In the Air - HRAI Industry News

How one HRAI road trip turned into 8,700 kilometres of conversations, discoveries and a rekindled love for Atlantic Canada. 

Fresh off HRAI's CMPX trade show, our Manager of Government and Stakeholder Relations pointed his vehicle east, ‘zeroed-out’ the trip odometer and embarked on his first-ever Atlantic Listening Tour. Eight weeks, five provinces and roughly 8,700 kilometres later, he returned to Mississauga with a notebook full of ideas, a trunk full of laundry, a deeper understanding of Canada's HVACR industry, and perhaps a few extra pounds, acquired in the ‘line of duty.’ 

"When rockstars go on tour, they usually have people listening to them," Abhi says. "I wanted to switch it around; go to places and listen to people instead." 

The journey took him through all four Atlantic provinces and as far as Corner Brook, Newfoundland, before a late-April snowstorm put an end to any further eastward ambitions. Along the way, he made somewhere between 125 and 150 stops, meeting contractors, wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, utilities and industry partners. 

For Abhi, the value of the trip wasn't measured in kilometres. 

"There's something intangible about being in places that people call home," he says. "Being in the office with them, being in the back of the van with them, being on the job site with them. Even driving around and listening to local radio, you pick up on things." 

The tour did have a mission. HRAI is working with regional partners and contractors across Atlantic Canada to better understand skills-gaps of heat-pump installers in the region. To support that skills-assessment study, the team needed 100 participants from the region. Before the trip, only about 15 Atlantic-based people had completed the assessment. By the end, more than 150 had started it and approximately 130 had finished. The findings from this project will help local partners and stakeholders shape educational offerings that reflect regional needs, while supporting Atlantic contractors with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. 

But like any good road trip, this planned destination wasn't the whole story. 

Abhi added what he calls "side quests,” forks in the road that exposed him to local challenges and success stories while uncovering advocacy priorities for Atlantic Canada's HVACR sector. 

What he discovered was an industry quietly building for the future. 

In New Brunswick, he visited Nordic Heat Pumps, a manufacturer expanding its facilities and workforce. In Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, distributors were growing operations, adding training facilities and preparing for the next generation of heat pump replacements. Across the region, family-owned businesses were wrestling with succession planning while continuing to invest in their communities. 

"There are success stories like this everywhere," Abhi says. "Contractors hiring people, businesses being passed on to the next generation, companies growing. The ceiling isn't ambition. It's finding enough people." 

One lesson emerged quickly: The best conversations rarely happened in boardrooms. 

His original plan involved carefully scheduled meetings and ride-alongs. That lasted about two hours. 

At a wholesaler in Fredericton, local partners suggested he simply sit at the front counter and talk to contractors as they came through the door. 

"It was like a barbershop," he says. "A place for gossip, advice, learning, hiring, problem-solving. That's where the conversations were." 

Those conversations reinforced something Kantamneni already suspected: while HRAI is a national association, local realities matter. 

"We may have an office in Mississauga," he says, "but people in every corner of the country matter. The goal is to listen, understand local priorities, identify common threads and make sure we're delivering value wherever our members are." 

This leg of the Listening Tour may have ended, but our road-scholar is already eyeing the next stretch of highway. British Columbia and the prairies are calling his name. 

In Abhi’s head, as in his car, the wheels are always spinning.