The Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating’s (CIPH) 92nd annual business conference has come and gone with a record number of new delegates. The event was held from June 16-18 at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort, Kelowna, B.C.
Over the course of the four-day conference, 319 delegates heard from keynote speakers, participated in excursions and networked with industry friends. Of the 319 delegates, this was the first conference for 72 of them.
This year’s theme — The Future of Unity — marked the new beginning as the association turns the page on its first 90 years, according to CIPH. The conference started with a special reception for all the new delegates, featuring its annual networking game.
This year, all of the new delegates had to go around the room and find each board member to get their signature. The lucky winner of this year’s event was Plumbing & HVAC magazine’s very own Chris Luttrell, national sales director.
Directly following the new delegates’ reception, the annual welcome dinner was held, with the official kick-off given by Jason MacKenzie, CIPH British Columbia region president and managing partner at Equipco Ltd.
The first keynote presentation was given by Jason Brolund, West Kelowna’s fire rescue chief. He joked that he was likely to be the only person who was happy to see the wet and overcast weather that Kelowna was experiencing during the four-day conference, as it helped push back the wildfires.
The jam-packed room got to listen to the behind-the-scenes retelling of the disastrous 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire. In the span of one night, Brolund was fighting, alongside his team of fire rescuers, a career’s worth of fires. For some of the firefighters on their team, it was the very first fire they were fighting against. In total, five districts were affected by this giant fire, and their fire department was described as being the largest in the country at that time. “We went to war,” he shared during his presentation.
More than half of the staff, including Brolund’s family, were told they had to move their home. Some of the fires were held back using garden hoses at the back door of some of these residents. In total, there were hundreds of homes lost during that wildfire season.
Business Education
Two more business sessions were held during the day. The first was on Potential — How to Connect What’s Already There for Exponential Impact by Pam August, president of Connecting Potential. She highlighted how when “we connect our potential, we increase our impact, influence and ability to make a difference.”
During her presentation, someone’s phone went off, which had the entire crowd turning towards the culprit and giggling. It has been a longstanding policy that if someone’s phone rings during a session, then the individual would have to pay $100 toward the no-phone fee.
Following a brief networking break, the second business session kicked off with a presentation by Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, on The Stakes are High for Monetary Policy.
Antunes spoke on where the Canadian economy currently stands and stated that it is frail beneath the surface. Although we are slightly better positioned in terms of growth compared to the United States. While the U.S. isn’t expected to enter into any kind of recession, when the U.S. adopts a protectionist mentality (like it did when Donald Trump was president), it can mean that Canada’s economy is losing out.
In Canada, the number of businesses that are filing for bankruptcy is skyrocketing. Some of this may be a healthy reshuffling of business in Canada, but the good news is that the number has started to come down a bit since 2023.
Next on the agenda, delegates were able to participate in one of three optional activities. First, members were able to participate in the annual CIPH golf tournament at the Bear Golf Course. This year’s tournament was brought down to nine holes due to time constraints and weather concerns. The second option was to zipline with views of Kalamalka Lake. The group wasn’t confident the excursion was going to happen as a pretty dramatic thunderstorm was rolling through the British Columbian interior with lots of hail falling from the sky. But after waiting out the storm, within 30 minutes, the first person was able to fly through the seven-station course.
The last optional activity featured a private charter boat tour, where delegates were able to see Kelowna and Okanagan Lake. While this tour seemed to see just as much water in the boat as was underneath it (due to the storm rolling through), delegates were still able to enjoy a pint while sitting beneath a protective roof and chatting amongst industry pals.
The night ended with its annual reception and dinner. For this year’s conference, the industry took over King Taps Lakeside restaurant in Kelowna. Local musician, Jon Bos Band was the evening’s entertainment.
Green industrial revolution
The last keynote speaker of the conference was Bob MacDonald, science journalist and host of CBC Quirks and Quarks. His presentation was titled The Future is Now and highlighted ways in which Canada can capture renewable energy, such as solar and wind, “A new green industrial revolution is upon us.”
He referred to oil as the elephant in the room, saying that an incredible amount of energy can be produced with such a small quantity. MacDonald suggested that there may be another solution with fossil fuels and getting energy from them rather than from burning them. “It’s the leftovers that are the problem,” shared MacDonald. “Taking the hydrogen out of the ground and leaving the carbon in the ground.” He goes on to explore the opportunities that hydrogen fuel could have in several different markets, including aviation. “You are an important part of the next revolution — a green revolution,” explains MacDonald. “I am optimistic that we can innovate through what is next to come.”
During the annual general meeting, Sean Kelly, vice president and general manager of Emco Corp, was elected as the 77th chair of the board for 2024-2025. Dave Hammond, president and general manager of AO Smith, now the immediate past chair and treasurer, ceremoniously passed along the gavel.
Brent Cornelissen, OS&B, is now the vice chair, Norm Bajwa, senior vice president of plumbing sales at Bartle & Gibson Co. Ltd, is the first vice chair, and Julie Storey, president at Boshart Industries, is the second vice chair.
Several awards were given out during the conference, including the Canadian Hydronics Council (CHC) Award of Merit, which was given to Gilles Legault, hydronics manager at CB Supplies, and the Golden Leaf Award, which was given to Chemfax.
The CHC Award of Merit recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to the advancement of the hydronics industry in Canada; the Golden Leaf Award, awarded by the CIPH manufacturers’ agents council, is given annually to honour a CIPH member who best supports the efforts of sales agencies.
The 93rd CIPH annual business meeting will be held at the Fairmont Tremblant, Mont Tremblant, Que, from June 29 until July 1, 2025.