Canada’s expanding pipeline of infrastructure, energy, mining, defence and data centre developments is increasing the need for services that support large and remote worksites.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Trevor Haynes, chair and CEO of Black Diamond Group, about the company’s three business lines and its exposure to major projects in Canada, the U.S. and Australia.
Key Takeaways
- Black Diamond has more than $2 billion in formal workforce solutions bids outstanding across over 20 Canadian projects, although the bids are not contracted revenue.
- The company has about 5,000 rooms of available capacity within its fleet of roughly 13,000 relocatable accommodation rooms.
- Potential demand spans LNG, oilsands, mining, critical minerals, military infrastructure, carbon capture and data centre construction.
- LodgeLink’s total trade value increased 69 per cent year over year in the second quarter as demand for workforce travel management grew.
- Black Diamond’s 45 Indigenous partnerships support employment and participation by Indigenous communities near remote projects.
Read the full transcript below:
LINDSAY: As Canada ramps up spending on major infrastructure projects, companies supporting those developments could see rising demand. Black Diamond Group, an Alberta-based specialty rental and industrial services company, says it has more than $2 billion in project bids outstanding. Joining us now is Trevor Haynes, chair and CEO of Black Diamond Group. It’s great to have you join us in studio. Thanks for taking the time.
TREVOR: It’s great to be here, Lindsay. Thank you.
LINDSAY: So, maybe just first of all, walk us through what Black Diamond’s business offers for our viewers, just to get started.
TREVOR: Yeah, Black Diamond’s been a Canadian public company for 20 years now. We have three primary components. One provides modular space of various types for everything from portable classrooms through to project offices, etc., around construction sites. Then we have our large remote accommodation platform, which is very much of interest these days. This is where we provide the infrastructure that’s missing in remote areas to house workforces for building anything from oil and gas projects and mining, certainly supporting the military, any type of infrastructure construction. And then a business that’s a little bit newer to the platform, but about five, six years old, is where we’ve built a platform using software that allows our customers to move large groups of people efficiently, and that company is LodgeLink.
LINDSAY: Now, we’re seeing, as I mentioned in the lead-in to you, Canada is beginning to prioritize more nation-building projects. We’ve been talking about that quite a bit. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for Black Diamond among that?
TREVOR: Well, we’re sort of in the crosshairs of everything that’s going on right now. All of these major projects, if you think about anything from the West Coast LNG projects, increasing production out of the oilsands, critical minerals, gold mining, improving infrastructure around the Canadian military, supporting mobility for the military — all of it sort of leads into our area of expertise. So, we’re quite pleased to be able to bring our expertise to solving these problems. And so that’s where, you know, in our workforce business, we announced with our second-quarter results that we have over $2 billion in firm, formal bids outstanding. We’ve got about 5,000 rooms of spare capacity out of our 13,000 beds of relocatable accommodation. And so, I think that shows the magnitude of what we’re seeing and also some of the pressure points that are coming within the country.
LINDSAY: Yeah, I want to talk about that further. So, $2 billion in workforce solutions bids, as you say. What’s driving that demand?
TREVOR: These are a combination of nation-building projects and some projects that are not quite in the headlines, but smaller projects across the country. So, it’s everything, just as I said: military, mining, oil and gas, etc. So, within that, the big projects would be like western LNG, with the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline and the Ksi Lisims export terminal. Not in there is the more recently announced expansion of the southern pipeline, the TMX, etc. Projects like the carbon sequestration Pathways project will require camps and services as well, so there’s just a lot going on.
LINDSAY: So, it sounds like most of the projects, they’re in Canada.
TREVOR: We’re talking about Canada here. Black Diamond operates at scale in the U.S. and in Australia.
LINDSAY: Australia, yeah.
TREVOR: We’re seeing those markets very robust as well — the U.S. for our modular business, but also on the camp side, mostly driven by data centre construction. Australia is very active as well around the mineral sector and data centres too. So, what we’re seeing thematically: a huge opportunity set in Canada based on what we’re looking at in terms of nation-building, etc. But the other two countries that we operate in are very strong markets as well right now.
LINDSAY: Okay, let’s stay more in Canada then for now. And I want to ask: Are you seeing growing customer demand for modular space solutions in Canada? I think you mentioned you’re seeing that in the U.S., but in Canada too.
TREVOR: Very much in Canada. So, these projects that require remote accommodation also need temporary workspace. So, everything from engineering project offices to lunchrooms, break rooms for your trades, to lavatories — all of that. And then there are projects. If we think of the Meta data centre north of Edmonton, or even the Bell data centre south of Regina, those sites require all of that type of temporary space as well for project offices, etc. As I said, in our space rentals business, we operate under the brand BOXX Modular in Canada. We’re seeing significant demand here as well.
LINDSAY: You also — by you, I mean Black Diamond — operate LodgeLink. What is that?
TREVOR: So, LodgeLink is the software platform that we’ve designed — or, and built — that creates the tools necessary for moving larger groups of people. So, large itineraries, booking into hotels. If you think about moving workforces in and out of these areas, you may have aircraft, hotels, charter flights, etc. These are very complicated itineraries. A lot of these businesses have to work day and night. The individuals, or, have on-off rotations, but the project has to keep operating. It’s a huge problem that’s existed for a long period of time for these types of companies. What we’ve been able to do is unlock a lot of the inefficiency there through software coupled with a two-sided marketplace. And LodgeLink is growing like crazy right now. We were 69 per cent — total trade value volume growth, second quarter to second quarter, prior year — and we continue to see a very meaningful ramp-up. And it’s a huge addressable market. It’s in the tens of billions of dollars.
LINDSAY: So, it sounds like that business is probably a pretty important part of your overall portfolio moving forward.
TREVOR: We think value creation — it’s very significant, but it ties very closely with what we do in providing remote accommodation. So, we can not only provide the full turnkey, the buildings themselves, the facilities, but we also do the hospitality services through our Royal and Summit brands. And now we can provide full turnkey for travel, the full travel cycle. So, it’s a really compelling offering. The other component of that is our Indigenous partnerships. We have 45 Indigenous partnerships in Canada, and we’re one of the larger employers, direct and indirect, of people from Indigenous communities working within our remote facilities. So, when you tie it all together and you look at the thematic within Canada here, we’re pretty excited about where we are and what’s happening.
LINDSAY: Okay, we’ll have to have you back then to discuss, over the next couple of months, any developments. But we’ve got to leave it there for now. Trevor Haynes, chair and CEO of Black Diamond Group, appreciate you coming in studio. Thanks for joining us.
TREVOR: Thank you, Lindsay. Thanks for having me.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Sept. 18, 2026 interview with Trevor Haynes are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
