Already strongly committed to the energy transition, AtkinsRéalis Canada, the Canadian division of the former SNC-Lavalin, will have to hire massively over the coming years to meet the growing demand for new infrastructure in the energy sector, particularly for meet the gigantic needs of Hydro-Québec, foresees President Stéphanie Vaillancourt.
The engineering firm will notably rely on its links with university establishments to partly meet its specialized labor needs.
“And it’s not just engineers that we will have to hire, but biologists, environmentalists, professionals of all specialties to meet all of our needs.
“Last year, we hired more than 4,000 new employees around the world. We are always hiring,” emphasizes Stéphanie Vaillancourt.
As we know, Hydro-Québec plans to invest more than 160 billion over the next 10 years to modernize its equipment, increase its production capacity and expand its distribution network with the construction of three new transmission lines which will alone require 50 billion investments.
Electricity production and distribution are part of our global expertise. We have always been a partner of Hydro-Québec, and there will be no shortage of work in the coming years. We also have major projects in Alberta and British Columbia in the energy sector.
Stéphanie Vaillancourt, president, Canada, of AtkinsRéalis
Stéphanie Vaillancourt became president, Canada, of AtkinsRéalis last fall, when the global engineering firm completed the restructuring of its activities by geographic entity with a Canadian management, one for the United States, one for the Grande -Brittany and another for the rest of the world.
“I am president for Canada, but that excludes activities in the nuclear sector which form a separate global group, which is managed from Toronto. We have 4,700 employees in Canada, 8,000 if we count nuclear, out of a total of 40,000 employees worldwide. »
Stéphanie Vaillancourt started at SNC-Lavalin in 2016 as senior vice-president and treasurer before becoming executive vice-president, Capital group, and treasurer. Before joining the engineering group, she worked for 13 years at BRP, where she was treasurer and responsible for capital allocation.
Holding an accounting title and having obtained a master’s degree in financial engineering, Stéphanie Vaillancourt is not the first financier to occupy the highest positions in a specialized firm like Atkins.
“There is Alexandre L’Heureux at WSP and Philippe Adam at Pomerleau who also come from a financial background. We work for large service companies which have very broad needs, which go beyond just engineering. We must ensure we have the right resources to meet demand,” emphasizes the president.
Multi-sectoral projects
The Canadian division of AtkinsRéalis alone is busy carrying out 4,000 different projects each year on average. Some clients are responsible for several different small projects, and others are responsible for large-scale projects.
“We can intervene at different stages of projects, from design to completion or as consultants. We were involved in the construction of the new Champlain Bridge, we are in the REM, we are going to do the engineering of the new Île d’Orléans bridge, we are also in the design of the green hydrogen project in Mauricie,” lists Stéphanie Vaillancourt.
AtkinsRéalis is also a partner with the Caisse de dépôt et placement in the high-frequency train project that VIA Rail wishes to carry out in the Quebec-Toronto corridor.
In addition to supervising the various teams of engineers in their multiple projects, Stéphanie Vaillancourt directs the activities of the Operations and Maintenance group.
“We have 28 projects in which our maintenance and operations teams are involved. Whether for the new Champlain Bridge where we want to ensure the durability of the assets for at least the next 100 years or the CHUM and the MUHC where we must constantly update the equipment, our teams are very busy,” observes the president.
Stéphanie Vaillancourt is also responsible for the Capital group which oversees the 2 billion assets owned by AtkinsRéalis in Canada. We are talking here in particular about the remaining 6.75% portion of Highway 407 that the group owns in Ontario or its share in the ownership of the Vancouver SkyTrain.
The market estimates that Atkins’ investment in Highway 407 today represents about $10 of the $55 value at which the stock trades on the stock market. Last year, this asset generated a dividend of 70 million.
Since the company restructured its global operations by selling its oil and gas operations and ending fixed-price turnkey construction contracts, it is left with only the REM project to complete and, fortunately for Atkins, there have been no major cost overruns to absorb so far.
“We will still carry out construction projects in alliance as we did with the new Champlain Bridge project, but we will no longer do turnkey contracts at a fixed price,” specifies the new president, Canada, of AtkinsRéalis .
reference: www.lapresse.ca