The Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance continues to evolve into a truly North American organization for the architectural glass and window and door industries. It’s most recent move is the absorption of Fenestration BC, the association created 10 years ago out of the merger of the Canadian Window and Door Manufacturers Association of BC and the Glazing Contractors Association of BC. With the retirement of long-time FenBC executive directior, Zana Gordon, FenBC went looking for new resources to steer the group and found a willing partner in the FGIA. FGIA chairman, Dan Parrish, and FenBC chairman, David Goldsmith, joined GlassTalk to explain everything and map the course forward.

The August issue of Glass Canada magazine featured Canada’s Top 10 Under 40 young professionals in the architectural glass industry, and four of them joined Glass Talk to help us get to know them even better. Corey and Blake Sanders of SpandrelTech, Ameet Balilty of High Performance Glazing and Vincent Couturier of Unicel talked about what’s changed since their fathers’ day; where things are likely to go in the future; some of the crazy stuff that’s happened to them in the industry; and lots of general industry gossip. The industry is in great hands with a next generation like this!

Thermal modeling for façade component certification is going to become a bigger and bigger part of our business as energy efficiency standards continue to tighten. Jonathan “JoMo” Layton and Taylor Wight join GlassTalk to talk about the importance and uses of modelling in today’s design process and how it might influence our efforts in the future. We discuss the new NBC tiered codes; Layton’s experiences modelling designs around the world; the differences between Passive House and NFRC standards; the need to change our approach to solar heat gain; thermal bridging and more.

Aynsley Dueck is operations manager at Duxton Windows and Doors and has focused on bringing Continuous Improvement and Lean processes to her operation for several years now. She talks about just what these concepts are and how they can be applied to window, door and commercial façade manufacturing environments. We cover how to deal with the disruption and change that comes with reforming your processes; how to get employee and management buy-in and how to avoid some common pitfalls. We also look at some of the tangible and less-tangible benefits of CI and Lean, and pick up some specific tips from Aynsley that they’ve discovered in their CI journey.

With prescient timing, Samuel Doyon-Bissonnette, co-president of Unicel Architectural, has recently developed and brought to market a Passive House-certified stick-built curtainwall system using engineered wood. The timing is great because recent changes to codes and standards allow architects to do more with wood construction than ever before. Also, wood answers many questions about energy efficiency and embodied carbon. Samuel discusses the opportunity for wood curtainwall and some of the unique features and challenges of working with this material.

Last year in Ontario, 30 percent of all the working people who died from opioid overdose worked in the construction industry. It’s clearly time for we who employ tradespeople to pay some extra attention to this issue and be prepared to help those in our companies who struggle with substance use and misuse. To help, Jan Chappel, a senior occupational health and safety specialist with CCOHS, joined Glass Talk to give us some advice on what to look for in employee behaviour that might indicate a problem; how to address the issue; and where to find the resources both you and your employee might need.

Hospitals and other health care facilities are commissioning some of the best glazing projects in Canada today. Not content any more with square brick facades, the healthcare industry has become a prime target for architectural glass companies looking for opportunities to apply their very best creativity and technology. Vincent Couturier, COO of Longueuil, Que., fabricator, Unicel Architectural, joins Glass Talk to share knowledge gained from his experiences delivering award-winning solutions to this lucrative sector. Couturier talks about the special needs of the healthcare industry, including designs that are easy to clean and don’t accumulate dust; the need for enhanced sound control; solar heat gain considerations; extra privacy needs; and the concept of “behavioural glazing” to deal with the habits of patients who might be destructive. Fascinating stuff!

Margaret Webb has retired after 22 years of dedicating inordinate amounts of time, energy, passion and expertise to this industry. She was instrumental in creating not one but two industry associations: the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance then the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance. GlassTalks was fortunate to get Margaret to step back into the industry for a brief moment following her retirement to reflect on her time, tell a few stories and share a few opinions about how things are and how they ought to be.

Monte McNaughton joins Glass Talk to explain the new agency, Skilled Trades Ontario, which replaces the Ontario College of Trades as the skilled trades regulator in the province. McNaughton explains his the reason for the change and the direction the new organization will take in trying to smooth the path for apprentices to move through the system, and in trying to attract new workers to the trades. Following McNaughton’s interview, a panel of industry voices joins the podcast to discuss his comments: Ian Howcroft, president of Skills Ontatio, Angelo Cairo, president of Stouffville Glass and Brett Lucier, president of Provincial Glass.

Glass Canada brand manager Navneet Matharu joins GlassTalk for a special New Year look back and look ahead. We talk about the supply chain issues that emerged in the second year of COVID; do some gossiping about what suppliers and contractors are saying; touch on the big news stories of 2021; and preview the year ahead in Canada’s commercial glazing B2B channel, including a preview of our exciting Top Glass lineup coming April 20.