Mar 20, 2018

On March 8th, the 2018 Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association Annual General Meeting and Conference took place in downtown Halifax. Despite poor travel conditions, the event was well attended.

Tim Edwards, Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association (NSBA) thanked retiring Executive Board members Chairman Glen Aylward of Aylward Fibreglass, and Vice Chairman and Treasurer Peter Bennett of Wedgeport Boats and Stright MacKay.

The incoming Board are: Chairman Heaton Rosborough of Rosborough Boats,

Vice-Chairman Gilles Theriault, of AF Theriault & Son, Treasurer Pat Nelder of Big Pond Boat Shop and Board members: Steve Allt of Cummins Sales and Service,

Chris Chiasson of Icon Marine Services, Kevin Feindel of Ocean Gear, Nick Fyffe of Blumara, John Kinley of Lunenburg Shipyard, Johannes de Rozari of Canadian Maritime Engineering and Lee Toole of Stright-MacKay.

The topic of the Conference was ‘Finding and Keeping Young Employees’ with presentations from NSBA student intern Kayla Beck, Dr. Sherry Scully, Director of Learning and Organizational Development, COVE. In this role, Dr. Scully leads initiatives under the mandate of the Marine People Partnership relating to human resources development and by Sean Kelly, Director of Business Development, GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc. The presentations were followed by a panel session moderated by NSBA’s Jan Fullerton where conference delegates were able to voice their concerns with difficulties of finding and keeping employees in the Marine Industry.

Three NSBA awards were presented:

Company Development & Growth – presented to Canadian Maritime Engineering.

Innovation Award – presented to Rosborough Boats.

Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Keith Nelder, owner of Big Pond Boat Shop.

The NSBA is now in its 20th year. Formed by boat builders, commercial and recreational in the Province of Nova Scotia, the organization has been facilitated and managed by the guiding hand of Executive Director Tim Edwards since its beginning. Incoming Chairman Heaton Rosborough was pleased to present Tim with an award celebrating 20 years of achievement for the industry.