As Canada invests in defence infrastructure, construction firms are entering a project environment where security decisions can directly affect design, schedule, and delivery.
Canada is preparing to build a significant amount of defence infrastructure. For the construction industry, that creates opportunity. It also introduces a project discipline that many firms outside the defence sector have had relatively little reason to encounter — understanding the national security context and integrating security into design and construction.
Security on a defence construction project is often thought of in terms of compliance; personnel clearances, controlled information, site access and contractual requirements. All of those matter. But once a project moves into design and delivery, security becomes something else as well: an integration problem.
Security requirements can reach deep into the design and delivery of a project, influencing everything from the way spaces are configured and project information is shared to who can perform certain work and when. They also have to be coordinated across disciplines, particularly where security zoning, access control, surveillance and intrusion detection intersect with architectural and building systems. None of those decisions exists independently.
“Construction companies know how to manage incredibly complex projects. What changes in defence is the security environment around that project,” says Jean-François Séguin, Head of Critical Infrastructure and Public Safety Services at ADGA. “The challenge is understanding the nuances of those requirements and where they intersect with design and construction early enough for the project team to manage them effectively.”
“The challenge is understanding the nuances of those requirements and where they intersect with design and construction early enough for the project team to manage them effectively.”
Security has to survive the design process
A security requirement may originate in one document but ultimately have implications across architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical designs. A change in one discipline can have consequences somewhere else. As designs evolve, security decisions need to remain visible and traceable.
ADGA’s work on defence infrastructure extends beyond assessing requirements. Our security specialists work directly with multidisciplinary design teams through activities including threat and risk assessments, security design briefs, and systems support as well as security implementation planning.
Maintaining that integration through the design process helps ensure security requirements are reflected in what is ultimately constructed.
The cost of finding it later
That becomes particularly important as a project moves toward construction.
A security issue identified during a design review is a design issue. The same issue identified or actioned only after procurement, mobilization or construction has begun can become a schedule and cost issue.
ADGA’s experience on defence infrastructure projects has included identifying and resolving design conflicts before construction mobilization and integrating security considerations into site planning, contractor access, material protection and secure construction sequencing.
The implications are amplified on northern and remote projects. Seasonal construction windows, limited site access and constrained local resources leave less room to absorb redesign or remobilization. In those environments, the connection between early coordination and delivery certainty becomes particularly important.
The project boundary is getting wider
There is another complication: increasingly, the security environment does not end with the prime contractor or at the construction fence.
Defence projects depend on networks of consultants, subcontractors and suppliers. Information and requirements move between them.
ADGA’s work across major Canadian defence programs has included examining the security implications of subcontractor access to program information, assets and infrastructure, assessing supplier responses to IT security requirements, identifying gaps and supporting remediation.
That changes the question from “Is our organization secure?” to “Can security requirements be maintained across the organizations involved in delivering this project?”
For a prime contractor, that is a considerably more complex problem.
A different model for defence construction
None of this requires construction firms to become defence security organizations.
It does suggest that security expertise needs to sit closer to the people making project decisions.
ADGA has worked within design-build environments as an interface between security, architectural, mechanical, electrical and engineering disciplines, while also helping teams navigate industrial security, sensitive information and government security requirements.
That embedded model matters because the objective isn’t to review the project after the decisions have been made. It is to bring security into those decisions while they are being made.
“We work alongside the people designing and building the facility to bring security requirements into the project early,” says Séguin,. “That gives the team a chance to understand the implications, make informed decisions and address issues before they reach construction.”
As Canada moves into a period of significant defence infrastructure investment, that capability will matter well beyond commercial construction projects..
The construction companies that succeed in defence will still need to do what they have always done well: design, coordinate and build complex projects. The difference is that showing defence clients that the role of security is understood will be the difference between winning or losing the project.