GlassTalk

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.

Steve Johnston of Omnigence, a private equity firm investing in the construction sector, has a stark warning. He sees a real risk of long-term stagflation (inflation coupled with low productivity and high unemployment) in our present conditions and government policies. His white paper lays out the broad details, but he joins GlassTalk to talk about the specific effects in Canada’s construction sector and what will be needed to avoid them.

Keith Daubmann is an owner of MY Architectural Glass and MY Shower Door, a glass fabricator and custom glazing contractor serving southwestern Florida. What makes Daubmann unique is his thunderous presence on social media, running accounts with around 30,000 followers and hosting a weekly YouTube show, Hard Hat Highlights. He claims he has never had a guest on his show that didn’t become a client shortly after. Daubmann joined GlassTalk to talk about how to use social media in the glass business and how it can do a lot of the work of building trust with prospects before you even meet them.

Langley, B.C.,-based Cascadia has published its first environmental product declarations for its fibreglass fenestration systems and its happy it did. Marketing manager Chris Guelpa joined the Conversation to talk about the process; the help they got; the markets and opportunities the EPDs are opening up; and how fibreglass stacks up in the embodied carbon discussion.

NSF Product Category Rule for fenestration assemblies

Movember is back with an added focus. The popular fundraising drive for men’s health has added support for mental health to its efforts along with prostate and testicular cancer. Mitch Hermansen joined Annex Business Media publisher/editor, Patrick Flannery, to talk about why these issues are important and what we in the construction community can do to help the guys who work for us.

Those of us who ship product across provincial borders have probably noticed that it can be easier to ship to the United States than inside our own country. Recently, the federal Committee on Internal Trade has announced a pilot program that would see any province’s trucking regulations acknowledged in all the others’. Duncan Robertson, senior policy analyst for Nova Scotia, joins the podcast to talk about this small step toward actual free trade within Canada.

Canada’s architectural glass show comes to Calgary Oct. 16 – 17 and Glass Canada’s intrepid brand manager, Leslie Osborne, joins GlassTalk to give you all the details. We’ll be touring the local glass fabrication plant of the might Oldcastle Building Envelope. We’ll be talking about office-to-residential conversions. We’ll be looking at the future of glass. We’ll be debating contract changes from performance modelling. We’ll look at ways to certify different glass sizes. And we’ll be celebrating Alberta’s fine young glazing apprentices. It’s going to be a great couple days – see you at Top Glass West!

Register here: Canada’s architectural glass show comes to Calgary Oct. 16 – 17 and Glass Canada’s intrepid brand manager, Leslie Osborne, joins GlassTalk to give you all the details. We’ll be touring the local glass fabrication plant of the might Oldcastle Building Envelope. We’ll be talking about office-to-residential conversions. We’ll be looking at the future of glass. We’ll be debating contract changes from performance modelling. We’ll look at ways to certify different glass sizes. And we’ll be celebrating Alberta’s fine young glazing apprentices. It’s going to be a great couple days – see you at Top Glass West!

Register here: https://www.topglasswest.ca

New standards for energy efficiency and low carbon impact in construction are demanding new skills in the trades – skills your young workers might be more familiar with than you are. Chad Flinn, associate vice-president of academics at Red Deer Polytechnic, and Judi Varga-Toth, manager of the ImpAct-Climate program at Colleges and Institutes Canada, are working to educate today’s construction industry in how to design and install the elements of net zero buildings. Learning needs to be ongoing in this time of rapid change, and Flinn and Varga-Toth share insights and free online resources in this episode of Glass Talk.

Glass Canada editor Patrick Flannery has a big announcement for you! Top Glass, Canada’s trade event for the architectural glass industry is coming to the Best Western Premier in Calgary on Oct. 17. And that’s not all…on Oct. 16, you can tour Oldcastle Building Envelope’s Calgary fabrication facility and see advanced glazing components being manufactured before your very eyes. Tune in as Flannery goes over all the details. Then register at topglasswest.ca. See you at Top Glass West!