About CANA Utilities

In 1927, Joe Riley, owner of Riley's Transport, began hauling power poles for Calgary Power. As this business venture proved successful, he joined with partner Les Kerrison and diversified to do powerline work and right-of-way clearing for Calgary Power (now TransAlta Utilities). In March of 1947 they formed ACE Construction. The company grew and prospered under their ownership until 1965 when they sold to a partnership of Canam Holdings and Molsberry Chemical Spray.

The 1950's and 1960's created steady growth into the 1970's and the company continued to prosper. Rapid urban development produced widespread distribution and transmission projects for ACE Construction with Calgary Power. At the same time, ACE Construction expanded its operations into the Yukon, Northwest Territories, the Arctic, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

In 1987 ACE Construction was bought by John Simpson bringing it into the CANA Group of Companies, and in 2012 it was renamed CANA Utilities.

CANA Utilities is one of the most progressive utility contractors in Alberta, with over 50 years of service in the industry. CANA Utilities is very diversified, dealing with all aspects of overhead and underground power line design and construction, installation of fibre optics, traffic intersections, street light, telecommunications, and cable television. The list of clients that CANA Utilities deals with is substantial and includes electric utilities, governments, developers, telecommunication companies, oil sands developments and independent power producers such as the City of Calgary, Enmax, ATCO, Suncor, Syncrude, Altalink, SNC and Three Sisters.

Growth continued through the 1980's but was drastically reduced in the industry in the early 1990's when the economy took a turn. CANA Utilities streamlined its operations and reduced its surplus fleet and operating costs to weather the change. Since then, CANA Utilities has diversified to provide a wide range of utility services including fibre optic cable installation. Adapting to stay current with technology has provided CANA Utilities with ability to prosper as a full service utility installation firm. Today, CANA Utilities provides design, survey, supply and installation services for most types of utilities.

CANA Utilities is a strong, versatile company, able to respond to customer needs in several areas of power and communication utility construction and maintenance. Along with an excellent fleet of equipment, CANA Utilities has a highly skilled, well trained and dedicated work force with many long time employees.