June 1, 2022
After a two-year hiatus, the Canadian Paint and Coatings Association (CPCA) hosted its 108th annual conference—SPARK, Coatings Change & Innovation—at the prestigious Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City on May 25 and 26. The two-day affair brought together industry members and guest speakers to navigate the challenges and agents of change in a highly regulated coatings world.
The event was kicked off with a board of directors meeting, followed by an elegant welcome reception in the hotel’s Salon Rose, a room famous for hosting the Quebec conferences of World War II, which were attended by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
The following day’s conference was started with the Chair’s Welcome by Darrin Noble of Cloverdale Paint and the CPCA’s Chair.
Conference Highlights
One of the key terms that was prominent throughout the day was “data”: how to curate it, analyse it and the importance of it in the current and future economic landscape.
Dan Murad, president of ChemQuest Group, was the first guest to take the stage, discussing trends, trials and tribulations with the existing supply chain. He said that logistics problems continue to be an issue. With the current supply chain and the interruptions, “everybody is carrying raw inventory, but not so much finished goods. And reshoring and near shoring continue as people look for ways to bring production back or closer.”
On June 1, ChemQuest launched Coatings TraQr, an economic indicator system that generates coatings data by market and region. To watch a tutorial, click here.
Eric Vaillancourt, vice-president of Canlak Coatings, delivered an intriguing session on innovation, the importance of research and development, and using those elements to meet customer demand. As a provider of custom solutions, Vaillancourt discussed various Canlak projects such as developing a UV 100 per cent solid polishable coating for a high gloss guitar and a polyurethane acrylic, non-yellowing, scratch resistant coating for a wooden bike.
And to address the challenges with critical biocide ingredients, Adrian Krygsman, director at Troy Corporation, spoke to attendees about how the re-evaluation of limits and label rates have become a great concern for the coatings industry. With the move to waterborne paints that meet VOC requirements, it is also challenging to meet the increasing need for both in-can and film preservation. Furthermore, there is a lack of alignment impacting trade between Canada, the US and other countries. Krygsman presented a deep dive into the various laws and regulations of overseas regions and what kind of data is needed to meet regulatory issues.
To end the morning sessions, Gary LeRoux, president and CEO of CPCA, took the stage to talk about the CPCA’s work and tackling Canada’s new regulatory landscape. “This conference covers the importance of data and the need to leverage that data,” he said. “We are in for a tough year and our work has doubled in the past couple of years.”
“Bill S5 is a big issue for us. It hasn’t been revised in 20 plus years, and this government has proposed some amendments that are seeking to add a bigger lens on chemicals in commerce to assess whether or not they’re going to add restrictions or even ban some substances outright,” said LeRoux. “In the last five years, 1,500 substances were being looked at. And over 500 of those are used in paint products. That’s a lot of SKUs.”
He continued, “We understand that with chemicals in commerce you need to be careful, but you must be understanding of what the industry can do and base your decisions on the science. That’s a big thing going on right now, that’s going to play out over the next six months. And by the end of the year we’re going to have new regulations in Canada that may not be helpful because we might be losing ingredients.”
LeRoux also pointed out a longer-term issue with automotive paint coatings coming from the European Union (EU). "What happens in the EU comes to Canada. The EU has a higher bar in terms of chemical assessment, and while we want to adopt that approach here in Canada, we do 95 per cent of our trade with the US. It’s all about alignment.”
The afternoon sessions started with keynote speaker Dan Breznitz, chair of innovation studies at Munk School of Global Affairs, who provided an in-depth presentation on innovation. He said that innovation is the action of ideas. “It’s impactful because it’s continuous.” Along with his position at the Munk School of Global Affairs, Breznitz is also the award-winning author of Innovation and the State, The Run of the Red Queen, and The Third Globalization. He was most recently awarded with the 2021 Donner Prize, an award for the best public policy book by a Canadian, for Innovation In Real Places.
Mark Kurschner, president of the Product Care Association, delivered a performance report on paint waste recycling in Canada, citing that more than 25 million kilograms of leftover paint are collected annually and managed through provincial extended producer responsibility programs. He also outlined what the various provinces are doing in terms of new regulations and requirements for manufacturers in Canada.
For chemical sustainability within the supply chains, Chris Ellen, industry manager for coatings and inks at Azelis, discussed what sustainability is and how it will affect businesses. In addition to increasing demand from customers—50 per cent of consumers rank sustainability in the top five reasons for buying something—sustainable supply chains can improve productivity, while reducing costs. “You don’t have to become a tree hugger,” said Ellen. “It’s a shift, not a trend. Challenge your suppliers, have multiple suppliers, get ahead of CEPA regulations, and look at how your company reflects your community to attract talent.”
Lastly, Catherine Larose from Duha Group and Colour Hive, spoke to attendees about the importance of innovative colour marketing tools related to colour strategy, matching, mass production and colour system management. “The colour timeline is always critical including the right colour, for the right product at the right time in terms of trends,” she said. To illustrate this, Larose guided attendees through the development of the colour Millennial Pink, a rosy muted blush hue. Millennials are known for straying from traditional neutral colours, and as this pale pink popped up in prestigious restaurants and on album covers and buzz-worthy books, its popularity exploded in the fashion,
beauty, and home décor segments. It was most notable in the 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel movie, as the exterior colour of the hotel.
To bookend the insightful day of presentations, the CPCA hosted a panel discussion entitled Digital Transformation Across Supply Chains: Where Do We Go From Here? EY Canada discussion leads, Humza Akhtar and Marie Danielle Menard, opened the session with what market forces are driving the digital transformation and how companies can reinvent themselves to keep pace.
Moderated by Kristin Johansson, editor-in-chief of Paint & Coatings Industry magazine, the panellists—Christina Thomas from Azelis Canada, Darrin Noble, Cloverdale Paint, and Vince Rea, PPG—engaged in a highly interactive discussion on how they are reinventing processes and offerings to meet the rapidly changing demand.
