EllisDon
construction services company based in Mississauga, Ontario
EllisDon is an employee-owned construction services company that was founded and incorporated in 1951 in London, Ontario, Canada, by brothers Don and David Ellis Smith. The company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
History
Founding
In 1951, EllisDon was launched by brothers Don and David Ellis Smith as a local contractor in London, Ontario.
1951–1989
Between 1956 and 1968, EllisDon computerized its accounting and cost control systems, and operated a purchased tower crane – the first construction company in Canada to do both. In 1971, EllisDon launched a Corporate Safety Strategy to improve job site safety.
Between 1974 and 1976, the company expanded, establishing operations in Edmonton, Alberta and in Saudi Arabia. Since then EllisDon has expanded its current operations to its offices around the world.
Once EllisDon was awarded the Construction Management Contract for the Metro Toronto Convention Centre project in 1982, it moved on to build the SkyDome (renamed Rogers Centre in 2005). This project was completed in 1989, and was the world's first retractable rooftop stadium.
1990–2003
In 1990, EllisDon established the construction industry's first freestanding Research and Development Department.
“EllisDon” enters the record as construction services company based in Mississauga, Ontario. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what EllisDon, construction and services can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“EllisDon” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, EllisDon, construction and services provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5365823. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 1989, 1956 and 1968.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “EllisDon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow EllisDon primary sources, EllisDon archive and EllisDon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “EllisDon”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “EllisDon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.