will need to begin expanding in the direction of “power projects and renewable energy such as wind, hydro, and solar.” This reality, Eldert holds, is one of the many contributing factors which brought OHL to Canada in 2008. “We also have a firm, fair, CEO whom has been with the firm since the 1980s.” Considering one of the lynchpins of OHL’s 2020 Strategic Plan – a plan reaffirmed and updated at conference on March 2nd 2015 in Madrid – is to double in size over the next five years, Eldert feels “Canada will be a large contributor to this growth.” Coupled with Canada’s global reputation as a bastion of conservation and clean energy initiatives, Eldert projects that “Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal government’s deficit spending, along with several provincial party budgets – which are largely geared to replace the aging infrastructure of the country and specifically to build-up public transit systems – will contribute, in the long-term, to the well-being of the economy as well as to the growth and diversification of OHL Construction Canada.” In under a decade, there are already clear signs of this growth in Canada. OHL’s three Canadian offices – located in Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec – have forged a lasting path for the company in the Great White North. In Quebec, OHL and its partners have funded and mobilized the various construction phases of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), one of the largest French-language teaching hospi- tals in the world. In Alberta, OHL and its subcontractors continue to enjoy a multi-proj- ect arrangement with the Alberta Ministry of Transportation. And “here in Ontario,” Eldert says, “we are responsible for TTC [Toronto Transit Commission] subway projects like the Spadina Subway Extension linking Toronto to York, as well as a host of MTO [Ministry of Transportation] projects which range from the GTA [Greater Toronto
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • APRIL 2016
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