News CANASA Update Opinion
CANASA Update: New education courses opening up for security professionals

I am very pleased to announce that the Alarm Technician program, offered in conjunction with Centennial College in Toronto, is taking registrants for the fall semester.

Information is available on our website (www.canasa.org).

Conestoga College in Waterloo, Ont. has also officially launched the promotion of their Alarm Systems Program. Winter registration opens Nov. 1, 2021 and Spring registration opens Feb. 7, 2022. More detailed information is available on the Conestoga College website. Both of these courses are highly anticipated due to the strong demand for technicians.

Security Canada
Security Canada trade shows will be returning in-person as follows: April 2022 (Security Canada East, Montreal), June 2022 (Security Canada West, Vancouver), October 22 (Security Canada Central, Toronto). We are all very excited about getting the industry back together after two years of COVID restrictions.  In the meantime our Security Canada Webinar Series is still ongoing — the schedule is available on the CANASA website. If you are interested in hosting a webinar, please contact sbasnett@canasa.org.

Product issues for the security industry
While this problem is certainly not exclusive to the security industry, the chain reaction of restrictions, reduced production capacity and supply of raw materials has trickled down to our manufacturers, which in turn has trickled down to the security distributors and integrators. A big part of this is the restrictions on the transportation industry, slowing down the delivery of components and finished product. This, combined with a labour shortage right across the country, has meant significant challenges for integrators who have lots of work in the hopper as the demand for security continues to increase.

These complications are also driving up costs, based on more demand than supply, and make it very challenging for projects that have been pre-sold and tendered. The fourth wave of COVID-19, which is now a legitimate factor, will test all of the new restrictions and protocols that have been put in place as governments realize that they must get the economy back into full production.

Work from home or back to the office?
Finally, we have the dilemma that many companies are facing: to determine whether employees who have been working from home for almost two years should be able to return to a traditional office work space or adapt to a hybrid model. It is quite interesting to see how some industries are anxious to get back to “business as usual” when many others have realized a massive amount of cost savings and efficiencies when employees are allowed to continue to work from home. Surveys have shown that production does not drop off with people working in home offices — in some cases it increases with the reduced pressure of commuting, etc. I guess it all comes down to the type of business and the amount of production control that can be managed remotely.

On behalf of our Board of Directors, CANASA staff and many volunteers we wish everyone a safe final quarter to 2021.