By Paul Hargest, President Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association On May 11th, Justin Trudeau stood in front of a group of reporters in Gatineau, Quebec. He’d just taken an aerial tour to survey the area’s flood damage. With Premier Philippe Couillard by his side, he talked about the growing threat of extreme weather, and our […]
New study finds insurance costs are more than six times greater for wood frame buildings than for concrete buildings OTTAWA, March 21, 2016 – A new study of the property insurance costs for wood frame and concrete mid-rise residential buildings conducted by GLOBE Advisors and released today by the Concrete Council of Canada reveals a substantial gap […]
Est-ce que « respecter le code du bâtiment » est synonyme de « couper les coins ronds et se plier aux désirs des lobbyistes ? » La publication récente du rapport du coroner du Québec sur le feu qui a détruit la résidence pour personnes âgées de l’Isle-Verte a soulevé des questions à propos de […]
But does ‘building to code’ mean cutting corners and caving to lobbyists? by Paul Hargest, President, Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association. The recent release of the Quebec coroner’s report on the retirement home fire in L’Isle-Verte has once again got people thinking about building safety. The five-alarm blaze that struck the Résidence du Havre on […]
Code officials ignored it. Developers ignored it. Wood you? Demand concrete block. It was built to code. It had working sprinklers. But as local firefighters pointed out, once the lightweight wood assembly caught fire, sprinklers were simply no match for the 5-alarm blaze that tore through this luxury apartment complex recently in Edgewater, New Jersey. […]
If current deforestation rates continue, critical habitats could disappear within the next hundred years. 53% of land in Canada is covered by boreal forest. 30% of that forest has been allocated to industry. 90% of logging in the boreal forest is clearcutting. The earth loses about 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forest per […]
Ref: Attack Ad reignites feud between concrete and wood industries I am pleased to read that the concrete masonry industry has decided to tell consumers the TRUTH: that wood is “vulnerable to insects, severe weather and fire”. Some readers may have the impression these are ‘attack ads’, as referenced by Edmonton Journal columnist, Dan Barnes. […]
A few weeks ago the Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association ran a full page ad in the Toronto Star with a photograph depicting the Oklahoma tornado devastation from May 20, 2013. The event was real. The image was real. And so was the devastation. In Canada, over the past several years, there has been a […]
Build with Concrete Block. Storms. Fires. Insects. All can weaken a structure — and in some cases destroy it if it’s made of wood. Some members of Ontario’s building industry are proposing a “Wood First” initiative. Others are proposing changes to the Ontario Building Code that would allow higher buildings — up to 6 storeys […]
They deserve a National Building Code that protects them. Fires today burn hotter and faster than ever before. Lightweight floor assemblies can now collapse 10 minutes into a blaze — just when fire fighters may be arriving and entering the premises, or when you may be exiting. Yet Canada’s National Building Code no longer treats […]
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