The COVID-19 situation is continuing to evolve very quickly in Canada. At Dillon, our priority continues to be the health and safety of our employees, their families, our clients and our communities. Together with our clients Dillon’s people do vitally important work; and in times like this we are reminded of why our people are so passionate about serving our customers.
Throughout this crisis, we remain committed to our values (creativity, courage, reliability, inclusiveness, achievement, and continuous development) as they provide direction when in uncharted territory. Together, we help plan, build and operate communities, something that is critical in good times and bad. We help guide the protection of the environment in which we live, protecting vulnerable and critical habitats from human activity and protecting humans from impacts and risks in the environment. We also provide critical services to many businesses to keep them safely operating like the food industry, water and sewer services and utilities. The recent common business buzzwords have been “agile”, “adaptable”, and “innovative”; these are no longer buzzwords, we know they are expected of us by our clients and our communities. With 75 years of operations behind us, I am confident that we are up to the challenges ahead.
We are actively monitoring this situation, following instructions and recommendations from government health authorities, and implementing changes to the way we do business in order to do our part to address this crisis. Our Leadership team is meeting on a daily basis to review our operations to ensure we are effectively meeting the needs of our clients. Where construction/field work is occurring, appropriate risk management and social distancing measures are in place. We have implemented strict Health and Safety measures in order to protect our employees, our clients and the public. Currently, the majority of our employees are now working from home. Throughout all of this, our teams are working vcollaboratively and implementing innovative methods to stay connected with and proactively responsive to the needs of our clients.
Yesterday, the Government of Ontario deemed Engineering and related professional services as Essential Workplaces. This being said our employees who can work from home are expected to do so. As of March 24 at 11:59 PM ET, we will no longer allow the public access to our office spaces across Canada. Limited exceptions will be made for the duties and services essential to our operation e.g. building maintenance/cleaning, couriers, mail or suppliers making deliveries required to continue operations.
Take care. And while we need to stay physically distant from each other, now more than ever we need to reach out, virtually, and check in on each other. Let that connection be the thing we spread.