Across the world of construction and trades, failure to secure payment for work done and materials purchased is probably the biggest and most common threat to any company’s survival. The system of bonds, liens and sureties we rely on to safeguard contractors and subcontractors can be so arcane that many of us simply don’t bother – and take on massive risk in doing so. Steve Ness of SAC says the system can be made to work for you and joins GlassTalk to explain how. He also addresses the persistent myth that the Ontario court’s Earth Boring decision has undermined surety bonds.

Chris Magwood of the Rocky Mountain Institute joins the podcast to discuss the One Number approach to sustainable building regulation…and he has some objections. While a performance-based approach aimed at regulating the whole-life carbon impact of a construction project should be our ultimate goal, Magwood feels the upfront impact of embodied carbon needs to be evaluated separately, but adjacent to, the long-term impact of operational carbon. Listen now to find out why, and for Magwood’s assessment of where we are in being able to do the carbon impact modelling we will need to meet the future sustainable building regulations under discussion today.

One Number Glass Canada magazine article.

Our business is making things, not talking about them. So it’s no surprise that many of us struggle with the demands of promoting our businesses to potential clients and customers. Alison Simpson, president and CEO of the CMA, has been helping major corporations do just that throughout her career and she joins Pat Flannery for a lively conversation chock full of good advice. She also has details of an exciting program enabling small businesses to obtain government funds to hire digital marketing experts and to upskill their existing IT staff.

The Ontario government’s award of a $140 million hospital façade project to American contractor Permasteelisa/Benson is making waves in Ontario’s glass community. After receiving multiple angry comments and calls from members, the Ontario Glass and Metal Association has taken the unusual step of going public with an open letter to the Ford government, complaining about the lack of support for our industry at a time when tariffs and a general commercial building slowdown threaten our businesses. Sanders joins GlassTalk to make his case for why Ontario should do a better job of looking after its own.

See the letter to Queen’s Park

How would it be if all the databases and charts and spreadsheets and regulations and tiers defining whether our products comply with sustainable building laws just…went away? Replaced by one number: – the only number that matters – the amount of carbon dioxide emitted over a building’s lifetime as a result of its manufacture, construction, use and disposal. Partner at Layton Consulting, Jonathon “JoMo” Layton joins the podcast to chew over this radical idea and lend his expertise to the question of whether it could work and how it would affect us all.

High-profile wildfires doing substantial property damage to urban areas in B.C. and Alberta have spurred NRCan to look at creating Canadian building standards for wildfire resistance. The consultation process has just begun, but it seems likely that some day soon we may see new codes requiring resistant windows, doors and other components in wildfire-prone areas. What might these rules look like? How do we determine if a product is sufficiently resistant to external fires? And what is the science behind making frames and glass that resists fire and prevents heat transfer to the home interior? Robin Urquhart has worked on rebuilding communities destroyed by wildfires and joins GlassTalk to share his deep knowledge of this topic.

FenCan codes and regulatory affairs direction, Adrian Edge, is back on to talk about the latest trade war developments and how they might impact the glazing and fenestration industries. Our sector avoided new tariffs on April 2, but the stunning measures announced by Trump against the rest of the world are crashing markets and have already, in the words of our prime minister, ended the free trade and partnership relationship we have enjoyed with the United States for decades. Edge talks about the possible ramifications of that, and about how you can still export to the U.S. tariff-free.

Mark Carney clip courtesy Associated Press YouTube.

Registration for Canada’s architectural glass show is open and the agenda set. Join us April 29 – 30 in Mississauga, Ont., for a day of great discussion with all your friends in the industry. And get a behind-the-scenes look at Trulite Glass and Aluminum Solutions, one of Canada’s top glass fabricators. Glass Canada publisher Pat Flannery shares all the details – see you at Top Glass!

FenCan’s director of government and regulatory affairs, Adrian Edge, joins to talk tariffs. What is the status? Are they gone or are they coming back in a month? Either way, what can we and our governments do to protect ourselves and our businesses going forward? Things get political and practical in this edition.

David Cooper has been researching and developing vacuum insulating glass for over a decade and chairs multiple international standards committees that will define how it can be used, how its quality can be assessed and how to test its performance. With demand for VIG growing and producers multiplying, specifiers and contractors need guidance on what to look for in these products – guidance that may be coming soon in the form of balloted ASTM standards for durability and load tolerance. Cooper joins GlassTalk to explain where these efforts are at and to update us on the state of VIG technology and availability.