As most of the country outside of the Maritimes are working through new stricter lockdowns to deal with a surging COVID virus in a predicted winter spike, we hold out increased hope that beyond the next few months there will be better days ahead as the vaccine gets distributed to the wider Canadi...
David O'BrienDavid O'Brien
Senior Vice President, Business Development
David O’Brien is responsible for managing all of Eagle’s government business at both the Federal and Provincial levels. He oversees the performance of Eagle’s Ottawa office, as well as Toronto’s Public Sector Team, by guiding the activities of his sales and recruiting teams, managing those activities to meet corporate objectives and providing senior management direction and support to his teams. In addition, he develops and maintains relationships with Eagle’s key clients ensuring that Eagle is providing them with exceptional service. As a member of Eagle’s Executive Team, he participates in the regular strategic planning activities to guide Eagle’s future growth.
Dave holds an Honours Bachelor’s Degree of Commerce from Carleton University. Before joining Eagle early in 2003, Mr. O’Brien spent several years in the Advanced Technology Executive Search Industry, prior to which he ran his own enterprise.
Mr. O’Brien is the President of the Ottawa Chapter of NACCB, a member of the DPI Advisory Board, the IPS Advisory Committee, Professional Services Advisory Committee, and is also on the National Board of the NACCB. As such, he works closely with both Federal and Provincial governments on many of the top issues affecting the staffing and IT contracting industry. Dave also actively volunteers regularly in his community, including time as a community volunteer and executive in his Community Association.
David O'Brien's Blogs
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Government projects can go off the rails, creep over budget, miss delivery dates, and result in both unhappy clients and vendors. Unfortunately, these are the IT stories that make the headlines over and over and yes, with projects like the Phoenix Pay system, they rightfully infuriate taxpayers e...
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The COVID-19 Pandemic and associated deep recession in Canada has made market, job and employment reports a bleak exercise indeed. As GDP has shrunk substantially in Canada and in fact globally , employers shocked with an unanticipated event reacted initially by stopping hiring then, implementin...
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The Montreal IT job market continues to be one of robust demand anchored by some foundational, more traditional industries that are focused on software development, such as Banking, Telco, Aerospace and Transportation. This is augmented now by “sexy ” new technologies and industries in electroni...
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The Montreal IT job market continues to be one of robust demand anchored by some foundational, more traditional industries that are focused on software development, such as Banking, Telco, Aerospace and Transportation. This is augmented now by “sexy ” new technologies and industries in electronic...
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While the Canadian economy shed over 24,000 jobs in July and the national unemployment rate edged up to 5.7% from 5.5%, the disappointment was not reflected in the Ottawa market (and let’s be sure to add context — these are still historically low rates of unemployment.)The employment story in Ot...
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As we approach the Canada Day Long Weekend — the unofficial but nonetheless highly anticipated and (for most of us) deserved kick-off to a Canadian Summer — many have vacations pending with beaches, camping, travelling and just relaxing our minds. But what of those who are looking for their next...
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After some sluggish months for the Canadian economy, April saw record numbers of jobs created not seen since 1976 with 106,000 new jobs, far exceeding economists’ expectations. Canada added over 426,000 jobs in the last 12 months and though many had forecast an imminent recession, it now appears...
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As 2018 came to a close, the Ottawa Job Market in December saw the unemployment rate tick up to 4.9% after a fairly robust job gains in October and November. Technology did continue to be a bright spot, with more job gains in December, however, not enough to offset losses in other areas of our l...
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The Federal government last reformed procurement around IT Professional Services over 10 years ago, introducing the supply methodsTask-Based Informatics Professional Services (TBIPS)in December 2007 andSolutions-Based Informatics Professional Services (SBIPS)the following July ’08. TBIPS has by ...
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Recent data has shown that both the job market and job growth has slowed in Canada’s largest metropolitan centres, including Montreal. While Central Canada, including Quebec, has led the growth in the last year, with the exception of cities like Kitchener and Ottawa in Ontario and Sherbrooke in ...
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Amazon has Chosen Ottawa!That’s what they call the attention grabber! Though the title is true, it’s not the highly publicized Amazon HQ from October 2017, but rather a large logistics warehouse. Despite it not being the “Amazon Jackpot” we all heard about, it will nevertheless produce 1000 good...
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The Ontario Government introduced a sweeping legislation last fall regarding work and the ESA (Employment Standards Act). Many of the changes came into effect on January 1, 2018 with additional pieces that took effect April 1, 2018 and more to come on January 1, 2019.Bill 148covers an array of co...
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As we head into the New Year, the economic news across the country, especially as it relates to employment and jobs in Canada, would strongly suggest we are at or close to peak full employment in Canada. While some regions are more active than others, we are seeing in many cities and provinces t...
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Artificial Intelligence, AI, is here and changing our world every day; however, most of what we hear has been quite ominous at best. Perhaps Stephen Hawking’s statement that AI will be “either the best or worst thing” for humanity is a pretty foreboding statement depending on if you are a glass h...
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In what was considered a stunning development to Industry, the Ontario Government announced its intent to make drastic changes to the way it procures IT Resources going forward once it’s current (and long standing) Vendor of Record (VOR) method expires early this Fall.The Vendor of Record is an ...
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Ontario’s “Changing Workplace Review” is Complete — Here’s How It Could Affect Independent Contractors and Temporary WorkersThe long awaited Changing Workplaces Review, initiated by the Ontario Government over two years ago to review the employment Standards Act, has unveiled its recommendations...
