How Ottawa's milder winter is helping contractors get more work done

Ottawa's mild winter may have shortened the canal skating and skiing season, but it's had some perks for those who work in the construction industry.

This winter has been mostly mild, with base temperatures not reaching –20 C yet — and it's also been dry.

According to Environment Canada, Ottawa has so far seen 96.3 cm of winter precipitation like snow and ice pellets since Dec. 1. During the same timeframe last year, Ottawa saw about 268.7 cm.

For the most part construction can continue all year round, according to the Ottawa Construction Association, but extreme weather conditions can affect how much work gets done.

"It just impacts productivity and impacts performance of equipment. So what you're seeing is they can deliver more construction per day when it's easy going than when it's extreme," said John DeVries, president and general manager of the Ottawa Construction Association.

"You can imagine with the major snowfall, you got to start with the clearing away things and moving things, so you really get less construction done when you gotta spend an hour or two in the morning getting everything ready," he said.

John DeVries, president of Ottawa Construction Association, says warmer weather means more productivity and savings on construction sites. (Ashley Burke/CBC News)

That productivity trickles down to the actual worker, DeVries said, because their bodies can get more done when the temperature isn't as frigid.

There could be savings on top of that productivity.

"The major construction sites ... they'll have tarped-in areas for heating, so I imagine there's a significant saving in propane heating going on this year."

Contractors praising easy winter 

In the city's west end, roofer Byron Bustillo has been busy working on a large project for the past few months.

This winter, he's been able to work most days. Last year, Bustillo says he could only work two to three days a week — sometimes less.

"Technically, I would have had to have stopped at some point during the winter because things start to break," he said

"Whereas this winter, it's just been mild, so we've just been continuing and looks like we'll be done just before the springtime."

Bustillo said the lack of frozen precipitation makes his job a lot safer too.

"It just makes it slippery, like you're on a rope ... So when it's slippery like that, you really just gotta take things slow," he said.

It's not just those who work outdoors. Severe Contracting takes on residential construction jobs, specializing in basements, second dwellings and custom builds.

Steeven Severe, operations manager and CEO of Severe Contracting, says he's been able to avoid pushing some jobs to the summer because of the mild weather. (Francis Ferland/CBC )

This winter, the company has been able to continue jobs it usually would have to push to the summer.

"We usually stop cutting windows out in November, but because of the mild weather, we can continue to do it basically up to now," said Steeven Severe, operations manager and CEO

Severe said he's also been able to complete second entrances, interlock and outdoor fixing work, all thanks to the mild winter.