Carl Doell, left superintendent of PCL Construction building the Cenovus Energy Hub, chats with a student about the trades during the Try-A-Trade Career Expo at Lloyd Ex on April 30. In the background is a video of the construction site in Lloydminster. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
PCL Construction, the builder of the Cenovus Energy Hub arena in Lloydminster, checked off two goals at this year’s Try-A-Trade Career Expo.
The event was an opportunity for PCL reps to promote trades they employ to students at the Lloyd Ex on April 30 while providing a project update.
“We’re kind of showing them everything from engineers to electricians, ironworkers and carpenters,” said PCL’s on-site superintendent, Carl Doell.
He says carpenters are the top need right now for PCL projects like the Energy Hub.
Doell said they currently have carpenters, electricians, plumbers as well as earthwork guys and civil underground guys working on the project.
PCL is building a main arena with seating for up to 2,500 people, a second full-size ice surface with seating for 300 to 500 people, and a third ice surface outdoors, directly adjacent to the building.
The groundbreaking took place last August with an expected completion by the fall of 2025.
“It’s coming along. Right now, all the major concrete is almost done and we’re getting to stand up structural steel within about a week, so you’ll really see the building come to life in the next few days,” said Doell last Tuesday.
He says they also have civil underground work going on and hope to have the parking lot done this year as well with available manpower.
“We were up to 60 plus folks; we’ve got it crewed down a little bit now, but as the sub-trades come on, I’m anticipating 150 people on site,” said Doell.
He notes PCL is always looking for tradespeople and he had a message for students who dropped by the PCL trades booth.
“I think a lot of students don’t understand or maybe haven’t had the opportunity to know what is exactly involved in the trades, where they can start and how they can grow their careers,” said Doell.
“They don’t always have to be field orientated. They can move up the ladder to be superintendent and project manager and those types of things.”
Doell also says several women superintendents work with PCL.
“I’ve worked with a number of them closely myself and we want everyone to try the trades,” he said.
Project coordinator, Kolby Rea, was on hand to show interested students a 3D model of how the project is completed and another model of how the building goes together with all the structural steel components.
Rea’s message to students is to just encourage them to explore all the different paths in the trades.
“There’s a lot of different options as Carl mentioned from being in the field learning hands-on, or learning the other side of it too, like project management and estimating and putting those projects together that way as well,” he said.
As a project coordinator, Rea deals with a lot of the sub-trades, getting them signed up to some contracts and understanding their scope of work on the estimating side of things.
“So putting the budgets together and then going ahead with the owner on those budgets for approval,” he explained.
“We need more people like Kolby as well,” added Doell.
This is PCL’s second year at Try-A-Trade with some of their local contractors also taking part to interest students in the trades.
“We’re able to work with a lot of local folks—Precision (Contractors) over there—and we engage quite a bit with those people,” said Doell from his booth.
“When we came to the site we made a very strong effort to work with local contractors and the local vendors in Lloydminster, so that’s been a big focus of ours,” he said.
