The Canadian Council of Collision Repairers (CCCR) recently held its first meeting, welcoming shop owners and managers as they come together for the benefit of the industry. The meeting, conducted via Zoom, featured discussions on the council’s purposes, mission, and updates from regional representatives.
Moderator Darryl Simmons said the council’s mission is to reflect the professional standards of collision repairers when providing advocacy, inspiration, knowledge and tools needed for shops to succeed and better serve their stakeholders and clients. The council aims to achieve its goals through data-driven activities, and members will dictate future endeavours via email surveys and sub-committee development.
Kelvin Campbell, the Atlantic Canada Representative, and Max DiFelice, the Southern Ontario Representative, co-chaired the meeting, emphasising that the group will not build walls with partners, but establish goals that prioritise the needs of shops. The pair stressed the importance of working together to create positive results across the board.
Regional representatives from Eastern Ontario, Greater Toronto Area, Northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia also introduced themselves and provided updates on their regions. The representatives discussed the importance of growing the group to establish further credibility, promote the value of the industry and improve its image, but members agreed that the council should only be open to shop owners and managers while group mandates are decided.
Regional representatives will encourage the recruitment of more members and sub-committees will be established with smaller meetings.
The group also discussed the potential of having a live, in-person meeting, which would ‘piggy-back’ with Collision Repair Magazine’s EV Repair Tour later this year.
Tom Bissonnette, Director of the Saskatchewan Association of Automotive Repairers (SAAR), also addressed the meeting, highlighting SAAR’s positive progress in building relationships with its provincial insurer.
The next steps for the CCCR include an email survey to prioritise issues, establishing sub-committees via the website with selected chairs, and asking members to join the groups according to subject interest. Smaller Zoom meetings will also be conducted, and updates provided by email while an in-person meeting is being planned via survey.
REPRESENTATIVES
Atlantic: Kelvin Campbell
Southern Ontario: Max DiFelice
Eastern Ontario: Shawn Stenson
GTA: Jeff Pabst
Northern Ontario: Daniel Trevisanutto
Manitoba: Joel McPhail
Saskatchewan: Mike Mario
Alberta: Steve Hammond
British Columbia: Wade Bartok