// THE ONLY CONSTRUCTION MEDIA IN ATLANTIC CANADA
The people who actually build Atlantic Canada, on the record.
Contractors, developers, trades, and architects — telling you how the work really gets done, with the receipt on every fact. Cut into clips you can watch on a coffee break.
STRAIGHT TALK, BUILDER TO BUILDER.HOSTED BY DANIEL ARSENAULT ▸
76
EPISODES
80.1
HOURS ON RECORD
246+
COMPANIES
625
CLIPS & COUNTING
Bird Construction Inc.Fathom StudioAlweather Windows & DoorsThe Armour Group LimitedConstructionClockDexel Developments Limited / Dexel ArchitectureAgnew Peckham Health Care Planning ConsultantsIG Wealth Management Inc.Efficiency Nova ScotiaSoublière ConstructorsEllisDon CorporationPayzant Building Products Ltd.Trinity Energy GroupAlumicor LimitedCrombie Real Estate Investment TrustFreeman Group Private Wealth ManagementProcore Technologies, Inc.ALRE Properties Inc. (Les Immeubles ALRE Inc.)NavacordArchitecture49Smarter Spaces Inc.Inflector Environmental ServicesAllsco Windows & DoorsSouthwest PropertiesDexter Construction Company LimitedPomerleau Inc.Aries Contracting (Ottawa) Inc.46North Group of Companies Inc.
// FEATURED — HIGHEST-RATED MOMENT
“I had an Olympic silver medal I just drank out of the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers and I was suicidal”
EP 68 · Corey Hirsch · Procore Technologies, Inc. · 2023-10-10
NHL goalie Corey Hirsch tells construction workers getting help is strength, not weakness.
Watch the full episode ▸// THE CLIP WALL
The best moments, on the record.
// FROM THE FIELD
Every lesson comes with a receipt.
Place students on real job sites rotating through trades so they discover the 144 trades they didn't know existed.
“they place them with each trade for about a week right so as they're they're experiencing you know these trades”
BIM-based clash detection, if run before mobilization, can surface two-dozen drawing conflicts on a typical institutional project — the cost to resolve each conflict pre-construction is a fraction of the cost mid-build.
“before we even had the first bucket in the ground we identified... probably two dozen issues”
Listen to the tradespeople who are actually on the tools — they've installed more steel than engineers have designed, and their field knowledge (erection sequences, temporary support schemes) routinely solves problems formal drawings miss.
“pay attention to what the guys outside have to say — they've put up more steel than you have designed”
Practice servant leadership and aim to make yourself obsolete in day-to-day operations to build redundancy and succession.
“my goal is to create no value to my company in the day-to-day”
Facebook has disproportionately high penetration in the Maritimes and is a primary inbound channel for skilled-trades recruitment in the region.
“facebook is enormously popular ... it has a particularly high penetration um out in nova scotia pei newfoundland and new brunswick”
Builders chase higher-margin move-up homes, so the entry-level bungalow supply stays starved.
“what Builders are are preferring to buy when they're building single family homes are higher end homes obviously because you can make more money”
On major urban projects, budget 10+ years from initial concept to occupancy; the construction phase is a small fraction of the full project timeline.
“the actual construction timeline is the most intense but just a small snapshot of the entire project”
Building code is the legal floor — 'the worst home you are allowed to build by law' — not a quality target; frame every project above it.
“the building code is the worst home that you're allowed to build by law”
Getting formal project-management training (PMP) changes the language you use with owners and trades — replacing fire-fighting with structured scope/cost/time conversations.
“after doing the pmp you get to understand how between scope and cost and you can speak more intelligently about the triangle”
Long-tenured superintendents are the culture: they onboard newcomers and recruit by telling people they are treated well.
“they help establish the culture when new people come in”
Gold Seal certification resolves the credibility gap for blue-collar operators who lack a university degree — it 'puts a stamp on it' that peers and clients respect.
“i was always concerned with not having the schooling background and just having boots on the ground background that i wouldn't be taken serious”
// THE LEDGER
The full conversations.
// ON THE RECORD
Procore Technologies, Inc. / Payzant Building Products Ltd. / Luminous Labs / Bird Construction Inc. / EllisDon Corporation / Pomerleau Inc. / rcs construction / Trinity Energy Group / Lindsay Construction / Construction Association of Nova Scotia (CANS) / Dexter Construction Company Limited / Efficiency Nova Scotia / The Armour Group Limited / Architecture49 / ConstructionClock / Crombie Real Estate Investment Trust / Dexel Developments Limited / Dexel Architecture / Fathom Studio / Freeman Group Private Wealth Management / IG Wealth Management Inc. / Inflector Environmental Services / Kent Building Supplies / Marco Group Limited / Navacord / Smarter Spaces Inc. / Soublière Constructors / Southwest Properties / Westwood Developments / 0812 Building Solutions Inc. / 46North Group of Companies Inc. / Able Electric 2016 Limited / Agnew Peckham Health Care Planning Consultants / Airtight Spaces / ALL-TECH Environmental Services Limited / Allsco Windows & Doors / ALRE Properties Inc. (Les Immeubles ALRE Inc.) / Alumicor Limited / Alweather Windows & Doors / Anvil Construction Ltd. / Aries Contracting (Ottawa) Inc.
The full directory// LISTEN & FOLLOW
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The inside line on who's building Atlantic Canada — one builder worth knowing, one lesson with its receipt, one project moving in the region. Every other Thursday.