The new Prince George RCMP headquarters has become northern British Columbia's first-ever Gold Seal project.
The designation from the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) was bestowed Wednesday during a celebration at the project construction site in the city's downtown, capped by a signing ceremony complete with gold hardhats for the four signatories.
The designation is an offshoot of the CCA's Gold Seal Certification program for project managers, superintendents and estimators in the construction and roadbuilding industries.
Achieving the standard requires completing a national exam that only 75 per cent of candidates pass. Qualifying for the exam requires at least five years on the job experience, 150 hours of construction-related education and meeting a host of other criteria.
"Right now, as an owner or buyer of construction or as a city, you require that the crane operator is certified, you want to make sure that the guy welding those beads up there is certified, you want to make sure that the plumber and electrician are certified," National Gold Seal Certification chairman Terry Brown said.
"Why wouldn't you say 'I want to make sure the managers are certified'? There is a benchmark out there."
Many municipalities now write into their agreements that the contractors' managers have the certification and Maple Reinders, which is building the new headquarters, actively promotes achieving the standard from within, Brown said.
"You can see in this project that very high skilled workers have completed what's been done today," Brown said. "There's been a lot of skill and expertise provided by the tradespeople and managers to get the building to this stage."
The building, overlooking Victoria Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, is taking on an impressive shape with most of the concrete poured and the steel framing in place. Budgeted at $39 million, the 63,560-square-foot building is scheduled for completion by October 2013.
Maple Reinders project manager Phil Long said the company is a strong supporter of the Gold Seal program.
"We believe in continuing professional development and the Gold Seal program falls nicely into place with that," Long said.
In addition to the Gold Seal designation, Long said Maple Reinders has a facilitated partnering agreement with the project's consultants and the city "agreeing to treat each other as professionals, to be fair to each other and to work for the good of the project to its successful conclusion."
Mayor Shari Green, B.C. Construction Association North executive director Rosalind Thorn, Maple Reinders division manager Bodo Papke and Prince George Construction Association chair Brad Popoff signed a memorandum of understanding committing the project to Gold Seal objectives.
There are 14 other Gold Seal projects in Canada, eight of them in Quebec.
