Today with the ever-increasing demands on our services and skills, we must depend heavily on the tools of our trade. In some cases depending on your trade or profession and regardless of the sector in which you are working, these tools or materials can make or break you.

If you are a Parks, Landscape or Forestry professional you certainly know the importance of having state-of-the-art, dependable and high performing saws, turf equipment, tractors, chippers, climbing gear, personal protective equipment and many other tools needed on a daily basis.

If you are in Public Works, Transportation, Facilities, Construction or a Contractor who makes a living in the Public or Private sector, the wide range of equipment and products you need to perform your work would boggle the minds of the general public you serve.

The equipment we purchase and the materials we use must be of top quality or our reputation and livelihood often suffers. Superior quality is one thing, however other key factors are the impact on the environment, excellent ergonomics, operator safety, durability, fuel efficiency, noise mitigation, and of course performance.

Much too often I see equipment that has failed due to poor workmanship and inferior materials. In many of these cases, the purchaser has elected to mistakenly save money by acquiring cheaper, less expensive equipment or products that end up costing the owner much more time and money in the end. While saving money and being frugal is well worthwhile, by choosing cheaper inferior products is definitely not the way to save money. Not only are repairs and replacements costly, one of the biggest liabilities is the lost productivity and the inability to complete jobs on time. This results in backlogs in work schedules and very unhappy customers.

The bottom line here is to make sure you do your research and invest wisely, making sure your equipment and supply purchases are being manufactured by reputable and industry endorsed companies.

We are very pleased to have STIHL Canada as an Ontario Parks Association partner in education, as they continue to help us deliver our mandate of Protecting Tomorrow Today®.

By Paul Ronan, Executive Director
Ontario Parks Association
www.OntarioParksAssociation.ca