Wayne, Blair and Clinton have survived (barely) and we think Blair wants to return to the field. You guys did a great job! Wayne will be heading to the Husky project next.

Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4 | Photo #5

Collegiate Heights Retirement Home Addition

KKC and Randy along with Andy M and Lance B. have been installing windows, wood blocking and whatever. Unfortunately, Lance has informed us that he has to resign as he has a recurring injury that has reoccurred. That is very unfortunate for everyone. Lance was a great employee. Ken has been trying to complete a "mock up suite" form approval but material deliveries are holding that up. He finally received the drawings for the work to the "link" and can now proceed with this work. All rough-in inspections have been approved and Ideal Colour can now board everything outstanding. Ontario Concrete Finishing will be scheduled to pour the 3rd floor topping in early April. Interior finishing work will be ramping up soon.

Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4

AELP Co-Gen Foundations

John M. his crew along with the OCF crew poured the turbine table top on Thursday, March 6th, it was about a 200 meter pour and they poured about another 90 meters on March 10th. They have poured a total of about 1,700 metres of concrete so far. John has had his hands full with manpower scheduling as a lot of the crew have had that nasty flu bug going around and have been off sick. John and his crew are now stripping the turbine table top, working on curbs, foundations for the Cooling Tower and reservoir, the "V" drain and various smaller foundations. Things are progressing as per schedule and John anticipates being complete some time in June.
Sorry, no more pictures on this project as we are not allowed to do so anymore.

Howard Avery Construction Building
Keith left for a cruise during March break and had a Ground Hog heating system installed to thaw out the interior backfill while he was away. We have temporarily left this project until the interior is thawed and graded at which time we will return to finish off the interior liner panel and exterior trims.


Tenaris Algoma Tubes Oil Storage Building
Terry took over as the foreman of this project. Bob and Nick finished up the interior concrete walls and Terry has the cladding completed. Soo Mill installed the overhead doors and we will wait until spring before we pour the door aprons. This project is basically complete.
Photos:
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3

Miscellaneous Algoma Steel Projects
Our Superintendent, Ken McL., has been working inside ASI for the past few weeks providing Supervision on various construction projects as ASI is short handed. We can only hope that ASI increases their Supervisory staff as we will need Ken back very shortly. Ken will be returning to the EPTCON project in Montreal River in April to complete the outstanding work from last year.

CTC Store Erection, Hearst
Jason and his crew have the main building steel erected and received the roofing and siding in late March. They have started installing the siding and will then start the roofing. Jason's crew was short handed as Sid and Tyson were on vacation and the some of the crew suffered from the flu bug and had to stay in their rooms. The weather should be getting better and his production should be increasing as it warms up. Pierre, who is Current Construction's site Super, is pushing us hard and Jason is under some pressure as CTC is watching the progress on both jobs.
Photos:
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4 | Photo #5 | Photo #6

CTC Store Erection, Deep River
Dwayne and his crew also have all of the main building steel erected. They received their roofing and siding and will be starting the roofing first. The reason being is that we only have enough standing seam roof clamps for 8 men (retractable lanyards) and once Dwayne is done the roof, he will ship them to Jason. Dwayne informs me that they have over 60% of the roofing installed so far. They installed over 6,000 square feet of roofing on March 28th as the weather was cooperating. We have run into a bit of a problem on the siding installation as the carpenter's Local 93 has indicated that the siding installation falls under their collective agreement. We are sorting this issue out. If that is the case, then I guess we may be finished a bit earlier on this project. Dwayne and the crew got nailed in the monster snow storm on March 9th as you can see in the picture of his truck trying to get into the site. Dwayne's crew will be increasing production as the weather warms and they hope to have the roof complete by the end of the first week of April.
Photos:
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4 | Photo #5 | Photo #6 | Photo #7

Water Tower Inn- Casey's Restaurant
As mentioned earlier, Sid will be starting this project on Monday, March 31st. Trouble is, by the time the next newsletter comes out, we will be complete! We will add some commentary and pictures next month but the best thing to do is visit the restaurant for lunch or supper and check it out. And JJ, please relax!

Every day an estimated 1,000 eye injuries occur in workplaces. The financial cost of these injuries is enormous in lost production time, medical expenses, and workers compensation. No dollar figure can adequately reflect the personal toll these accidents take on the injured workers.

What contributes to eye injuries at work? Not wearing eye protection, wearing the wrong kind of eye protection for the job.

