Our Facilitators

Partner, Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP 

Bailey is the Vice-Chair of the Manitoba Bar Association Construction Law Section and a partner at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP. She focuses her practice on all areas of the construction industry and acts for owners, general contractors and subcontractors in construction disputes and other construction projects including tendering and procurement, contract review and drafting and workplace safety and health. 

Bailey’s practice is also focused in the areas of civil and commercial litigation, administrative law and professionally regulated self-governing professionals. Bailey acts as counsel in proceedings before all levels of court in Manitoba, arbitrators, adjudicators, labour boards and human rights tribunals. She also acts as council in alternative dispute resolution forums such as private mediations and judicially assisted dispute resolution (JADR).

Senior Principal, Vice President - Institutional, Kasian

A leading Canadian architect and considered a visionary in his field, Bill has 40 years of experience in architecture, overseeing the design and construction of over 750 buildings worldwide. 

Bill’s accomplishments include the University of Calgary’s Taylor Family Digital Library; National Music Centre, Calgary; Calgary Courts Centre; Guangzhou Planetarium, China; Alder Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois; Grande Prairie Library and Art Gallery, Red Deer Performing Arts Centre and Simon Fraser University Trottier Observatory.  As a Senior Principal at Kasian, he leads the delivery of architectural, strategic planning (master planning and programming), and interior planning and urban planning services.

Bonnie is a highly driven, results oriented professional with over 25 years of construction experience. She is an excellent communicator resulting in on-time delivery of objectives and cost-effective utilization of resources. Her ability to manage multiple project teams and lead collaborative efforts results in excellence at every phase of the project lifecycle.

‍Bonnie advanced quickly through various positions in construction having started her career sweeping saw dust off floors.  After achieving a Carpentry diploma, she became a Foreman, Project Coordinator, Estimator, Business Owner, Project Manager and RRC Construction Project Management Instructor.  Her unique experience as a Subcontractor, Prime Contractor, and Owner has taught her the importance of a cooperative environment.  

‍Bonnie enjoys learning and mentoring.  She is also a Certified Professional Coach.

Brian Soutar is a professional engineer and professional quantity surveyor with over 40 years of project management, procurement, design, contract management, estimating and quantity surveying experience. He has worked on commercial, institutional, industrial, mining, transportation, water development and multi-family residential projects in Canada, the US, the UK and Africa. Half of his career has been in the private sector, where he has worked for construction companies in project manager, estimator and construction superintendent roles; for design firms in project manager and branch manager roles; and for developers in project manager roles. In the public sector he has held cost manager, project manager, director of major capital projects, and executive director positions. He led four portfolios for Alberta Infrastructure: procurement, the Project Management Office, cost management, and capital planning.

Brian believes passionately in collaboration and has served on many multi-sector teams, including as chair of the Institute for BIM in Canada, and the Canadian Construction Document Committee’s task force to create the standard contract for Integrated Project Delivery.

Special Projects, Company Wide Operations Lead, PCL Constructors Canada Inc.

Chad Keuler is the Company Wide Operations Lead of Special Projects at PCL Constructors Canada Inc. for Manitoba and Northern Ontario with 15 years experience. Chad joined PCL in 2006, having previously worked in the consulting side of the industry for five years, and has a thorough understanding of manufacturing and coordinating drawings, contract administration and working with owners and clients through the entire design development process. Chad provides leadership to the special projects department, which specializes in tenant improvement, new builds, metal buildings and renovation projects under $15 million. He pays great attention to detail, is highly organized and believes in effective collaboration.

Chad also believes in giving back to his community and is involved in many local community organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, End Homelessness Housing Supply Group, Boys and Girls Club, United Way of Winnipeg and Red Road Lodge. Chad strives to create a positive and productive work environment and is dedicated to upholding PCL's vision of providing excellence, leadership and unsurpassed value for its clients.

Operations Manager, Graham Construction

Chris Erbus is the Operations Manager with Graham Construction. Chris started work in the construction industry as a carpenter and quickly learned he enjoyed managing teams on various types of projects. While completing his apprenticeship, Chris studied at Red River College and completed the Building Construction Technician program, Drafting/CAD and is a graduate of WCA’s Building Supervisors for Tomorrow program. To date he has completed his Gold Seal Certification as Superintendent and his LEED Green Associate accreditation.

