The Ontario Construction Report – JANUARY 2014 – PAGE OCR C1 New year brings new heights to Ottawa 550 ton crane to be largest in the region – expanding 41-year business's capacity STAFF WRITER – The Ontario Construction Report Special Feature Ron Burelle started Regional Crane Rentals Ltd. as a one-man operation in 1972 with a single crane. Today, the business has one of the largest selections of cranes in the region as it continues to invest in inventory and technol- ogy. Burelle says he operated the company out of a gas sta- tion adjacent to his home, with his wife acting as dis- patcher and bookkeeper and a single crane he bought from a local company. “I had been working as a crane operator for 12 years, was known in the business, and people were very helpful in the early days to send us work.” Burelle never declined work. He said, from the start, if his own crane was busy or the job at hand was too large for the machine’s capacity, he would source another com- pany or operator to take on the job.