What causes eye injuries? Flying particles, flying or falling objects or sparks striking the eye. Injured workers estimates are that nearly three-fifths of the objects were smaller than a pinhead.
How can eye injuries be prevented? Always wear effective eye protection.

Do we need to look at our eye protection policies and ensure they say Safety Glasses must be worn at all times? EYE PROTECTION WORKS!

The Sault Ste. Marie Construction Association hosted its 1st Annual Health & Safety Conference on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at the Holiday Inn and Conference Centre.

I believe it was successful; we had a decent turn out for our first attempt at putting together a conference to suit the needs of the construction industry in Sault Ste. Marie.

As the Chairman of the SSM Construction Association Health & Safety Committee, I would like to thank all the presenters who donated their time and knowledge.
The presenters are as follows: Jack Lehman of Leader Industries Safety Consulting, John Ainsworth from Ministry of Transportation Enforcement, Tom Headrick of Great Lakes Power, Mark Drinkwater from Electrical Safety Authority, Bob Askin from the Ministry of Labour, Rod Caughill of Algoma Central Properties, Marc Barbeau from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, and Gord Acton of Wishart Law Firm as guest speaker "What should I do when something bad happens". Thank you again for assisting us to make it a success.

Thank you to all our sponsors and the Construction Safety Association for your support.

As a buyer of safety equipment and products I am disappointed in our local suppliers of Safety Products in their lack of participation at our Construction Conference. Hopefully next year they will participate and support our construction industry as they support the other industries!

Running from April 21 to 25, 2008, the Sault Ste. Marie Construction Association will be hosting its 2nd Annual Training Week. This will make various training venues available to the construction firms in our area; everything from First Aid, WHMIS, H&S Orientation, Fall Arrest, to Aerial Manlift. We are in the process of developing and lining up facilitators and locations. Please get your training requirements and needs into the Sault Ste. Marie Construction Association so we can fulfill your needs. Many courses are free and some do have a cost to them. Several agencies are donating space and/or facilitators. Help us make this a success once again.

I would like to challenge the other 12 industry-based safe workplace associations to help or assist us, the Sault Ste. Marie Construction Association Safety Committee, in providing course material, trainers, etc. for our training week this spring? You can contact me by phone or my e-mail. Thank you in advance for participating!

"Unprepared = Unsafe"

The SSM Construction Association has arranged the Boom Truck Certification 0-8 tons and the course has been filled. We will be sending Ryan C to this course. He will also have to upgrade his driver's license to a "D" in order to operate our boom truck. This will give us two operators so Gerry B will have a backup.

We held our quarterly "All Employees Safety Meeting" on Friday, March 7th at the Great Northern Conference Centre. We were booked into the Ontario Room but ended up in the main Ball Room which was impressive. We had 29 employees attend out of a possible 56 which was very good considering we had 8 guys in Deep River, 4 were off sick and 5 were on vacation. There were 9 guys that did not show and we think that was due to a break down in communications. Ken James gave Dwayne and Jason the meeting agenda and they will hold a second meeting on their jobsites. We have now made attendance mandatory for these meetings. Ken James held a rope grab quiz and the results were a real eye opener. The overall score was not all that impressive and we will be putting on a small refresher course on rope grabs.
Photos:
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4 | Photo #5

Ken James and I held out first President/Safety Director meeting for 2008 and Dwayne attended for a time. We had a lot to cover and the meeting was 3 hours long! Some of the things we discussed were the boom truck training course, the SSMCA one day Safety Conference, CSAO spring training courses, our training records format, safety training for our Project Managers, the "Keller on Line" safety website, www.kelleronline.com that we joined for a 30 day trial, safety books, our safety meeting attendance records, our Safety Committee, safety training evaluations and quizzes, our CVOR license and records, Ken's 2008 Safety Budget, mandatory 100% tie-off and zero tolerance, our new Preconstruction Safety Planning Program meetings, our Job Safety Set Up Program, updating our website safety section, holding a safety awards dinner dance in August/September, our "Employee Safety Commitment Statement", First Aid and CPR refresher courses and updates to some of our current safety policies. It was a long meeting but we certainly covered a huge amount, whew!!. We will have a lot of new Safety idea's to implement this year!

