Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Work Hard, Play Hard

An Ontario roofing company has a great tradition of showing appreciation for its employees’ summer-long hustle by planning memorable autumn escapes for them

Guide Magazine Local 6

By Cathy Miehm

FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, BML Roofing Systems Inc. has capped off long hours working in the summer heat by treating its senior employees to a fabulous, all expenses paid, fall getaway.

“Our guys don’t take time off in the summer because we’re so busy,” says Josh Beerepoot, general manager of the Brantford, Ontario-based company, which specializes in commercial and industrial flat-roof installation, maintenance, repair, restoration, and inspection in the industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) construction sector. The company employs approximately 25 Local 6 members who work as roofers, sheet metal workers, installers, and labourers.

“After the season is over, we start talking about where we want to go,” says Josh.

He usually plans the trip with input from BML owner, Will Stratford. Over the years, many members have enjoyed everything from fishing in BC’s Fraser River to a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon to off-roading vacations in both northern Ontario and Arizona.

NICK RUTTER IS A sheet metal worker/fabricator/installer and CLAC steward who works for a division of BML, Stratford Sheetmetal Inc. He’s been with the company for about 20 years and has gone on three trips.

“It’s a real nice break at the end of the season,” says Nick. “We work hard, and the guys are pretty much beat down by the end of August and into September.”

Nick had a wonderful time in Nashville a couple of years ago, when spouses were also invited along.

“It was a heck of a good trip,” he says. “We went to the Grand Ole Opry, Luke Bryan’s bar, and Keith Urban’s bar.”

But his most memorable excursion was the year the team went fishing for salmon and sturgeon in BC’s Fraser River.

“Going sturgeon fishing is like catching dinosaurs,” says Nick. “It was remarkable.”

Josh says the highlight of the trip was catching, then releasing, a 7-foot, 170-pound sturgeon.

“The Fraser River is known to have some of the biggest sturgeon in the world,” he says.

SCOTT O’BRIEN HAS BEEN WITH the company for eight years as a sheet metal fabricator and installer. He says the trips gave him a heartfelt appreciation for Canada long before the recent tariff wars with the US by the Trump administration sparked renewed Canadian patriotism.

“I only go on the Canada trips,” he says. “There are so many beautiful places to see.”

Scott was part of the team that landed the seven-foot sturgeon.

“We were going for the 13-footers, but they wouldn’t hook up,” he laughs.

Scott has also gone on trips to northern Ontario, where they stayed at one of the supervisor’s cottages near Kirkland Lake and spent their days quadding on ATVs. They always come home with great memories, he says.

“It really brings the morale up for the guys,” says Scott. “There’s a lot of joking around. You forget all about work when you’re out there.”

THE COMPANY TRIES TO ARRANGE a trip most years, if possible, with spouses invited every other year.

“Spending time together away from work is important for building relationships and team spirit,” says Josh.

Teamwork definitely came into play a few years ago during an ATVing adventure near Sedona, Arizona.

“We would go out for 12 hours a day, unguided, riding through the desert and mountains,” says Josh. “At one point we got lost in the desert, and it was getting dark.

“We managed to find some hunters who were able to guide us back onto the road. It was definitely a team-building exercise!”

No firm plans have been made for the 2025 adventure, but the destination will likely be chosen before the end of September.

“It’s always in the back of our minds that it’s coming up,” says Nick. “It’s definitely an incentive to work hard during the summer.”

BML Roofing Systems Inc.

Fast Facts

BML is a family-run company active throughout Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe area.
It has been providing flat-roofing solutions since 1972 and has been active in the industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) sector of the construction industry for over 20 years.
The company and its skilled workforce have experience working on a wide range of buildings and properties:
- Hospitals
- Hotels
- Manufacturing facilities
- Self-storage facilities
- Shopping centres
- Office buildings
- Recreational facilities
- Restaurants
- Retail stores
- Warehouses

BML and CLAC Go Back a Long Way

Local 6’s representation of BML Roofing Systems Inc. employees goes back a long way—all the way back to 1966! The local was first certified to represent the employees of Ray Jarvis Roofing Service on April 26, 1966.

Over the years, the company name has changed a number of times, from Ray Jarvis Roofing Service, a Division of Brantford Mechanical Ltd.; to BML Multi Trades Group Ltd.; and eventually to BML Roofing Systems Inc.

Living Fossils

10 Sturgeon Fun Facts

Having been around for over 200 million years, sturgeons are nature’s own living fossil. The fish have existed since the age of the dinosaurs and survived their extinction.
There are 29 species of sturgeon native to the temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere, where they are found in greatest abundance in the rivers of Ukraine and southern Russia and freshwater areas of North America. Five species of sturgeon are found in Canada.
Sturgeons are among the largest fish, with specimens often reaching 7 to 10 feet long. Some over 25 feet long have been observed. Lake or rock sturgeon, found in the Great Lakes and other areas of North America, can weigh more than 200 pounds. White sturgeon, which inhabit areas of the Pacific coast, can weigh up to 1,800 pounds.
The largest sturgeon ever caught was a female Beluga sturgeon. The fish, caught in 1827 in the Volga estuary, was 23 feet, 7 inches long, and weighed an incredible 3,463 pounds!
Despite their great size, sturgeons do not have teeth. They are bottom feeders and swallow their prey—insects, crustaceans, mollusks, worms, small fish—whole. Larger specimens eat larger fish and are capable of swallowing an entire salmon whole.
Sturgeons are a long-lived fish, typically living from 50 to 60 years in age on average. Male sturgeons reach up to 55 years in age, while females have been known to reach 150 years in age.
Sturgeons are late-maturing fishes. Different species reach sexual maturity at different ages, but in general, sturgeons’ first spawn doesn’t occur until they are 15 to 20 years old. Lake sturgeon males, for example, reach sexual maturity at 8 to 12 years of age while females reach maturity at 14 to 33 years.
Females lay anywhere from 100,000 to 3 million eggs at a time. The eggs are sticky, which allow them to adhere to surfaces on the bottom. They hatch in 5 to 14 days, depending on water temperature. After hatching, they feed on small organisms, such as shrimp and blood worms.
Due to overfishing, habitat degradation, pollution, and impassable dams, sturgeons have almost become extinct. More than 85 percent of sturgeon species are classified as critically endangered—more than any other animal species group.
Caviar—derived from the roe of several sturgeon species, most notably beluga (the largest) and sterlet (one of the smallest)—is responsible for much of the overfishing and endangerment of the species. Caviar prices range between $45 to $1,000 per ounce, depending on the variety, with the most expensive coming from beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea.

Sources: a-z-animals.com, britannica.com, natureconservancy.ca, wikipedia.com