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For many of us, after toiling in the trenches for years, aspiring to move up and into Management is a natural progression; in fact, we all probably know of the coworker who would say “what took you guys so long to promote me?” That, however, is a topic for another day.Technology contractors gene...
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Recent events both South of the border and across Europe have brought immigration to the front pages as a hot button issue. Undoubtedly it has been a very polarizing social and often disturbing humanitarian issue. But what can we make of the economic and business ramifications for Canada in these...
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In the late 90’s and through the Tech Boom of the early 2000’s, Ottawa was a hot bed of technology and technology startups. Burgeoning companies like Cognos, JDS Uniphase, Corel, and NewBridge Networks were full of world class engineering and R&D talent, many of whom came from Nortel. And s...
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Both the IT community and the Federal Government often bemoan the fact that newspapers and media, in general, feast on failed technology programs and projects as their headline stories, while the successful projects are all but ignored. It is why the politicians and senior government executives h...
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Do Tenure Limits Really Mitigate an Independent Contractor’s Risk with the CRA?The issue of “tenure limits” or contract length has been coming up again lately, as clients start to debate whether or not it is a necessary way to mitigate risk against co-employment concerns. This means that many la...
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“Deliverology” is the term of the day in Government and no we’re not talking about who delivers executive lunches. These days, deliverology is all the rage in the bureaucratic halls of the new Trudeau government as the philosophical foundation with which his government hopes to present a federal...
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Most of us, and especially IT contractors, have had a range of experience in dealing with teams, most likely in a work context but not entirely exclusive to work. I would bet we could all cite stories of teams gone sideways and opine as to why. The challenge, though, and hence the real question,...
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As you may already know, I currently sit as the President of the Ottawa Chapter of the National Association of Computer Consulting Businesses (NACCB). The industry association represents over 70 IT Services firms in Canada , encompassing over 22,000 contractors, 2000 employees and more than $2.5 ...
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Many independent contractors are aware of, and are of course keenly interested in, the CRA initiative that began over 6 years ago in 2010. Independent contractors’ employment statuses were assessed through several audits that resulted in many deemed to be Personal Services Business (PSB’s). Sinc...
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As the summer of 2016 rolls in, it would certainly appear that a phenomena that has been 30 years in the making is beginning to come to light. Rapid changes in technology and the job market are affecting the ways we live and work. For one example of major change, have a look at our neighbours to ...
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In a recent conversation with a couple of young millennials, it struck me — as I blabbered on bemoaning the fact that schools no longer teach cursive, these two well-educated , tech savvy new entrants in to the workforce bowled me over with the idea that they themselves were worried about their o...
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A little over a year ago, I posted about the Canadian Industrial Security Directorate’s (CISD – a division of PSPC) requirement for all independent contractors doing business with the Feds to clear their incorporated entities under the Private Sector Organization Screen (PSOS). Since then, many ...
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Is elite customer service the new competitive advantage or will the might of difficult economic times win over such that price is the only customer barometer? It’s true that many industries and buyers will use tough economic times to focus on driving price down, getting better rates from supplie...
David O'Brien -
I believe it’s important to be involved and contribute to advancing the interests of the industry for the betterment of both clients and competitors, in addition to Eagle. To that end, in addition to my ‘day job’ at Eagle, I serve as the local Chapter President of the NACCB, our industry associa...
David O'Brien -
Summer time and the living is easy….or so the saying goes. And why not in a country that has to pack all of its outdoor fun and vacation in about a two month window (ok West coasters you have the rest of the country on that window). The dog days of summer are now upon us but as Contractors, is it...
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After last week’s highly visible, and viscerally reprehensible, incident of a Hydro One employee’s obscene harassment of a female television reporter was caught on tape in all it’s shameful glory and ultimately led to him losing his job, it’s a good time to pause and consider the ramifications...
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As the Canadian economy continues to sputter and struggle to gain its footing thanks to the sudden and now seemingly here to stay (at least for the mid-term) low oil prices, growth in our economy and job numbers will likely be flat. Most economists would agree that this is the new “reality,” at l...
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The Process IS Improving… Here’s HowWhile systems, technologies , networks , email platforms, back-offices and procurement within the Federal Government are all moving towards consolidation to provide savings among other positive outcomes, it seems Security and Security Clearances required with ...
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I once had a Federal Government client who said there is probably no process more cumbersome, costly and lengthy than hiring contractors in her department. With all that goes in to it, though, she still finished with: “And yet we get it wrong too often”. There is a lot to that statement but, at...
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The tragic and senseless death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the War Memorial in Ottawa last month served as a shock to many Canadians and will have ramifications for years to come in a lot of the things we take for granted, even in the workplace. While many of us are familiar with the urban off...
David O'Brien -
While travelling on vacation in Italy this past summer, I had the good fortune to meet a recently retired Italian gentleman who had a long and successful career in the Health/Pharmaceutical industry as a scientist. He was a so- called “Pensionato“; however, this gentleman, a relatively young 60 y...
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Several years ago I attended a business conference in the US and the keynote speaker, the Founder/CEO of a nationwide Pizza delivery chain, told the story of an early strategic marketing meeting he had with his internal team. While reviewing advertising dollar spend through the months of the ye...
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Working with the Feds requires an understanding of complex contract vehicles, understanding RFPs, SOWs, working with Proposal Teams and Recruiters in filling out matrices, longer than private sector time to close cycles, understanding bureaucracy and perhaps most uniquely Federal Government Secu...
David O'Brien