The SSMCA Safety Committee has implemented a "Young Workers Identification" hard hat program which involves the new young worker wearing a white hard hat with red stripes. This will identify him to everyone on site that he is new to construction and that everyone should be looking out for his safety. Our firm was one of the companies that first got on board with this concept and we had pictures taken of the young worker being presented with his hard hat. This is an excellent program and I urge you to make it a part of your safety program. Call Rick Thomas for details.
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3

Conventions & Social Events
The SSMCA Curling Bonspiel was held on Saturday, March 29th at the Tarentorus Curling Club beginning at 10:00 AM. Mike and Fern were on holidays so Kim M, Lori B, Clinton B and Tessa P made up Rink 1 and Rink 2 consisted of Bob H, Wendy Y, Terry G and Tammy C. Nancy S was our spare "just in case". Kim was supposed to provide us with some pix, but forgot her camera! And there is a rumour going around that someone split their pants and had to go home and change?

The OGCA Symposium is coming up soon. As I mentioned, Fern and I are on the President's Panel as per the attached description at the bottom of the page. More next month on how it went. Fern hopes she doesn't get tongue tied or is too shy to say a word, we think this is highly unlikely!!!! Some in the company think we should be having a cash pool with proceeds going to the Humane Society or the Soup Kitchen…guess they know Fern and her verbal diarrhea! Her comment on this is "Gerry Russ can fill in for me; he has a far superior gift of gab than I"!!!
President's Panel sheet

Congratulations To:
Tim Buchan for passing the Gold Seal exam, he is now a Gold Seal Certified Project Manager and Clinton received his certificate for becoming a Gold Seal Intern as a Project Manager. Ken M., Jason and Sid are next up to apply. I was very impressed to read an article in the Daily Commercial News regarding Gold Seal Certification. We are one of the leaders for Gold Seal who were mentioned and I have attached the article. We intend to carry on with our commitment.
DCN article

My Mother, Marg, the big gambler that she is. Margie was at our local casino in March and while playing the one cent bandits, she just happened to win over $400.00. Good for Mom! She was right up there with the girl that won the $9 million at Rama Casino.

To the National Champion Sault Steelers for receiving the Sault Ste. Marie "Medal of Merit" on March 29th at City Hall. I can only hope that Barry and Don gave them a pitch for funding the Steelers!

Edmonton based Ledcor Group of Companies on being awarded the CCA 2007 National Safety Award. This is the second time for them; they won the award in 2001 as well, an outstanding performance! Very impressive. I think we will apply next year and see if our updated Safety Program would qualify for a repeat award as well.

A huge congratulations to our very own Tim Buchan, once again, for making his 50th blood donation and receiving a Certificate from Canadian Blood Services. Ken James and I are quite jealous and will be chasing you! Hey Tom Quirk, aren't you up there too?
Photos:
Photo #1

Congratulations to Sid for finally getting a "wallet chain." Sid has lost his wallet twice now in the last little while and the chain should help. He now looks like a real Trucker!

Condolences To:
Thankfully none that we are aware of.

The April Birthday Club:
Cody April 1st
Barney April 1st, First in the breed; Best in the Show (our crazy beagle!)
Taylor April 2nd
Alexander April 18th
Kristie April 25th
Audrey April 26th
Zach April 27th

Mike Moore & Sons Construction's Final Donation Status

2008 Donation Goal	100
Donations to Date	?

I have received an email from Genevieve, my contact at CBS and she has informed me that all of their website upgrades will be complete by April 1st and we will be able to go there to get our current donation status. Go to www.blood.ca and click on "Partners for Life", then click on "Partner Updates and News" and our firm should be there under Northern Ontario. Hey Tom Quirk, will Praxair be there under Southern Ontario as well? We'd like to thank Gerry "our Purolator Guy" for coming on board and donating to this in our name. Thanx Ger, we'll see that Shauna and Scarlett have those Purolator packages ready when you arrive, of course that will all depend on how the "on line" pick up is doing!!!

April CLINIC TIMES
Tuesday, April 15th, 12 noon to 2:30 pm and 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Wednesday, April 16th, 12 noon to 2:30 PM and 4:00 to 8:00 PM
Thursday, April 17th, 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM

Tidbits
Fern's detective work
Here's a lesson to be learned, never leave ANYTHING in your vehicle that you value just in case your vehicle is burglarized in a public parking lot.

