President’s Message
Tidings from around the CIQS Ian Duncan, PQS(F) very year, council tries to hold at least one meeting out of the four somewhere other than its Markham, Ontario home base. This time we were treated to the outstanding hospitality of the members of the AEQSQ in Montreal. Over 30 people attended the Friday night reception and the welcome by the Quebec members was gratifying. At the beginning of my term as president, I laid out an aggressive agenda for the year with some ambitious goals. We are not there yet but have come a long way since the last AGM. The tool of email has made it possible to continue to develop ideas and have decisions made between council meetings making the production rate of council members much more efficient. The Staffing Committee has undertaken an analysis of the duties of head office staff and identified areas of change that are needed to improve efficiency. Some of these changes have already been implemented such as outsourcing some book keeping functions and planning to get help in website maintenance. On the education front, we put out a request for expression of interest for the part time position of Education Coordinator and have received five submissions which we are evaluating. The Website Committee has come to the conclusion, through surveys to the members, that our website is salvageable, which was in doubt, although in need of a degree of overhauling and upgrading. For those of you that volunteered to help the CIQS in various areas, we have not forgotten you and plans are afoot to engage you in a positive way. Part of the duties of council is to make sure the Institute is marketed effectively to sustain awareness and growth of the membership. A new Marketing Committee has been set
up, led by Chris Reinert, the CIQS rep for Alberta, and we are expecting great things from this initiative. I am sure Chris would welcome input and suggestions from members. By now it is old news that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has accepted the qualifications of PQS / ECA as equivalent to full membership of that Institution, MRICS. This is something we have strived for over several decades and has been brought about, I believe, by international exposure and reciprocity agreements entered into through our connections with the Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors (PAQS) as well as strict adherence of the administration of the TPE process. This year, our first vice president, Herve Couture, visited Malta to attend the biannual meeting of the CEEC, the European Council of Construction Economists who represent 14 country organizations across Europe and Scandinavia. Our association with organizations such as PAQS and CEEC give us the recognition on the international arena which, I believe, is essential to the survival of CIQS as a lead in the quantity surveying and cost consulting profession in the most prosperous continent in the world. Going back six years or so, our numbers were only half of what they are today. The majority of our new members have come from outside of Canada. Without them and our international policies, I am not sure we would have an Institute to be proud of. Education is always the key to progress and as we move forward to higher standard, we will gain greater acceptance and respect and hence more work and prosperity for our members. This is one area I see as a conduit for our volunteers. I suspect some of you have noticed what I have over the past six months
4 | Construction Economist | www.ciqs.org | spring 2010
or so but there appears to have been an increasing number of opportunities presenting themselves related to the, so called, economic downturn. Firstly, apart from the undoubted reduction in oil industry related work, which cannot be easily dismissed, I would contend that our profession has benefited considerably in several areas from the change in the world economy. Reduction in available public funds has fuelled the fires of P3 (under whatever guise it may manifest itself) which brings with it the need for a multilevel of cost consulting services for owners, financiers and contractors. With contractors competing for fewer projects, the competition between contractors and subcontractors requires more effort and therefore more personnel and more work for members. What I, personally, have noticed is the increased demand for payment certification by professional quantity surveyors. Owners and lenders seem to be feeling the need to be more diligent in controlling borrowing. The AEQSQ from Quebec shared with me the news that there has been a spike in membership application because government is being more insistent on proper due diligence in project controls and monitoring. Recognition of our profession continues to rise under the stewardship of committed people on council and administration, namely: Lois Metcalfe, Ishrat Alidina, David Lai, Roy Lewis, Mark Russell, Mark Gardin, Bruno Pilieci, Orest Stachniak, Joshua Mutize, Hervé Couture and Chris Reinert. I thank all of the above as well as the board members and administrators of all the affiliates and all volunteers for the giving of their valuable time and effort for the good of the Institute. Click Here to Return to Table of Contents
