Acres wins top honours in first Consulting Engineers of Ontario awards

Consulting Engineers of Ontario announced the winners of its first Engineering Awards on Friday, May 23. The winners were celebrated at a luncheon during the association’s annual meeting held at the Nottawasaga Inn, near Alliston, Ontario.
The CEO awards program is organized differently from other provincial consulting engineering awards, in that the entries were submitted in categories according to firm size. The aim was to give more opportunities to small firms to win awards, since they have been unrepresented in awards programs in the past.
Winner of the top award, though, went to a project in the large firm category of 50 firms or more. The “Willis Chipman Award” went to Acres International for the Decomissioning of the Distress and Finlayson Dams on the Big East River, near Algonquin Park. The project is the first documented case of a Canadian dam decomissioned according to a planned process that included giving attention to environmental impacts. Despite technical challenges and initial public opposition, the project was a complete success, and as a measure of its environmental success, the brook trout have returned to the Big East River.
The Willis Chipman award is named after a prominent 19th-century Toronto civil engineer who played a prominent role in various organizations and worked on over 50 waterworks and sewage projects in the province.
In the small firm category (firms with 1-16 employees), an award of excellence went to Cyril J. Demeyere Limited for site improvements at the Lake Margaret Estates residential development in St. Thomas, Ontario. An award of merit went to Eramosa Engineering for the SCADA system design and implementation at the W.A. Bill Johnson Biosolids Management Centre in Halton Region.
In the category of firms with 16-50 employees an award of excellence went to Keen Engineering Co. for the Microsoft Canadian Headquarters. Another award of excellence went to MTE Consultants for the Waterloo Region Emergency Services Training & Research Complex.
In the category of firms with 50 or more employees, an Award of excellence went to CH2M Hill Canada for the Tony Agnello Water Filtration Plant in Parry Sound. An Award of Merit went to Earth Tech Canada for the Ashbridges Bay Biosolids Loading and Odour Control Facility in Toronto.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Judges in the awards were Paul Gauvreau, P.Eng., Bill Gregson, P.Eng., Don Ingram, P.Eng., Orlando Martini, P.Eng. and Angela Shama, P.Eng.
Mr. Claude Paul Boivin of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada was master of ceremonies for the announcement of the awards.