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December 19, 2001 - EDITORIAL
Planting eel grass among the skills of ICBA president
Reprinted with permission from The Journal of Commerce
Kaufman: determined and daring
Whether battling tides to complete an underwater planting contract or searching for new business opportunities, Cindy Kaufman gets things done.
Now, the general manager of Fraser Burrard Diving will have a wider field to display that trait as president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C.
Kaufman's background was in financial management in the insurance industry in South Africa - a far cry from the commercial/construction diving industry in B.C. But her qualifications were what Fraser Burrard founder and president Wes Maggs was looking for back in 1976.
She soon learned about diving and construction, even overcoming her claustrophobia to take diving lessons.
Kaufman has been on the ICBA board for the past four years and believes B.C. business is entering a new era with the Liberals' recent win.
"So we really are starting a new era for the ICBA and business generally," she said.
However, since government projects traditionally account for about one third of all construction in the province, Victoria's tighter controls on spending are a strain on the industry, drying up pools of capital.
That creates fertile ground for the ICBA's promotion of greater use of "public-private partnerships", Kaufman said. "We need to rely more on the private sector to deliver the services that have been the traditional domain of government. And now we have a government that's willing to listen."
B.C.'s construction industry generally, and ICBA member companies in particular, can also expect to hear more about creating greater opportunities for women in the industry.
"I think there's a much larger role for women to play in construction," she said. "Women have made large strides in engineering, but construction offers so many more opportunities without the need for a five year degree course."
That opinion is based on experience which has seen Kaufman take up the opportunity to identify new business opportunities, learn new skills and plant grass underwater.
Kaufman noted and promoted installation and repairs of underwater pipeline by the company, particularly mill and sewage treatment intakes and outfalls. Another area that became a major interest of hers in the late 1980s was environmental work.
With increasing waterfront development, more focus was being applied to potential environmental damage to the foreshore and intertidal waters. A call for tenders for a project near Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast asked for proposals for harvesting and replanting a half acre of eel grass to compensate for fish habitat that would be lost to a marina development.
The project included a research and development component since the idea had not been tested before.
"I could see the environmental area was a field that would need our type of services. It offered us opportunities," she said, committing herself to the project to the extent of joining two other company divers on the week long project.
Planting eel grass might sound simple but Kaufman asserts it's not like dry land planting.
"First you've got the tides to contend with," she said. "Then if you try digging a hole you push yourself up to the surface and the hole will instantly fill in anyway and then how do you keep the newly planted grass from just floating away?"
In spite of the difficulties the job was successfully completed, providing an abundance of new eel grass beds.
| ICBA is the voice of BC's construction industry. For further information, or if you have any questions or comments regarding this article, please contact ICBA. |
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