Corporate History

In 2019, following the natural progression of this industry, Michael has taken over the role of President while Douglas moved onto the role of Controller. Joining them in creating a solid base for future growth is Johnathan Le Touzel (Douglas’s oldest son).

We have extensive experience managing projects of all types and sizes as both a prime contractor and subcontractor.

GenLeT uses a strict quality assurance system and is worldwide ISN certified, ensuring every aspect of every job is done once, done right, and done safely.

Our core team are all security cleared to the highest level with multiple government and security forces. It is not uncommon for us to be working on a project we cannot disclose by name or even address; a project we cannot use in promotional material or reference in resumes; or to be without access to electronic documents or even site communications—this is often our biggest challenge as we are committed to a green operation and are completely paperless except for these situations.

Our ability to bring a familiar team of experienced, seasoned resources to bear against a project has made GenLeT one of the most sought after electrical contractors in Ottawa with clients and projects ranging from prime contracting to Ontario Power Generation where we perform various fire alarm, security, access control and CCTV system modifications and/or replacements. We also do other more traditional miscellaneous projects like lighting system upgrades, electrical distribution system upgrades, etc. We perform these services at operating Hydro Dams during peak operating periods and to subcontracting office renovations with a variety of general contractors who want more than a subcontractor but want a partner who can work with them to find opportunities in the schedule and improve the final results for all parties concerned.

GenLeT regularly performs major projects in operating facilities without any interruption to the clients thanks to a phased construction approach which takes all variables into account and leaves nothing to chance. This attention to detail has generated us significant repeat business and requests from clients and consultants to tender further opportunities with them regardless who the general contractor is or if there is even any at all.

Approach and Methodology

Schedule Preparation

GenLeT Electric Inc. Inc. approaches project scheduling in an extremely aggressive manner. The majority of our work is as a subcontractor working for a general contractor who is responsible to generate an overall construction schedule and work both with the client and all subcontractors to then maintain that schedule. In many cases, the general contractor will try to create their schedule in secret without subcontractor input and then publish the schedule and expect all parties to meet it.

When GenLeT works as a subcontractor, we will make creating a complete schedule a priority and we work with any of our subcontractors and suppliers of long lead elements to get as accurate as possible information as to all resource availability through the entire construction period.

We take as much relevant information we are responsible for into account such as permits, contracts, shop drawings, release dates, holidays, plant shutdowns and employee vacations.

We generate this revision 0 version of our scope of work schedule and submit it to the general contractor before they have an opportunity to impose their schedule on us. This immediately has the desired effect of forcing an open and honest conversation of how we are planning to attack this project, and it identifies what obstacles we see impeding our progress. We are then able to work closely with the general contractor to have him incorporate as much of our schedule into their schedule and, usually, they then take that opportunity to ask the other trades to do the same and try to incorporate that information as well.

The result is an overall schedule that is more realistic, less compressed and with a shorter completion date.

While this approach at first appears aggressive to a general contractor, we have found that once they realize the rewards it brings, they begin to insist on it!

Whenever GenLeT is the prime contractor, our aggressive approach is converted to a more inviting team building experience where we invite all relevant parties, including the client themselves, to pull together and work with us to build a revision 0 schedule, which we can then publish and flush out as a group any and all areas of opportunity to pull up the back end where the most time is needed if a quality product is the objective.

Most of the time, when we start construction on site we are no longer working with revision 0, but have incorporated comments and latest information and are using a revision 1 or newer. As construction progresses, we do not simply use the schedule to track our progress against a benchmark, but instead use it to look for opportunities to improve. We will again seek regular feedback from all parties and on larger projects even have regularly planned scheduling meetings for this express purpose. We treat the schedule as a living document and are continuously updating it with the latest accurate information related to production dates, resource availability or site condition improvements, etc, and by the time we finish a large project it is quite common to be on a revision of double digits with an end date substantially shorter than the original revision 0 was.

By creating a team environment with suppliers, subcontractors and even the client, and by constant engagement with those team members in an open and honest face-to-face environment, we have found that when it comes to updating the schedule, everyone is reluctant to bring bad news to the table and will first try everything in their power to overcome the impediment themselves with their resources before involving the rest of the team. This reduces the amount of negative hits against the schedule dramatically, even at the expense of other projects they are working on as they would prefer to disappoint that client before disappointing GenLeT and our client!

