October 15, 2009

Mechanical Contractors Association of Canada joins BIM council

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

The Mechanical Contractors Association of Canada (MCAC), which represents close to 1,000 companies across Canada, has opted to join the Canada BIM Council.

“Building Information Modeling is going to be of paramount importance in the foreseeable future,” said president Richard McKeagan.

“Mechanical contractors are going to be required to understand this process and work with it on a regular basis.”

MCAC is one of three national associations that have either joined the council or are about to do so.

The others are Construction Specifications Canada and the Canadian Construction Association.

McKeagan said MCAC does not have any hard data on utilization of building information modeling by mechanical contractors.

“What I hear is everything from ‘what is BIM’ to ‘yeah, we’ve been using BIM for quite some time’ and everything in between.”

The MCAC board of directors gave the nod of approval at the organization’s recent national conference in San Francisco. Association members are engaged in such disciplines as plumbing, heating, ventilation, airconditioning, controls systems and fire suppression, primarily within the ICI sector.

“We’re going to be one of the major players when it comes to BIM,” McKeagan said.

The BIM council already includes mechanical contracting firms Modern Niagara Group, one of the largest such firms in Canada which provides services across Ontario, the Atlantic provinces, Manitoba and Alberta and Vanguard Mechanical Inc., a Toronto-based plumbing and heating contractor.

Print | Email | Comment