Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Stability a rainmaker
Crisis-resistant economy drawing leading lights
JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image
California recruit Michael Erlanger, left, looks over plans with CEO Scott Stirton at the Smith Carter offices in Winnipeg.
The Manitoba Association of Business Economists is holding its annual outlook conference on the provincial economy today and the message, as it has been for much of the last decade, will likely be about stability.
But with dramatic changes occurring in economies around the world, it will be interesting to see if that native stability itself might become a growth-driver in and of itself in Manitoba.
It may already be happening.
With the collapse of the overheated housing and commercial real estate sector in the United States, professional-services firms have suffered along with construction firms and building supply and raw materials distributors.
For instance, large consulting architectural firms in the United States have seen their staffs cut in half.
That pool of sophisticated professional talent can recognize systemic change when they see it and they might start looking further afield than they had previously been accustomed to doing.
In fact, local architectural firms are starting to benefit from just that.
Who knows if it will become an enduring trend, but it is certainly a new and interesting dynamic for this city.
Michael Erlanger, 48, may be the face of that new phenomenon.
A veteran architect from Los Angeles, Erlanger started working at Smith Carter in Winnipeg in June. He is one of five people -- 20 per cent of the firm's new hires in 2009 -- to move to Winnipeg from elsewhere this year.
Erlanger laughs enthusiastically about how it's mostly Winnipeggers who are surprised at this.
After a 15-year career at the Los Angeles office of Gensler, one of the largest architectural firms in the world, and another 10 years with his own firm, Erlanger has broad professional experience in one of the busiest cities in the world.
But the economic collapse in the United States forced him to close his firm that had grown to 15 people and to look around for other opportunities.
It's true, Erlanger did have a connection to the city. His wife, Wendy, is a Winnipegger who moved to California more than 15 years ago to teach and they had regularly visited and eventually bought a cottage in Manitoba.
"I knew there were good things happening here from the social and cultural aspect, but I had never worked here," he said. "I was blown away by the sophistication and talent and the worldliness of the people who work in this office."
In its unique way, Smith Carter has benefitted from the stability of the local market and parlayed that into an international practice that actually relies on the firm's internal stability to grow.
And Smith Carter has doubled in size over the last five years.
Its work on the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health on Arlington Street more than a decade ago leveraged the firm into the forefront of the highly specialized field of containment labs and mission-critical facilities for medical, defence and institutional clients around the world.
But it's not just technical skills that are required to win those kinds of projects.
"We specialize in a number of areas where we need people to stay (with the firm) to build a depth of knowledge," said Scott Stirton, Smith Carter's CEO. "If people leave we have a hard time building that depth of knowledge."
Not only is it important for the firm's knowledge base, it is also becoming an important commercial consideration.
"Now, when we respond to requests for proposals, there are key questions about demonstrating corporate stability and financial stability," he said. "It is not just a feel-good thing. It is very important to our business model."
Heather Smith, who works on business development for the firm, said, "Most RFPs (requests for proposals) ask if the firm has been forced to lay people off over the past 15 years because of lack of work. Of the firms we compete with, we are the only ones who can say we have not."
Smith Carter and others may be hiring professionals from outside the area, but that doesn't mean locally trained people are losing out.
Art Martin, a principal at Stantec in Winnipeg and vice-president of the Manitoba Association of Architects, said the provincial licensing body has never registered so many new professionals.
"When I graduated from the U of M in 1979 there was nothing happening here," said Martin. "Now the numbers of registrants are way up."
And so is the volume of business. He said it is not unusual for Stantec's overworked Winnipeg office to farm out jobs to other Stantec offices throughout North America.
The slow and steady dynamic to the provincial economy has served the province well and one of these days it may even become a sexy story.
80
the number of people working at Smith Carter's city office when it opened its new building five years ago
130
the number of people now working at the new building
170
total Smith Carter head count including Ottawa, Calgary and Atlanta offices
25
number of professionals the firm has hired so far this year
26
number of new architects registered in Manitoba in 2005
43
number of new architects registered in Manitoba so far in 2009.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 5, 2009 B5
- Rate this

-
-
We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.
