The Moose Jaw & District Chamber of Commerce hosted a Meet & Greet at Grant Hall on June 1 as an opportunity for the many contractors, sub-contractors, and suppliers working on the Great Plains Power Station to connect and get to know each other.
“The project is on schedule, and we’re increasing the manpower on a daily basis,” said Brad Butcher, Burns & McDonnell’s site manager for the project. “The manpower currently is about 350, headed for 410 at the end of June. We are starting the electrical phase of the project. … The mechanical phase is ongoing, the boilerwork has started. … And multiple other components will be coming over the summer.”
Progress includes the May 24 delivery of the gas turbine that will be the heart of the plant, as the underground phase nears completion and construction begins to reach skyward.
Additional major contractors at the event were PCL Energy and Graham Industrial.
“This is the second time that I’ve had the privilege of working with Burns & McDonnell,” said James Savage, PCL’s construction manager. “Just like the last one that we did for SaskPower, out at Swift Current, it’s starting off so far, so good.”
PCL’s work includes piping, scaffolding, equipment placement, and painting. PCL is a signatory of the Saskatchewan Indigenous Engagement Charter, and SaskPower has reported an anticipated increase in Indigenous engagement on the project over and above that of the Swift Current Chinook Power Station.
Chris Gingras, district manager with Graham Industrial, said that “We’re really excited about this project. Graham, about 97 years ago, was founded out of Moose Jaw. … We’ve expanded a lot since then, obviously, we’re a pretty big company spread out across Western Canada and the US, but this is kind of a hometown project for us.”
The evening included an invitation from Jamie-Lee Cuthbert, Burns & McDonnell’s site office manager and community liaison, for local businesses to reach out and contact her. The project is ramping up and the company aims to use as many local resources as possible, Cuthbert said.
Cuthbert is from Swift Current — the Chinook Power Station was her first project with Burns & McDonnell.
“Being from Swift Current, it was nice to know who to call for what, and be the middleman for those relationships,” Cuthbert said. “I loved seeing the impact it had on businesses, especially the service industry. … Seeing our city just kind of boom during the length of the project, and afterward when the plant started up.”
Moose Jaw is experiencing and will continue to experience positive economic side effects from the project, Cuthbert said, and she is excited to be working on another Saskatchewan project with Burns & Mac.
The project has used 249 Saskatchewan companies so far, Butcher reported, with 101 of those from Moose Jaw and the surrounding area. In addition, 20 per cent of the site’s workforce are from Moose Jaw, and 86 per cent overall are from Saskatchewan.
“We’re really proud of those numbers,” Butcher said. “I mean, 86 employment per cent, that exceeds our expectations.”
“Tell your neighbourhood business to send information out to Jamie (Cuthbert),” Rob Clark, CEO of the Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce, said during his remarks. “She does put it up on the (site office’s) wall. There’s lots of businesses that workers have seen. … I mean, even if it’s a haircut, (the workers) need haircuts.”
Clark also teased the idea of a Chamber-organized bus tour of the major economic projects currently ongoing in Moose Jaw, including the power plant, the renovation of the XL Beef plant, and the new high service reservoir pumphouse.
MooseJawToday.com will have more information on that tour as the details are worked out.
To register as a potential supplier or sub-contractor for the Great Plains Power Station project, contact:
- Burns & McDonnell — [email protected]
- PCL — https://www.pcl.com/ca/en/great-plains-power-station (subcontractor registration form)
- Graham — email [email protected]
