Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 9

35 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9 you bid for a project and win, the price is fixed no matter what cost overruns you encounter during the project. The only way we can get a concession on such contracts is if something comes from the government that says, that because of the current challenges, there should be some provisions that allow us to go and ask for more money due to an increase in the price of labor and materials.” Despite the pandemic shock on the construction industry, Chitilian believes it is resilient and robust enough to retain its pre-pandemic growth curve. He shares, “A lot of the construction industry is brick and mortar, so you don’t need a lot of new technology or sophisticated tools to keep moving forward, which means the industry can absorb most shocks without skipping a beat.” One area he does see some adoption of newer technologies is in greening new and existing buildings. “We have built some schools with green roofs that incorporate solar panels,” he says. “However, it’s not common at the moment, since adding solar panels can significantly increase the overall cost of the project due to required adjustments to structural components.” Despite low uptake, he happily remembers one school that added solar panels and green roofs and had so much excess energy that they started selling some of it to the local hydro grid. He hopes to see more schools follow this trend in the future. Looking ahead, Chitilian’s main hope is that Torcom Construction remains competitive in a rapidly changing economic landscape ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. “By remaining competitive, we believe we’ll continue winning good projects and delivering good quality work within budget and on schedule. That’s basically what we’d like to do for now as the economy rights itself. Once conditions allow, we’d like to add growth to our company’s bucket list too.” Elite Electrical Solutions Ltd. 1 7 3 A D V A N C E B LV D . U N I T 5 8 B R A M P T O N , O N L 6 T 4 Z 7 C A (905) 789-5511 | www.eliteelectrical.ca TORCOM CONSTRUCT ION INC .