CRA Ontario Hosts Member Meeting

The event started with a tour of the Cooper Equipment location on North Service Road. All were impressed with the modern and extremely clean showroom and service area.

After the tour everyone assembled at the Hilton Hotel for the roast beef and chicken buffet along with the business portion of the meeting. Paul Van Staveren, CRA Ontario President, welcomed all to the event and introduced Darryl Lampkin of Echo Rental as the new Director at Large. It was also noted that the Ontario chapter is looking for a new secretary and another director to come on board.

Next up was Darryl Cooper, president of Cooper Equipment, and our host for the tour. Darryl gave a recap of how his father started the business many years ago and how it has grown over the years to 23 branches and over 300 employees.

Our main speaker was Rob Normandeau president of SeaFort Capital and he led an interesting discussion on mergers, acquisitions and how his business works with companies as an investment partner.

Next was Gord Ellis, CRA Ontario associate director, who informed everyone of the upcoming Conference & Product Expo which will be held on March 22, 2017 at the Holiday Inn in Guelph. The event will again include workshops, breakout sessions, the product expo in the afternoon and the gala dinner and awards in the evening. More details will be sent out on this as they become available.

Nathalie McGregor, CRA managing director, reminded everyone that the deadline for the discounted $99 registration for the ARA rental show is at month’s end. She also discussed the scholarship opportunities that are available for students of those involved in the rental industry. Additional details can be found at this link.

Lastly, the door prizes were awarded to Will Gingrich of Broadline Rentals and Pete Rongits of Cooper Equipment.

The next Ontario membership meeting will be held November 16 at Whites LES in Toronto.