You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.
Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.
The comment period for this story has ended.
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Business
-
CON >< CUSSIONS
Examining hockey head injuries
-
Random Acts of Kindness
Your encounters with goodness
-
Open Secrets
Red River students mine government data banks
-
Ski with WFP
Register here to ski Asessippi with the Winnipeg Free Press
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
Maureen Scurfield offers life advice
Poll
Most Popular
- Winnipeg Sun editor charged with child pornography
- Arrest warrant issued for 'Laughing Girl'
- Elderly man dies in rollover yesterday
- Meth-ring charges should be dropped: former Bomber
- Porn actress Joslyn James releases sexually graphic messages she says came from Tiger Woods
- Move, then be quiet about cash
- Teens urged to 'pee in a cup'
- Winnipeg man faces new charges in child-porn case
- Car thieves arrested, charged in shooting
- Do you prefer tap or bottled water?
- She's not laughing anymore
- Crusader up for Nobel Prize
- Mild again, but enjoy it while it lasts
- Freedom for Li expected
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- Off-duty officer stops assault on Transit driver
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- Winnipeg Sun editor charged with child pornography
- Grand Forks declares flood emergency
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- Olympic-sized hypocrisy
- Crusader up for Nobel Prize
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- Not wrong, just illegal
- Students could be punished
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
- Mr. Matas a worthy nominee
- She's not laughing anymore
- What should happen to two teachers who performed a sexually suggestive dance routine in front of students?
- Oprah's on, and so is our Jon!
- Judge rules no cameras allowed at Sinclair inquest
- She's not laughing anymore
- Province gives Greyhound $3M
- Move, then be quiet about cash
- Ottawa will pay to airlift supplies to reserves caught short by early winter-road melt
- Stone Temple Pilots headline Rock on the Range
- Missing BlackBerry held priceless memories
- Teens urged to 'pee in a cup'
- Racist jokes for rights museum didn't work for me
- Trailer park residents staying put
- She's not laughing anymore
- Freedom for Li expected
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- City may open diamond lanes to more users
- He can escape her verbal abuse
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- Play nice in your neighbour's dust
- Liberals say cutting MP mailings would save $10 million a year
- Eagles, Dixie Chicks to play stadium in June
- Charges considered in machete attack
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- She's not laughing anymore
- Students could be punished
- Police shoot and kill suspect
- Freedom for Li expected
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
- Wielding a weapon costs a life
- More ominous issue underlies Youth for Christ flap
- Mounties hook ice-fishers for open beer
- Canadian women's hockey team stunned by reaction to post-gold party
- Winnipeg Sun editor charged with child pornography
- Russell is a Prairie jewel
- High Canadian dollar here to stay, economists say
- Ottawa taking control of native band's funds
- Tories extend amnesty for gun registry
- Car thieves arrested, charged in shooting
- All aboard LaPolice's bus
- WELCOME BACK: Manitobans' roles at human rights museum
- Seek out stellar sushi between grocery aisles
- Career Compass helps staff chart career paths
- Eagles, Dixie Chicks to play stadium in June
- Condos at ex-Penthouse
- Grand Forks declares flood emergency
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- It's the Sharks vs. the Jets in a jazzy rumble
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- Former prosecutor ambushed on CBC
- Is jet a trophy or just bad PR?
- Career Compass helps staff chart career paths
- Ice-cutting machine to stay submerged until spring
- Text of Shane Koyczan's opening ceremonies poem, "We Are More"
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- Olympic-sized hypocrisy
- Cabela's to open across Canada
- Oprah's on, and so is our Jon!
- Not wrong, just illegal
- Online drug pioneer tumbles
- Mounties hook ice-fishers for open beer
- No listings for buyers flooding the housing market
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
PREVIOUS

0 Comments