and values that their fathers established, while at the same time looking to the future and embracing new technology – under their leadership, for example, the company has introduced proprietary software that increases transparency with customers and reduces inefficiencies in managing projects. Ryan, meanwhile, joined Canpro Construction in 2004 as a labourer. He remembers showing up on the site closest to his house and asking for a job: “They asked me if I could dig a ditch, I said ‘Yup,’ and I started my apprenticeship with them,” he recalls. Ryanhadearnedhisjourneyman ticket by 2008, and then a year later departed the company briefly to travel. After returning to Victoria and earning some experience running his own company, he was invited back to Canpro as a site supervisor in 2015. He accepted the offer, and soon after he ended up working under Don Wagnor very closely – from Don, he learned “the tricks of the trade,” Ryan says, and he saw how the company was run up close. When Don and John retired in April last year, they passed on their responsibilities to their sons, while also inviting Ryan and Doug Mace to buy in. According to Ryan, accepting that offer was not a hard decision. He believes that the same factors that have drawn him to the company, and have caused him to stick around, are the same factors that attract all employees – namely, their enjoyable family atmosphere, and the diversity and variety of the work they do. “It’s a family business, and we treat employees like family,” he explains. “Nobody here is just MARCH 2022
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