Where We Come From

Our story begins with Charlie “The Bear” Bennett, who was born and raised on a dairy farm outside Brantford, Ontario. While farming taught him the value of hard work early in life, Charlie chose a different path and pursued his plumbing apprenticeship with Adam Clark Company in Hamilton.

In the mid-1970s, Charlie founded Bear Construction — a company built not only on craftsmanship, but on ingenuity. Bennett Mechanical Installations Ltd. was established in 1981, and over the last 45 years has evolved the Bennett Construction Group, laying the foundation for the organization we are today.

Charlie’s greatest strength was his intuitive creativity. He approached problems differently than most people, often developing practical, unconventional solutions others simply could not see. Owners, engineers, and contractors regularly sought him out to help solve their toughest construction challenges. Charlie jokingly referred to this as his “free value engineering” — the kind of strategic, solution-based thinking that is routinely billed for today. His ability to innovate allowed Bennett to pursue projects competitors could not price, approach, or execute successfully.

But more important than Charlie’s talent was the set of values he lived by.

Above everything else, Charlie respected honesty. That belief became the cornerstone of Bennett Construction Group’s organizational values: honesty, accountability, integrity, loyalty, and reputation. He believed that if you stayed true to your word and worked hard, success would follow naturally. Charlie was larger than life. He worked hard, lived fully, and carried himself with the same boldness and authenticity that defined the company he built. Though he lived outrageously at times, he never lost sight of the principles that mattered most. That spirit still lives within Bennett today — in the way we solve problems, support our clients, and the belief that a company’s reputation is built one honest handshake at a time.