Civil Engineering In Canada
Civil Engineering In Canada
(OP)
Hi all!
I was rather puzzled by the results of a recent internet search for consultants in Canada. The largest civil engineering consultant I found had 700 people and was founded 50 years ago.
It is enought to try the British site of ICE (http://www.nceplus.co.uk/consultants_file/az_home/) and to aquire an idea of how large the consulting civil engineers can get (some of the companies listed in Consultants 2001 file are American).
I know that "large" is not everything about a consultant but still, I believe that this feature can reflect to a certain extent how civil engineering is doing in a certain country.
If my perception is right and civil engineering in Canada is indeed very fragmented (I am generalising slightly to the whole construction industry there), why do you think this is?
Thank you.
I was rather puzzled by the results of a recent internet search for consultants in Canada. The largest civil engineering consultant I found had 700 people and was founded 50 years ago.
It is enought to try the British site of ICE (http://www.nceplus.co.uk/consultants_file/az_home/) and to aquire an idea of how large the consulting civil engineers can get (some of the companies listed in Consultants 2001 file are American).
I know that "large" is not everything about a consultant but still, I believe that this feature can reflect to a certain extent how civil engineering is doing in a certain country.
If my perception is right and civil engineering in Canada is indeed very fragmented (I am generalising slightly to the whole construction industry there), why do you think this is?
Thank you.





RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
So, can you name similar size companies in Canada?
By the way, as a matter of interest, do you work in Canada?
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
Thanks for your reply.
Please could tell me how's the civil engineering market at the moment around where you work. I would appreciate if you specified the field as well if you think it's relevant(transportation, water, buildings, environment etc).
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
I much appreciate the information you provided.
Here in UK the situation is much the same. In transportation for instance there is a lot going on and the government plans to invest £180 bilion in the next 10 years in improvement and maintenance of the road infrastructure.
Such surges of work have lead to shortage of skills in the industry. Companies are recruiting staff from abroad and the next step I assume is to send work abroad benefiting in the same time from cheaper labour.
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
I don't know that Canada has any firms based there that compare in size to the ones you mentioned. As Waterguy says, most of the Civil work is done by small to medium sized firms.
I understand your dilemna, but I think it is mostly a semantic issue with regard to revenues being related to Civil works. For instance, if some large firm does a power plant, that could be classified in several different areas, but would certainly be considered a civil work. Is most of the work associated with it classical "Civil Engineering"? No. It is much more diverse than that.
If you are looking for a job as a "Civil Engineer", you possibilities are only limited by you! You can fit in a small design firm, a consultancy, a construction firm, or in government practice. In any of those you may practice Civil Engineering or any of its many subdisciplines. Though educated as a Civil Engineer, my experience and practice is in structures and structural/construction materials, much of it related to failure investigation. The firm I work for is a major international engineering firm, yet what I do is a relatively small subset of the firm's practice. Most of the engineers in our firm are degreed in Civil Engineering, though we have Mechanical, Electrical, Structural, Metallurgical, and Welding Engineers as well as Architects, Geologists, Environmental Scientists and the like.
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
Bogdan
RE: Civil Engineering In Canada
Yes, Canada has some very large firms - look at ENR list of International Consultants.
SNC-Lavalin
Agra (Monenco formerly combined with others)
Acres
Golder
besides the ones stated before. Not all have thousands of employees at each office - but aggregate, the above may have in excess of 5000.