On Saturday, March 15th, one of our employees had his truck broken into right in the Canadian Tire parking lot. The thieves stole several items out of the truck along with a wallet that contained several of his safety training certificates along with the company gas card. The employee notified Fern who immediately called the gas company to cancel the card. It was too late though as the thief had gassed up his truck on our card to the tune of about $100.00. Fern asked for the gas station location and then called there and explained the situation. Just so happens that this particular station has security cameras at the pumps. Fern then notified the Police and told them the story. The Police retrieved the tapes and checked the time that the truck was filled up. Low and behold, there was the thief and his license plate front and centre on the screen! The Police Fraud Unit is now dealing with this individual. Good job Fern! (She watches too much CSI)

Another joke from Fern's Mother, Marion:

An elderly Texas cowhand went to the local drug store and asked the Pharmacist for the little blue Viagra pill.
The pharmacist asked "How many?"
The cowboy replied "Just a few, maybe a half dozen. I cut each one into four pieces."
The pharmacist said "That's too small a dose. That won't get you through sex."
The old cowhand said, "Oh, I'm past eighty years old, and I don't even think about sex much anymore. I just want it to stick out far enough so I don't pee on my new cowboy boots!"

VIVA LAS VEGAS! Yes, it's true; Fern and I are in an incredible Tower Suite on the 50th floor of Wynn's Resort & Casino in Las Vegas working on this newsletter in between gambling and touring the city. It has been in the 80's here all week, quite hot for what we left at home. . . . . .
Fern and I have toured several of the construction jobsites here and have written several safety infractions (just kidding!) There are tower cranes every where you look and people are in an abundance, where do they all come from?

Just in case you are wondering if we are winning in the Casino, Wynn's Resort was built at a cost of $2.7 billion dollars, yes, I said $2.7 billion dollars and that would explain why we are losing so badly. I don't think that anyone "wins" big at any casino in Las Vegas!
Photos:
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Here is a good one. The writing of a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) for the first Human Mission to Mars is a 77 page JSA report! That would be a very "tall order" to write when you don't know what atmospheric conditions are; I believe that Mr. James would equate it to what would and could occur. Ken would also add daily site safety inspections, tool box talks, first aids, etc. I have provided the link to their JSA below, happy reading to you all.
"An Analysis of the Precursor Measurements of Mars Needed to Reduce the Risk of the First Human Mission to Mars."

I read the Sault Star article titled "Building Permits Values Up Over '07" by Dan Bellerose and took some serious offence to it. I think Dan needs to talk to local contractors instead of just printing statistics and assumptions! In his article he states, and I quote "Local contractors posted their best year, value-wise, in more than three decades in 2007 as city hall issued building permits worth nearly $231 million, $20 million above the previous high-water mark of $211 million in 1989." I totally disagree with Dan's observation. First of all, how does Dan have any clue what local contractors "posted" and how does he know anything about "value-wise." If you deduct the new hospital permit of $154.18 million from this total, the remaining amount is $76.82 million, a far cry from the $211 million in 1989. Where does that value stack up on the record book? Ellis Don, an out of town contractor is building the new hospital with some local subtrades involved. How can he refer to "Local Contractors" posted their best year when Ellis Don and the hospital job accounted for 67% of the total for 2007. Dan's article makes it look like "local" contractors were booming when in fact we weren't. Talk to the local contractors, subtrades and suppliers and get the real take on things. Dan's article is quite far from the truth and he needs to do a bit more investigation before writing and publishing such inaccurate information that paints contractor's with a picture that is not so!

As for the $8.53 million institutional permit he refers to for 2008, the only project I know of with this value is the new Sea Lamprey project for Department of Fisheries and Oceans which is not even out for tender yet, a far cry from, as Dan states, "year-to-date activity." And I just love his statement, "runaway construction values", that is the best! Come on Dan, please print something a little more factual than what you usually do! Our firm did 30% of it's total volume for 2006 out of town and 20% in 2007 was out of town. If we had not had that out of town volume, both years would have been quite poor. To date for 2008, over 60% of our volume is out of town, Hearst and Deep River, the farthest we have ever had to go. I have no doubt that this year will set a record for us, but it has yet to unfold. Enough on this, I hope Dan gets my point.

We were trying to find some information for our Health & Safety Committee and I checked the CCOHS site www.ccohs.ca. I found some interesting downloads for books. I downloaded "Safety Committees Reference Guide" which is 190 pages, "Emergency Response Planning Guide" which is 168 pages, "Job Safety Analysis Made Simple" which is 39 pages and "Noise Control in the Industry" which is 135 pages. All four books cost less than $100.00 plus we had to print them out and have them bound.

