Jeremy Olthuis
Chief Operating Officer, Maple Reinders
Reuben Scholtens
Vice-President, Major Projects, Maple Reinders
Canadian company Maple Reinders is an award-winning and trusted complex solution provider in Canadian infrastructure realization (including design, construction, financing, operations and maintenance).
When it comes to solving problems and delivering creative solutions in industrial, commercial, and institutional buildings and environmental construction, Canadian cities and municipalities want to partner with the best. Reliable companies with a long history of success and innovation — like Canadian general contractor Maple Reinders — are the ones that are best trusted with designing, building, and operating our country’s major infrastructure projects.
Award-winning construction services
“At Maple Reinders, we build Canadian infrastructure,” says Jeremy Olthuis, Chief Operating Officer at Maple Reinders. “From social infrastructure — police stations, correctional facilities, libraries, community centres, and schools — to the civil environmental side, we’re best known for the work we do at water plants, wastewater plants, and solid waste treatment facilities, along with composting/aerobic and anaerobic digestion, as well as green energy generation.”
Maple Reinders operates from coast to coast and has been in business for over 55 years since 1967. The company is solutions-oriented and prides itself on tackling challenging projects, whether the challenge involves constructability, budget, or personnel. The scale of its projects is over $200 million, and it boasts unparalleled, sector-specific experience with public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the environmental infrastructure arena and a growing footprint in social infrastructure PPPs.
Also of note is Maple Reinders’ unique focus on flexibility in project delivery thanks to its integrated project delivery (IPD) approach. “IPD is a relatively new project delivery model that seeks to form a partnership between owners and contractors,” says Reuben Scholtens, Vice-President of Major Projects at Maple Reinders. “Instead of having a design-bid-build process, the owner hires an IPD contractor like us who will partner with them as they validate pricing and plan out projects. It’s an open-book, collaborative way to deliver a project. There are several emerging contract-delivery models we are advancing as an industry, all of which seek to enhance collaboration with stakeholders.”
Complex projects, smart solutions
As a complex service provider in the Canadian infrastructure sector, Maple Reinders’ projects are typically large-scale, multi-year endeavours. One of its current projects is a wastewater treatment facility upgrade for the City of Barrie, which is an eight-year project largely focused on helping the city reduce its ammonia discharge into the environment. The project represents Canada’s largest wastewater infrastructure IPD project to date.
Another current undertaking is a new $100 million aerobic digestion, organics management facility in Halifax, N.S., which is projected to have a life cycle value of $457 million and which Maple Reinders will operate for the next 25 to 35 years. “This project is the first PPP project that Maple Reinders has done without an external partner and the first of its kind to be completed by a single entity from start to finish,” says Scholtens. “The project is a first for us and certainly the most comprehensive in Canada given its adherence to not only Canadian but also European standards,” adds Olthuis. “We’re not only financing it but designing it, building it, commissioning it, and operating it.”
Choosing certainty in uncertain times
Our current economic climate is rife with uncertainty, unstable markets, a looming recession, COVID-19 escalation, and rising costs of living. In such uncertain times, it’s best to go with a trusted and established partner — and Maple Reinders has been a trusted provider of construction services for over 50 years. The team has weathered past economic uncertainty and credits their faith-based, Christian roots and dedicated staff for this resilience.
“We’ve structured our business to provide our own equity financing, our own facility operations, and our own self-performance of different disciplines and trades,” says Scholtens. “This makes it less costly and more efficient to work with us.”
“Our core values — fairness, integrity, and honesty — have stood firm over time and will continue to serve Maple Reinders, our staff, and our partners in challenging times,” adds Olthuis.