When an obstacle to our team’s progress unavoidably rears its ugly head, then we work as a team to try and mitigate the impact as much as possible. We have had consultants step in and make calls to manufacturers to improve deliveries; we have seen consultants travel to factory testing to witness and avoid a duplicate test on site; and clients accelerate furniture deliveries, trades loaning resources back and forth, etc. all to help the overall schedule and not lose the hard fought gains we all help make together.

Construction Planning

GenLeT Electric Inc. Inc. approaches construction planning as a critical path element. We involve all our subcontractors in this process, asking key questions to extract information that they themselves may not even know was important to the process.

Some of the questions we answer ourselves and ask our subcontractors to answer are:

• Waste disposal plans;
• Hoisting plans;
• Elevated work platform size;
• Elevated work platform quantity;
• Power needs; and
• Clearance from work area needs

All these solutions usually earn huge by-in with our subcontractors as the majority of the solutions result in lower expenditures for most of them. With the carrot of savings, we usually have no use for the stick with these trades who now have developed a team approach and a very cooperative atmosphere.

Shop Drawing and Submittals

GenLeT Electric Inc. Inc., as part of our quality assurance program, follows strict document control when it comes to shop drawings and submittals.

We log every package and generate receipts for same tracking date received, date submitted to consultants for review, date returned to GenLeT, review comments, date returned to supplier or subcontractor and follow-up action if any.

We also program warning alarms for follow-up when expected activity dates are missed such as promise dates for shop drawings from suppliers or return dates from consultants. We have found that rigorous follow-up results in faster turnaround of these important documents as participants in the process know they are going to be politely reminded that they have missed their own promise date.

At regular intervals we distribute our log of shop drawings and submittals to all key project team members (client, consultant, site foreman and subcontractors) so they have an opportunity to verify that nothing has been overlooked, and they can see for themselves what we are still waiting on and which team members court that ball is in right now.

At GenLeT we operate completely paperless at an office level and our field staff have complete electronic access to all relevant materials related to the project including shop drawings and submittals. Every site foreman has a combination of smart phone, tablet, laptop and laser color printer/scanner with live connection to our cloud based document storage. The most current information is always at their fingertips and on those projects where we are a subcontractor, we have started to see general contractor superintendents borrowing our resources to get the current information which their own office has failed to share in a timely manner!!! Our site supervisors have the freedom to either print the documents they need or simply view them on one of their electronic devices.

Change Management System

GenLeT Electric Inc. Inc., as part of our quality assurance program, follows strict document control when it comes to requests for clarification/information and requests for pricing as well as any time and material work.

We log every RFI and CCN and generate receipts for same tracking date received, date submitted to consultants for review, date returned to GenLeT, review comments, date returned to supplier or subcontractor and follow-up action if any.

We also program warning alarms for follow-up when expected activity dates are missed such as promise dates for quotations from suppliers/subcontractors or return dates from consultants. We have found that rigorous follow-up results in faster turnaround of these important documents as participants in the process know they are going to be politely reminded that they have missed their own promise date.

At regular intervals we distribute our log of RFIs and CCNs to all key project team members (client, consultant, site foreman and subcontractors) so they have an opportunity to verify that nothing has been overlooked, and they can see for themselves what we are still waiting on and which team members court that ball is in right now.

For any T&M work, we will only proceed once a witness or signing authority has been established and then we complete a work order for every job (or every day if the job is more than one day) listing all material and labour used, and we submit that work order to the designated signing authority for signature same day and a copy is left with them and forwarded to our office for tracking and pricing.

For contemplated change orders we make every effort to have them priced within 3 days and work closely with our suppliers and subcontractors to make it happen. We use some extremely powerful software linked to a massive national databank of information, and prices are able to be generated quickly and in great detail. In addition, this same software is able to generate historical information on unique elements, which we may have to wait for suppliers or subcontractors to supply. By pricing these unique elements ourselves in conjunction with waiting for their quotations, we have the advantage of sitting with a reliable budget number before their quote even arrives. If the quote is not in line with our information, it is immediately challenged and either justified with additional information or revised to reflect a price we find fair and reasonable. This is all done behind the scenes before submitting our pricing for consideration to the client which saves everybody wasted time and money of back and forth arguing over erroneous pricing which cannot be supported.

Part of GenLeT’s success and high demand for services is a direct result of our pricing method and approach. We believe that an open and honest relationship where we can expect a clear scope of work and our clients can expect a fair price will result in a faster approval of the work and the faster the work is approved the earlier we can have it incorporated into the project. The net result is a higher quality addition to the project with less impact to overall schedule and satisfaction of a fair price for a quality job with no delays.