Manitoba Heavy Construction Association

8 wednesdaY march 23, 2016 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Photo by Darcy Finley colleen Munro wasn't afraid to get Her Hands dirty wHen sHe joined tHe faMily business, HugH Munro construction ltd., as a young teen. Her face got pretty dirty too. A n inspiring speaker at SHEday at RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg in January, Munro got a lot of laughs when she told a crowd of 800 about an early experience driving a packer. The men on the crew were going out of their way to make sure she ate plenty of dust when she spotted rescue on the horizon — her father driving onto the job site. Relief was short-lived: He waved and kept on driving. "I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but when I look back there was the lesson of it. You have to survive," she says. "I don't think he did it on purpose. I think he realized that he wouldn't do me any favours by babying me, and the guys would resent it even more …. I had to take it." In the 1970s, Munro was a rarity in construction. She says there still aren't a lot of women in the industry, but these days, they're welcome. "It can be a great opportunity for women, whether it be operators, welders, mechanics; the great thing is we need people. We're short in our industry, so we would love to have more women in our crew," she says, adding the benefits extend beyond the financial rewards. "You can take a look back and see some of the projects that you've worked on that are there for our province, and I think it's a rewarding career for a lot of women." There's no shortage of career options in construction and Munro says women have a lot to offer to the industry. "Compared to most men operators they're gentler on the equipment. They keep it cleaner, they're consistent, you know all those things you want in an employee I think women bring to a job site," she says. "Women are much more collaborators — I mean I'm obviously generalizing, but anybody who wants to say we are the same, we're not the same. We have different strengths and different weaknesses." Munro says if she hadn't been born into construction — she entered the world the same year her late father started the company — she probably wouldn't have given a career in the industry a second thought, or a first thought. "Really, construction just wasn't an option for women in my day," she says. "We want more women in our industry and a lot of us are willing to train, and there's also a lot of courses that are offered now through Red River College, through MITT (Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology), through the Manitoba Construction Sector Council that will help train women for this industry." A member of the Minister's Advisory Council on Workforce Development and a board member of Apprenticeship Manitoba, Munro is active with the Manitoba Construction Sector Council and MITT education programs, and her company works in partnership with First Nations on local workforce training and development for men and women. In 1995, she became the first — and so far, only — woman to serve as Board Chairperson of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association (MHCA) and the Western Canada Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association (WCR&HCA). From one man with one piece of equipment — a dozer for clearing bush — the company she runs has become a major player in the heavy construction industry, with 250 pieces of equipment, trucking and service arms and up to 300 employees whose livelihood is her main focus. "There are a lot of families that survive by making their money with this company. That's a real motivator for me," she says. "My main goal is that I'm very loyal to the people that worked with me since I was a kid and it's kind of, we're like a family … I call them lifers all the time. It's just paying respect and hopefully we can still do a good job and go to the next stage together." Hugh Munro worked on the original Red River Floodway and the company has tackled projects including the Winnipeg Floodway expansion, the Lake St. Martin Emergency Channel, CentrePort Canada Way, the East Side Road Authority all-weather road and Manitoba Hydro's Bipole III. Its services include site excavation, drilling and blasting, laying fiber-optic cable and clearing snow for the City of Winnipeg. Often, the company will train workers on-site and help them move up the ladder. "If somebody is going to excel and we see that they could be in surveying or project management there's all sorts of courses now that can be taken to strengthen that position," Munro says. The lifestyle can be tough. Job sites are often in remote areas where workers stay at construction camps for 21 days at a time, and Munro says if you're a family person you need to have solid support at home. Her own husband, Burt Lancon, has been that support for her and their teenage daughter, Steele — who got a strong name from her parents as well as strong role models. Munro says the industry still isn't as politically correct as more traditional jobs for women, but as she tells workers of both genders, you've got to "suck it up, buttercup." "We can be part of the change or we don't participate, and I'd rather be part of the change than not. Maybe it doesn't go as fast as I'd like it some days but you know it is happening." There's a lot of camaraderie in construction and Munro says she enjoys getting away from the business of running a business and visiting job sites. But she's not tempted to hop on a packer or dozer, although the equipment has improved along with the atmosphere. "When I was there you didn't have the rollover protection, you didn't have a cab. You were out in the baking sun." ❚ women at work Breaking the mold in heavy construction "We can be part of the change or we don't participate, and I'd rather be part of the change than not. Maybe it doesn't go as fast as I'd like it some days but you know it is happening."

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