Sarah Holland
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 14/01) - Over 70 years of construction was celebrated last Friday.

PCL Construction Management Inc. held an anniversary party in Yellowknife as the company marked 30 years in the city and over 70 years since the first NWT project. In the 1930s the company took part in installing telegraph buildings in Fort Smith, Yellowknife and Great Bear Lake.

Premier Stephen Kakfwi accepts a decorative knife as a gift from PCL's vice-president and emcee for the evening Ric Forest. PCL celebrated 30 years in Yellowknife. Over 70 years ago the company began building telegraph stations, its first job in the NWT. - Robert Dall/NNSL photo

PCL was originally Poole Construction, founded in 1906 by a Saskatchewan man named Ernest Poole. In 1935 the company's headquarters moved to Edmonton. In 1957 Poole Construction began work on the East 3 camp, the future site of Inuvik. When PCL recently rated their 20 most significant projects in history, East 3 was on the list.

The Poole family sold the business to employees in 1977, and currently there are approximately 1,200 employee shareholders.

Friday's celebrations included presentations from PCL's founder Bob Stollery, current chairman of the board Joe Thompson, city administrator Max Hall and Premier Stephen Kakfwi. A letter was sent on behalf of Western Arctic MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew.

Premier Kakfwi spoke of PCL's "legacy of quality" and their consistent use of Northern workers, suppliers and businesses.

Stollery and Thompson regaled the crowd with stories of the past. Stollery related his experiences visiting the Inuvik building site. Stollery didn't know the site's location and neither did his pilot, Mike Zubko. Zubko picked a spot and landed, claiming it was the place. This spot was actually about 90 kilometres from the site. Stollery did eventually arrive safely.

The company's Northern resume includes such projects as the BHP accommodations complex at Lac de Gras, the Bellanca Building upgrade and tenant fit-out, the Northwestel Tower and the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife and Mangilaluk school in Tuktoyaktuk.

Current projects include Yellowknife's correctional facility and arena.

PCL operates 21 district offices in North America. The Yellowknife office became the fifth, behind Edmonton, Regina, Calgary and Winnipeg.

There are 1,600 salaried staff and 5,500 hourly tradespeople.

At the recent fiscal year end, the company reported earnings of $3.2 billion, and currently there are approximately 1,600 projects underway.

Sixty per cent of the company's work is in Canada and 40 per cent is in the U.S.

PCL's most northerly project was a parking garage in Eureka, while the most southerly project was construction of an inukshuk for the World's Fair in Australia.