PCL celebrates 100 years by reflecting on its past

A century ago, a small town Saskatchewan builder named Ernie Poole launched what is today being celebrated as the country’s largest contracting organization. This year marks the 100th anniversary of PCL Family of Companies.

PCL FAMILY OF COMPANIES

PCL’s North American headquarters are based in Edmonton, Alta., not that far from the small Poole Construction job shack (right) that founder Ernie Poole and his staff worked out of back in 1922. Meanwhile, one division of the PCL family of companies has completed work on the Syncrude Plant 18-2 – Aromatic Saturation Unit (above) but is planning to be involved in numerous heavy industrial projects in the oil sands of Fort McMurray, Alta. in the coming months and years.

Ernie Poole started by building small Prairie schools, towns

Staff Writer

In 1906, the company was started as E.E. Poole General Contractor in the small town of Stoughton, Sask.

“We specialized in building brick schools, town halls, banks and stores throughout Saskatchewan and into Manitoba,” Poole is quoted as saying in a PCL history book.

“Over the next few years the work was fairly profitable because the local small contractors could not handle it and the larger contractors in Regina did not pay it any attention,” he added.

In 1948, Poole turned over the helm of his booming business to his sons George and John. And in turn, the Poole brothers sold the business to the company’s employees in 1977.

Two years later, the employee-owned company became known as PCL Construction Ltd., and subsequently evolved into what is today known as the PCL family of companies.

With its North American headquarters in Edmonton, Alta., PCL is now a group of independent construction companies working out of offices in 25 locations across Canada, the U.S. and the Bahamas with more than 2,000 full-time staff and upwards of 4,000 trades people.

Through the past century in construction, PCL has evolved from building prairie school houses, to producing about $4 billion (Cdn) in annual construction products ranging from large health institutions and entire towns, to magnificent skyscrapers, bridges and industrial plants, not to mention countless shopping malls and commercial projects.

In fact, the company contributes to three main sectors of construction industry.

These divisions include building projects such as the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre and Thompson Rivers University student housing project in Kamloops currently under construction. There’s the civil or infrastructure division, which creates roads and bridges – one of the most notable projects being the Alex Fraser Bridge in Delta. And in the third division, PCL is playing a key role in the multiple large-scales industrial construction projects such as those coming out of the oil sands in northern Alberta.

To mark the firm’s 100th anniversary, PCL has developed a comprehensive anniversary program including a history book set for release to employees and clients later this year.