What Changes at the Border
Updated: Sep 5
I have run more than 60 projects in Canada. They sit in seven provinces, from British Columbia through to New Brunswick. Every one of them taught me something a US project never could.
People assume Canada is close enough to work the same way. The work itself is the same. Almost everything around the work is different.
The calendar runs on its own rules
Canadian malls observe their holidays fully. The building closes, and the crew stands down with it. I map those access windows before I map anything else.
Quebec pauses for two weeks every August. The whole province slows to a stop. I build that pause into the schedule from the first draft, and I plan the sequence around it.
"The building closes, and the crew stands down with it. I map those access windows before I map anything else."
Every part crosses a border
Most of our vendors are based in the US. Each shipment clears customs, and customs adds days. Days matter on a live site with a crew already standing on it.
So I procure earlier. I hold float in the material schedule. I confirm delivery windows before anyone mobilizes. On our current security grill program we brought on a Canadian vendor for the first time, which shortens that chain considerably.
Two languages, one project
Quebec law requires French and English on everything. Store signage carries both. Every document I send goes out in both.
When we present a project package, I bring a French speaker onto the call. Mall management communicates in French, and the package lands better in their own language. Closeout documents follow a different format as well, so I build them to the province's standard from the start.
"What changes is the input. A different calendar. A different unit of measure. A different language."
Meters, provinces, and getting there
Everything in Canada is drawn in meters. Every province writes its own laws. What holds in Ontario reads differently in Alberta, and I check each one.
Travel takes planning of its own. US carriers fly me into the country. Moving around inside it means a connection, customs, and often a two-hour drive to site. Road signs through Quebec are French. I allow for all of it.
What travels in your favour
Permitting in Canada moves faster than most US markets. Trade coordination runs directly through the general contractor. Both give a schedule more room than people expect, and I use that room deliberately.
The method stays the same
Structure, clarity, and accountability. Those hold on both sides of the border.
What changes is the input. A different calendar. A different unit of measure. A different language. A different closeout standard. I have spent years learning those inputs, one project at a time, across seven provinces.
That experience is what a client is buying when they bring us in for Canadian work. A record of having done it, and the peace of mind that comes with it.
If you are planning Canadian locations this year, I would like to hear about them. Reply to this email and we will find time to talk.
Michele
KRCrossing Consulting
