Aecon’s Beck saluted as Best of the Best

On a night recognizing the Best of the Best, the Toronto Construction Association (TCA) found a worthy recipient for its prestigious Donald P. Giffin Sr. Construction Industry Achievement Award, honouring Aecon Group founder and executive chairman John Beck for 50 years of achievements.

It took TCA immediate past chairman Romeo Milano a couple of minutes to read a list of Beck’s accomplishments during the awards ceremony, featured as part of the TCA’s annual meeting, held at Toronto’s Woodbine Racetrack on Jan. 28.

Beck has been at the helm as Aecon and its predecessor companies have participated in many of Canada’s landmark projects including Highway 407, the CN Tower, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Halifax Shipyards.

In a 50-year career, Beck without hesitation names the 407 as his signature accomplishment.

"One of the walls in my office is covered with pictures of Highway 407, from the time we developed it to the time we opened it," Beck said after receiving his award. "That is my biggest pride and joy. I was personally involved in making that happen from beginning to end, and I am really proud of that. I think it opened up the concept of P3s (public-private partnerships) in Ontario — people realized, let the private sector do it, the private sector will deliver it."

During the late 1980s and early ’90s, financing the 407 proved beyond the means of the Ontario government under premiers David Peterson and Bob Rae. With Beck working as president, a consortium working as Canadian Highways International Corporation (CHIC) developed a plan that would use private resources to undertake the build. In 1994, the Ontario government gave CHIC the go-ahead as its private-sector partner to design, build, operate and maintain the $1-billion express toll route.

"We started P3s in the mid-’80s when they were in their infancy," said Beck. "There was a lot of resistance from stakeholders, and all of those stakeholders are now our partners as we move forward.

"So I think what we did through the development of P3s is open up a completely new opportunity where governments didn’t necessarily have the money to do the work, or the complete expertise. We were able to partner with the government to bring what their skills were and us ours, and bring private-sector money and advance the ability to develop that infrastructure that we might have had to wait a long time for."

Beck is currently a member of the board of directors of PPP Canada and the Ontario Financing Authority. He also serves on the Advisory Council for the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and is a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. In 2013, Beck was named P3 Champion of the Year by the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

Assessing the TCA award, Beck said, "Because I’ve been at it so long, I think they’re recognizing all the different involvements I’ve had with all the different aspects of the construction industry, from sub-contractors to contractors to developers in public-private partnerships, so all of these things have happened over time, and I think they recognized that I have been a part of that, number one, and number two, I’ve always gone to the next step in terms of the growth of our company.

"There have been some good times, there have been some bad times, but generally speaking, we have moved forward, we have never stopped trying to take the next step, staying ahead of the curve and figuring out what is next in our industry and being part of the continuing growth, those are the core reasons."

After five decades in the business, Beck says he is still excited by new possibilities, by the next big idea.

"For me it is always what’s next, exploring frontiers of what we can do better, how we can do better, not only in Canada but also exporting that knowledge and technology to other countries that can benefit from that," he said. "It is always the next idea, and often in partnership with some of our competitors, in corsortia. And sharing knowledge, and getting input from others who do things better than we do, sometimes from overseas, we teach them our culture of doing things the right way, always being curious."

Other winners at the Best of the Best awards included:

■TCIC Chancellor’s Award of Excellence — Compton Cho, Bird Construction

■Community Leader Award — Stantec Architecture

■Directors Honour Roll — Kim McKinney, Chris Welch, Scott Wylie, Paul Lisanti, Ian Steer

■Distinguished Volunteer Award — Ian Steer, Aluma Systems

■Green Building Culture Award — Walsh Canada

■Innovation Award — Hilti (Canada) Corporation

■Outstanding Safety Culture Award (2 winners) — Alberici Constructors, Deep Foundations Contractors

■Project Achievement (Large) — PCL Constructors Canada, Humber River Hospital

■Project Achievement (Medium) — Alberici Constructors, Bruce Power Fire Training Facility

■Project Achievement (Small) — Walsh Canada, Toronto Pearson International Airport, (SIA) West Infill Slab

■Sean P. McKenna Young Construction Leaders Award — Sarah Butler, EllisDon