Chris Cooper from Catalyst Fitness is planning on opening a gym in the new Howard Avery building at the end of our street here in the Industrial Park. Quite a unique idea and we wish Chris good luck. Perhaps we will have to buy some gift passes for our office staff! Check it out at the following site:
http://www.catalystfitness.ca/articles/newsletter0308.html

Ken's rope grab quiz at our Safety Meeting was a real eye opener for me. It is not simply enough to provide safety training to our employees, you must ensure that they understand the training and retain it. Ken and I are now developing quizzes or small tests for as much equipment and training as we can think of and we will institute a regular and mandatory employee testing program with documented results. This way, if we find any weak area's of training, we can concentrate on them. Does your company have a regular employee testing program? It should. I think this is a great idea! I have attached the rope grab quiz, perhaps you might want to test your employees? If you need the answers, give me a call or send me an email.
Rope Grab Quiz

We now have a mandatory "No Smoking" policy for all of our company vehicles with zero tolerance. This became law under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act on May 31, 2006.

I met Pat Fisico, our former RBC Business Bank Manager in Pino's parking lot and Pat informed me he has finally retired, once again. This time for good? Congratulations Pat and we hope you enjoy it. I was also informed that John Hollingsworth (JH) is retiring this coming December from Soo Mill. Congratulations JH but who is going to be my coffee buddy in the Timmy's line up at 5:30 AM now??? We wish Lynn Jr. all the best as he will become the new President of Soo Mill. Hey Lynn, see you at Timmy's at 5:30 AM, I take double cream, one sugar?

We are now tracking our First Aids and will also calculate our First Aid frequency rate. We have bid on several projects this year that ask for this information and give you a Frequency Rate maximum that you must meet or you will not be allowed to bid. It used to be your LTI frequency and then your Medical Aid or Non Lost Time Injury (NLTI) rate. We have also discussed prequalifying our subtrades using some of these frequency rates.

We had to have one of our employees rushed to the hospital by ambulance in March. He has a pre-existing medical condition which is Diabetes. Apparently he had a low blood glucose problem and has had a few of them lately. He was fine and returned to work the next day. Ken and I are going to get as much information as we can with regards to Diabetes and inform our employees about what signs they should look out for. We intend on helping this employee remain at work and be very understanding of his condition and his safety.

The cost of annual SRL's (Self Retracting Lifelines) inspections are expensive. It is law that all SRL's have a manufacturerer's inspection 2 years from the date it is purchased and then every year after that. How many people using SRL's know this? We did five at $315.00 each or $1,575.00. The 6th one was going to be $465.00 and we scrapped it as a new 30 footer is about $1,000.00 and does not have to be inspected for two years. Do you have these inspections done for your firm?

Ray Belkosky dropped by our office prior to Easter and gave all the ladies a single red rose and a lovely Easter flower basket! Very impressive Ray, the ladies were flattered. When is the last time any of you gents who read this newsletter gave your secretaries, your wife or signififcant other flowers? It may just be time to do so!

I have been speaking with Steve Riddell, Regional Safety Director for Ellis Don with regard to our EdgeBuilder Safety module and it appears that he is making headway. He has been speaking with Lisa Baker from Econstruction. Steve was in the Sault on Monday, March 31st and Ken James and I met with him at the Water Tower Inn for a few beers and a very interesting conversation. Steve gave us an overview of what was coming for the EdgeBuilder safety module and would like our input before it goes to the final release. Thanks Steve and you certainly gave us some excellent safety idea's and procedures. Hope to see you in Collingwood at the OGCA Symposium.

We are seriously considering hiring a Human Resources person. Given all of the employee's that we have and all of the problems and issues they present, it is a full time job. We have to be fair to our employees, but they have to be fair to us as well. I may expand on this next month.

Monday, April 28th is also referred to as "Fallen Worker Day" and is a day of remembrance for all victims of work-related injuries, diseases and fatalities. Mourning the dead is an important part of this day. Fighting for the living, however, is also of the utmost importance. Please observe a moment of silence for the Fallen Workers on this day and wear a black armband if you have one. If your company does not have a complete Health and Safety program in place, make it your goal this year to see that they do so. Unfortunately there are still too many workplaces out there where a commitment to prevention remains less of a priority than other corporate goals. This year of 2008, given the shortage of trades people and labourers, gives the employee the opportunity to demand that their employer put Health & Safety first!