Join our live podcast recording at The Buildings Show
On Nov. 4, Fenestration Review editor Patrick Flannery and Building Knowledge president, Gord Cooke, will take the Building Futures Stage at The Buildings Show’s Homebuilder and Renovator Expo to record a special live episode of Fenestration Conversations: “Rethinking Building Regulations: Could a Single Carbon Metric Work?”» Read More…
Vitro to offer LandVac VIG
Vitro Architectural Glass, in collaboration with VIG Technologies and LandVac – the developer of LandVac vacuum insulating glass technology – have entered a long-term, exclusive agreement that will enable Vitro to produce and sell VacuMax VIG units in North America. » Read More…
FGIA weatherability standard open for comment
AAMA 303, Voluntary Specification for Rigid Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Exterior Profiles has gone to ballot and is open for comment until Nov. 11. » Read More…
Residential permits stay at lowest level since 2018: StatCan
In September, the total value of building permits issued in Canada increased $504.8 million (4.5%) to $11.7 billion. Both the residential (+4.8%) and the non-residential (+4.0%) sectors contributed to the increase. » Read More…
Federal budget highlights
Ottawa has released its 2025 budget. The big theme is “spending less to invest more,” which means cuts to government expenses (such as payroll…the civil service is being cut 10 percent) to fund spending on capital projects designed to stimulate future economic activity. Here are some highlights relevant to our sector. » Read More…
Budget Takes: Fenestration Canada
Fenestration Canada director of codes and regulatory affairs, Adrian Edge, has sent this analysis of the 2026 federal budget. » Read More…
The Chartered Institute of Building has released the following analysis of the 2025 federal budget. This year’s federal budget is all about building, and building fast. The government has set out an ambitious plan to grow the economy through major investment in housing, infrastructure, and manufacturing. For those working in construction, that means big opportunities ahead and some serious challenges we will need to tackle together. » Read More…
Fenestration Conversations Episode #75: Reflections on a Career in Windows – Skip Maclean
Skip Maclean has retired from ODL, his last stop on a 53-year journey through the Canadian window and door manufacturing industry. Along the way he rose to the top, chairing innumerable committees, serving as president of Fenestration Canada and being honoured with its 2019 C.P. Loewen award. He did it with humour, humility and intelligence, and counts many of today’s industry leaders as his proteges. Maclean joins the Conversation to share his memories and accumulated wisdom. » Listen now…
Fenestration Conversations Episode #74: Principles of Marketing – Alison Simpson, Canadian Marketing Association
Our business is making things, not talking about them. So it’s no surprise that many of us struggle with the demands of promoting our businesses to potential clients and customers. Alison Simpson, president and CEO of the CMA, has been helping major corporations do just that throughout her career and she joins Pat Flannery for a lively conversation chock full of good advice. She also has details of an exciting program enabling small businesses to obtain government funds to hire digital marketing experts and to upskill their existing IT staff.» Read More…
Fenestration Conversations Episode #73: Two Numbers – Chris Magwood, RMI
Chris Magwood of the Rocky Mountain Institute joins the podcast to discuss the One Number approach to sustainable building regulation…and he has some objections. While a performance-based approach aimed at regulating the whole-life carbon impact of a construction project should be our ultimate goal, Magwood feels the upfront impact of embodied carbon needs to be evaluated separately, but adjacent to, the long-term impact of operational carbon. Listen now to find out why. » Listen now…
Fenestration Conversations Episode #72: One Number – Jonathon “JoMo” Layton, Layton Consulting
How would it be if all the databases and charts and spreadsheets and regulations and tiers defining whether our products comply with sustainable building laws just…went away? Replaced by one number: – the only number that matters – the amount of carbon dioxide emitted over a building’s lifetime as a result of its manufacture, construction, use and disposal. Partner at Layton Consulting, Jonathon “JoMo” Layton joins the podcast to chew over this radical idea and lend his expertise to the question of whether it could work and how it would affect us all. » Listen now…