Cedar Valley Lodge begins to take shape

Video footage courtesy of JGC Fluor.

When you’re planning a small village that will be home to 4,500 workers at the peak of construction, it’s beneficial to engage many people in that discussion to ensure you get the design right. Wanting to ensure Cedar Valley Lodge was welcoming to all workers, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, LNG Canada’s consultation efforts were broad. LNG Canada was also designing worker accommodation at a time the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was on the minds of many, and the commitments LNG Canada made to women’s safety needed to be incorporated into Cedar Valley Lodge’s design.

Consultation efforts reached out to leadership of Indigenous communities, to local communities and to women who were already working in the trades. Their input helped shape the accommodation’s final design.

Cedar Valley Lodge is currently under construction. Located adjacent to the LNG Canada site, ATCO-Bird, a sub-contractor of JGC Fluor, LNG Canada’s prime contractor, is constructing the facility.

At full build out, the size and scale of the Lodge will have a floor space of over 1.2 million square feet—comparable in size to about 21 football fields. Amongst the square footage will be core buildings at over 260,000 square feet that provide a kitchen and dining area of almost 80,000 square feet, entertainment areas of close to 35,000 square feet, and a sports and recreational facility of over 56,000 square feet.

Cedar Valley Lodge will stand as the largest worker’s accommodation centre ever built in Canada in one interconnected lodge.

At peak of construction, the Lodge will be home to about 7,000 workers – given rotational shifts, with up to 4,500 workers at site at any one time. By providing the amenities they need—from dining, to leisure and healthcare—the LNG Canada project ensures workers enjoy comfort and convenience, while also reducing stress on Kitimat’s local housing, infrastructure and other services.

“Caring for people was a key aspect of our design,” says Ilyas Begaliyev, who has served as LNG Canada’s Real Estate and People Logistics Manager for the past five years. “We looked holistically at all aspects of worker welfare to design accommodations that feel like a home away from home to ensure that workers who come here want to come back.”

LNG Canada believes that the design of an inclusive environment for a diverse workforce serves all workers. “We want to create an environment that feels safe so there’s no need to go to extreme measures of splitting people out,” says Begaliyev. “We’re not believers in segregating people or preventing them from communicating with each other, so the absolute intent for us is to integrate women and make sure they feel part of the entire community.”

Cedar Valley Lodge will provide single rooms with their own private showers and washrooms. To encourage health and wellness, workers can enjoy co-ed or women/men-only gym facilities, a full-sized basketball court and running track, four fitness studios, squash courts and a climbing wall. The entire centre is secured via key card access, CCTV and a best-in-class security network designed by experts and informed by projects from around the world.

To ensure everyone feels safe and respected, workers are asked to adhere to a strictly-enforced code of conduct that includes zero-tolerance for abuse or harassment both on-site and in the wider community of Kitimat. “We don’t tolerate people going out in the community and behaving in a way their moms wouldn’t want them to behave,” Begaliyev adds. “It’s as straight forward as that.”

ATCO-Bird, working with JGC Fluor, will have the first 1,500 beds open by spring 2020, with all accommodation complete in 2021.

Interested in construction jobs? Find opportunities listed with our Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contractor JGC Fluor and its sub-contractors.

*Please note that there’s no spot hiring at this time.