buildings because some of them might have
a little stronger cooling load where the other
ones are in heating and they’re able to share
that energy among those buildings and not
just back to the field,” explained Walkes.
“The Assiniboine Park Zoo has been a sta-
ple in Winnipeg for years and its great to be
apart of that resurgence there and to be in-
volved with all of the interesting changes go-
ing on. They’re dedicated to being sustainable
as well, so we’ve helped design a couple of
LEED buildings within the site, and the overall
site itself will be really fantastic when it’s com-
pleted in the next few months.”
While many things have changed over the
past half-century at SMS, the company’s ma-
jor clientele remain in the healthcare industry.
SMS does most of the mechanical and elec-
trical work for the Health Sciences Centre in
Winnipeg, in addition to similar project work
for various schools and tenants in the city.
In dealing with market challenges in the
province lately, Walkes noted that Manitoba is
fairing well.
“Manitoba hasn’t really dried up at all. I
think it’s been fairly strong for the past few
years, wherein the east things may have
slowed down quite a bit. Farther west, Alberta
has been fairly strong as well and they think
they might be dropping off a little bit on proj-
ects as the contractors you’re seeing come out
of Alberta pick up some work here, but gener-
ally we’ve been very strong,” he said.
However, he does recognize a potential
problem in the next generation of contract
construction.
“Contractors have been struggling a bit
with their resources and getting skilled trades.
There’s a lot of retirement going on and so
JUNE 2014
H
business elite canada
67
