Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 118

Did You Know?
Thirteen DCC employees received both the NATO Medal
and the Canadian Peacekeeping Medal for their time
served with Operation Palladium (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
The General Service Medal is awarded to non-CF
Canadian citizens who deploy outside of Canada to
provide support in the presence of armed enemy. As of
December 2011, 63 DCC employees have received this
medal for their services in Afghanistan.
DCC also encouraged staff at all levels to work closely
with their DND counterparts—with excellent results.
In June 2006, for example, DCC staff at the Cold Lake
site office and the 4 Wing Construction Engineering
Squadron received the Wing Commander’s Commendation
for their joint efforts in support of Exercise Maple Flag,
a technologically advanced, live-fire Air Force exercise
that brought fighter aircraft from Canadian and Allied
nations together to train in the northern Alberta site. DCC
and CE staff were given less than four months to prepare
a camp that could accommodate more than 5,000
participants—a timeline that they achieved. These
types of exercises continue to be carried on today with
DCC’s support.
DCC also partners with other organizations involved with
the national defence mandate, including PWGSC.
DCC’s downtown Ottawa site office works in tandem
with Public Works, as the latter manages many DND
facilities that are spread around the city. In 2003–04, this
took the form of a project for the Canadian Emergency
Preparedness College. DCC and PWGSC had a very
short construction window to fit up a building on Heron
Road (previously known as the Federal Studies Centre).
An entire floor that had been sunk to accommodate
computers had to be filled in—and since concrete takes
time to cure, there was a potential deadline problem.
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DCC’s solution involved sequential tendering, using a
Quick Response Tender to jumpstart the concrete portion
while the main project was out to tender. Strong
cooperation between DCC and its partners at PWGSC
enabled the project to finish on time and on budget.
As well, DCC has continued its strong working relation-
ship with the Canadian Forces Housing Agency (CFHA).
Charged with providing housing services for military
families, CFHA has relied since the 1990s on DCC to
support its ongoing recapitalization program for major
renovations across the country. DCC was also involved
with the CFHA’s new construction at CFB Wainwright (in
which DCC used a specialized two-phase contracting
process to accommodate the Department’s project
approval process and tight completion deadline) and its
development of a life cycle planning framework for
managing the entire housing portfolio. This latter project
was of particular importance, as it enabled CFHA to
review its entire housing stock and consider its direction
for the next 20 years.
Employees at all levels in DCC are also involved in both
construction and non-construction industry associations
across its service lines, helping to keep the organization
up to date with changes in the industry while contributing
expertise to industry iss