After the IPMA CoD in 2014 this year´s meeting of ISO/TC258 brought me a second time into Canada. Another reason for writing on the IPMA Blog about Canada. With 10 million square kilometre it is the second-largest country of the world, reaching from the Pacific Ocean to the North Atlantic. Canada is a modern country, with federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. It became legally independent from Great Britain in 1982, but still  Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state. Canada is a ethnically diverse and multicultural nation, the result of an ongoing and large-scale immigration from many countries. The population totals 35 million as of 2015. Its advanced economy is one of the largest in the world, relying mainly on its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Besides English and French there are many indigenous languages spoken, such as Chipewyan, Cree, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun or Inuktitut.

Natural resources such as oil and gas, agricultural products and metals like zinc, uranium, gold, nickel, aluminium, steel, iron ore and leads are the main driver for the economy. Besides this resources, Canada´s economy is a service industry, building on the public sector, telecommunications, manufacturing of goods for customers in Automotive, Aerospace and Pharmaceutical Industry. According to ReNew Canada a top sector for projects is the energy sector, which represents “fourteen hydroelectric projects, nine transmission, three natural gas, three wind, one nuclear, and one coal; more than 5,800 kilometres of new transmission line, including sub-sea lines; and 18,208 megawatts in new/refurbished generation potential.” A challenge is the exploration in the arctic, which is far more difficult, expensive and dangerous. And the project business is continuously growing in Canada as it does in many other countries. “This year, the country’s 100 largest projects represent a total investment of $157.9 billion, a 12-per-cent increase over 2014’s $140.5 billion. This can be attributed to the addition of multiple big-ticket mega-projects in transportation and energy .” Other sectors that are investing through projects and programmes are the public sector, transportation and healthcare.

IPMA is represented in Canada by the Project Management Association of Canada / Association de gestion de projet du Canada [http://pmac-agpc.ca/]. It was founded in 2006, but has a track back into the 1990s. The several hundred individual and corporate members are spread all over Canada. The huge country is a challenge for the association. Thus, it is building on virtual meetings, webinars and certification in the context of the IPMA  4-Level-Certification System. The foundations of the association are in Engineering and Academia, but nowadays many people are keen to Agile Project Management, Sustainability and new ways of thinking in projects and project management. Canada is also represented in several standardization organizations. Foremost, Canada is represented in the ISO/TC258 Project, programme and portfolio management, as well as in the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards and for Green Project Management on sustainability. Hope to see our Canadian colleagues soon in Panama for the upcoming IPMA World Congress.