With a constant influx of new arrivals and a geography permanently bound by ocean shores and mountain ranges, housing is a hot topic on Vancouver Island. Our local property developers are working hard to meet the increasing demand, despite a range of challenges. Those include rising costs, red tape, staffing shortages, and unexpected incidents that slow projects down or see them grind to a halt.
Western Canada Security cannot make a difference to the supply chain for raw materials, to governmental requirements, or to the challenging labour market for trades professionals. But our support will definitely mitigate risks on construction sites. That service helps our clients complete work on time and within budget.
Following a foundation-to-top-floor approach inspired by the industry itself, this month we will outline four types of support we provide to builders in our community.
Risk Assessment and Security Planning
The most fundamental level of security support comes into play even before shovels have broken ground on a construction project. We meet with architects and project managers to identify on-site vulnerabilities embedded in their carefully drafted plans. These might mean gaps in perimeter fencing, blind spots in camera coverage, or inadequate protections for high-value equipment. To read more about our risk assessments, you can turn back to our November 2024 blog post on that topic.
With a list of vulnerabilities in hand, we can then collaborate on a site-specific security plan. This is where the real magic happens. Our clients’ experience on job sites and our expertise in safety and security come together to form a detailed, comprehensive method for completing a project in a safe and efficient way.
We develop security-specific training for staff at all levels, so that every established protocol is widely understood and rigorously followed. If negligence by staff or contractors causes serious problems, employers will be glad to have established procedures in place and training sign-offs filed away.
A plan is not enough, nor static, as any project manager can tell you. Procedures and timelines need to be regularly audited as projects evolve and inevitably change. When we provide end-to-end support, our Security Officers give your team extra sets of eyes on the ground, so that any emergent issues can be identified and resolved before they become critical ones.
Maintaining the Perimeter Is Central
Maintaining a safe construction site has a lot to do with keeping unauthorized people out. Secure fencing, clear signage, and intelligently-designed lighting are the passive measures that keep thieves, vandals, or misadventurers out of harm’s way. Those protections combine well with regular patrols from security personnel. Their uniforms and marked cars are needed to maintain a strong, visible presence. The more neglected a site appears, the more attractive it will be for people with criminal or mischievous intentions.
Given the associated labour costs, few development projects have 24/7 coverage from on-site Security Officers. But a developer with multiple build sites in the same area can greatly reduce costs by plotting patrols along an efficient route. Having our guards nearby and on the move greatly accelerates response time whenever unexpected issues arise. And in the fast-moving world of construction, every second counts when things go sideways (instead of upward).
Technological Solutions
After advising clients on their security cameras for years, in 2024 we launched our own CCTV monitoring service. We did so because of the need for a local vendor who pairs the effectiveness of surveillance technology with ethical data practices. (You can read more on that topic right here). Another benefit is that a seamless link between remote monitoring and rapid response teams greatly increases the service value of our clients’ security budgets.
Now that we have made the significant investment of establishing a local data centre for video monitoring, even clients with modest budgets can install high-quality cameras that are connected to the network infrastructure needed to capture, monitor, and store security footage securely.
This service has relatively low operational costs, compared to its advantages. Live monitoring by a remote security team allows for immediate incident response, while recorded footage can serve as objective evidence in case of theft, damage, or injury. For big-budget projects with a large footprint, we normally recommend integrating motion sensors and smart alerts, which greatly narrow the technology’s focus on confirmed threats to safety and security.
Unlimited Potential in AI add-ons
Once our clients select their custom video-monitoring service, they can leverage a range of artificially intelligent tools that improve site security and staff safety. AI-powered cameras can detect many types of unauthorized activity, then trigger real-time alerts. Security Officers in our data centre will receive alerts about loitering or trespassing, by those who are not supposed to be on site, or about hazardous behaviour, such as removing a hardhat or other safety equipment.
AI-tools are the new frontier in protection services. And the horizon is rapidly moving outward as the technology gains momentum. But we do not want AI tools to ever replace human presence. Rather, we use these advanced tools to support the work of guards and patrollers, of monitoring specialists and experienced dispatchers on our team. In most cases, we would recommend that remotely issued verbal warnings come from a real person in real time, not from a pre-recorded or automated voice. People will always do a better job of creating the impression that a site is actively cared for than machines can.
A solid safety-and-security plan is an essential part of any significant construction project. Physical security solutions let workers and passersby know that a site is actively cared for, while advanced tools provide value beyond the basics.
We’ve seen our clients receive excellent returns on investment that they were not expecting when they enlisted Western Canada Security’s support. Insurance premiums have gone down appreciably in many cases, and some clients have turned their security footage into impressive time-lapse videos of their entire project: a ready-made bit of marketing collateral. It’s inspiring to see additional value created from our core service of safety and security.
We thank all of our clients in the construction world for working with us and for all that they do to help resolve Vancouver Island’s housing challenges. Every crane on the skyline points the way to a better future.