Working on many high-profile jobsites and marquee projects, including True North Square, Ikea and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has helped develop Chris’ skills at schedule development and planning, which is now one of his areas of expertise. He believes the delivery of a successful project, on-time, incident-free and with a high level of quality, hinges on how well-planned it is. He also believes in constant improvement and the need to embrace change, new technology and techniques. Chris helped roll out the Last Planner® System in PCL’s Winnipeg District, has contributed to the development of PCL Manitoba’s Superintendents guide and has worked on other internal Lean initiatives.

Teaching and mentoring is a large part of what Chris does and he enjoys helping others develop their passion for construction. Chris is a judge each year at Skills Manitoba and the Red River College Carpentry competitions to help promote excellence in the trades. Community involvement is also important to Chris and he is involved with the United Way GenNext and regularly volunteers at Winnipeg Harvest. Leading by example is one of his core values.

Director of Development -  UBC Properties Trust

Craig is currently the Director of Development at UBC Properties Trust, where he acts as the owner’s project managers for all new capital projects at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus and Kelowna region.

Craig stated his construction career as a steel stud and drywall tradesman working on some of Vancouver’s most significant projects pre-Olympics like the Richmond oval, BC place renovation and Queen Elizabeth Theatre renovation. Craig then joined Task Construction Management, a boutique CM firm managing projects such as the Vernon Library and South Surrey Rec Center. In 2012 Craig joined Bird Construction where he was part of the team that delivered the new UBC Student Union Building, Kelowna RCMP and the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre @ UBC Vancouver.

Craig holds a degree in Construction Management and Diploma of Technology as a graduate of the Architectural Building Engineering Technologies program, both at BCIT.

Craig is a LEED Green Associate, A registered Professional Quantity Surveyor (PQS) and has earned his Gold Seal in project management.

Craig is currently leading exciting projects such as the UBCO Interdisciplinary Collaboration & Innovation (ICI) Building, which is a 150,000 square foot research facility, as well as the new UBC Downtown Kelowna Campus.

Dean Slater is a Professional Engineer APEGA Life Member with 40 years’ experience in the construction and development industry.  He is a Past President of the Calgary Construction Association (CCA) and has held various executive level positions working in General Contracting, Development, and the Alberta Health Services (AHS) project management group.

Dean has worked on many significant projects in Alberta including Calgary’s Petro-Canada (Suncor) Centre, the Olympic Saddledome, the Hyatt Hotel, Telus Convention Centre, SMART Technologies Building, major hospital expansions, and the South Health Campus. His roles spanned estimating and construction management as both the General Contractor with CANA (Vice-President) and Ledcor Construction, Project Manager on the Smart Technologies Building, and Project Owner’s representative / Vice-President with AHS and Triovest Realty Advisors.

Retiring in January 2018, Dean has embarked on a new role as a fundraising volunteer with Wellspring Calgary – a cancer support group providing programs and education to individuals diagnosed with cancer.  Due in part to his volunteer efforts, Dean was recognized in 2018 with CCA’s “Person of the Year” award.

DSH Consulting

With a comprehensive and varied education background, learning has been at the core of her career.   As former President of the Southern Interior Construction Association in BC for 22 years, liaising with the buyers of construction services, architects, engineers and contractors in advocacy and education brings a solid base to her expertise.  In addition, her experience as the owner representative for the construction of the new Clubhouse for the Kelowna Yacht Club has provided additional perspective. She has been fortunate to work with the Alberta Construction Association to facilitate industry dialogue on “Optimizing the Flow of Money” and “Non-Standard Contract Clauses and their Costs”.  Through these experiences, with a lot of passion and enthusiasm, Debbie is able to bring both knowledge and insight into her work and presentations for the construction industry.

Managing Senior Principal, Stantec

Elisa Brandts, AAA, OAA, NSAA, FRAIC, is the managing senior principal for our British Columbia Buildings business centre. Her role combines senior level team leadership, client liaising and account management, operations and studio management of offices, and managing significant projects—particularly large-scale alternate delivery work.

Elisa is passionate about creating livable, sustainable cities, and she works to support the design teams in the transit and civic sectors to achieve this goal. She’s committed to building strong client relationships and is an advocate for Lean design and integrated project delivery, having led teams on multiple design-builds and public-private partnerships.