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For George Coles, DCC Coordinator, Facility Management at 3rd Division Support Base Detachment Wainwright, located in Denwood, Alberta, there may not be a ribbon cutting or grand opening to mark the successes of his work–but halfway through a seven-year, $14-million contract, there's still a lot to celebrate.

The contract, which kicked off in 2016, covers the maintenance of 22 individual facilities over 106,000-m2 of floor space. Equipment and buildings are taken care of proactively to help prevent issues–then if they do arise, there's a familiarity that reduces the time and work it takes to remedy it.

"DCC is very closely connected to this project—we are never more than an arms' length away," said Coles, who moved onto this project earlier this year.

There are a number of facilities at CFB Wainwright that are maintained by Department of National Defence, while DCC under this contract leads maintenance on others, so working alongside DND as well as the contractors is critical to the ongoing success. Long-term relationships are important, as is long-range vision and planning.

"It's about much more than managing facilities, it's about managing expectations, coordinating contractors, stakeholders and partners," said Coles.

And while there can be a challenge in terms of time and resources when adapting the focus from an intensive capital project, to the longer-term, wider-horizon maintenance approach, Coles says the holistic perspective is really satisfying. And there's still opportunities for new builds as part of the comprehensive care overall.

"Not only are we maintaining asset lifecycles – we are doing replacements and retrofits – there is a capital component… You can't have one without the other."



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