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$9 00ReThink. ReBuild. ReNew.

renewcanada.net

Are Some Brownfields

Beyond Saving?

Green Energy Act: Long on Ideas,

Short on Details

Regional Focus: Quebec’s First Deficit

Budget in 10 Years

May/June 2009 + Digital Cities

+ ON’s Metrolinx/GO Merger— the Public Sector Reacts

Can Rail Topple Road?

The fight for funding and the struggle to stay modern.

12

Contents

47

32

44

MAY/JUNE 2009

38

TRANSPORTATION 12 Trainology & Truckism The traditions that built

Canada’s biggest industries and the struggle to keep this infrastructure modern. By Larry Frolick

18 The One and the Many How to spend $3.1 billion: one bridge or an entire transit system. By Kari Dow

19 Transit Transformation Ontario gets the private sector on-board—and knocks the public sector off. By Tanya Gulliver

ENERGY 24 Acting Green Ontario’s Green Energy Act needs to hone

its details in order to deliver on its promises. By Mira Shenker

28 Get Smart Reprogramming North America’s largest machine: the power grid. By Alex Aylett

REGIONAL FOCUS: QUEBEC 30 News from Quebec Every issue we focus on a different region

within Canada, reporting on various sectors within our industry.

31 Stimulating Budget Talk Premier Jean Charest’s plans for Northern Quebec—and what they’ve got to do with Barack Obama.

BROWNFIELDS 32 Sydney Harbour The decades-long saga of

the Sydney Tar Ponds. By Wes Stewart

33 Techworking The Canadian Brownfields Network helps find Canadian-made solutions to contamination.

36 Detailed Development How data collection leads to sustainability. By Robert Noël de Tilly

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 42 The Real Sim City Digital city planning is now a reality.

By Mira Shenker

44 An IT Economy Should Canada invest in wiring its citizens? By Kathleen Brown

DEPARTMENTS 4 Editor’s Note Mira Shenker discovers that you can,

in fact, fight City Hall.

5 Letters Jeff Morrison talks stimulus spending and Andrew Cowan updates us on green funding.

8 Opening Shots Some of the latest news postings from renewcanada.net

10 ReLocate News about the people who work in the infrastructure industry.

23 Community Profile Victoria, British Columbia. By Kathleen Brown

38 ReMediate Making a business case for small sites. By Tom Williams

39 The LEED List A sampling of new LEED certifications in Canada.

40 StormWatch Storm Cunningham has the secret to rebuilding national wealth.

47 ReFinance The truth about a potential carbon economy. By Don Drummond and Alexander Wood

48 ReEvents The annual OGRA/ROMA conference, AMERICANA 09 and more.

50 Closing Shot Infrastructure, Por Favor. By Todd Latham

ABOUT THE COvER

Cred

it: Joseph L. H

arris

Canada’s transportation

systems need to be

modernized or the

infrastructure we

invested in will be

nothing more than a relic.

May/June 2009 ReNew Canada 3www.renewcanada.net

Editor’s Note

www.renewcanada.net

May/June 2009 volume 5 Number 3

EDITOR Mira Shenker

PUBLISHER Todd Latham

CONTRIBUTORS Alex Aylett, Diane Crawford, Storm Cunningham, Kari Dow, Don Drummond, Larry Frolick, Tanya Gulliver, Robert Noël de Tilly, Jeanette Southwood, Wes Stewart, Tom Williams, Alexander Wood

ADvERTISING Todd [email protected]. 416.444.5842, ext. 111

Miles Andrew [email protected]. 416.444.5842, ext. 116

ART DIRECTION& DESIGN Donna Endacott

CIRCULATION Sharlene [email protected] P. 416-444-5842, ext 117

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Kerry Freek

By Mira Shenker

You can fight city hall

Proud members of:

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ADvISORS Jane Addie, James Sbrolla

INTERN Kathleen Brown

A common image in the fight for change of any kind—social, economic, industry—is the

plucky “little guy” pounding on the giant oak doors of City Hall. But it occurred to me recently that it’s often the reverse. It is possible to create a movement powerful enough to affect government policy (think of the women’s movement), but it’s much harder for the government to change that little guy’s mind.

It became apparent when Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure George Smitherman addressed the crowd of mostly municipal leaders and associations, and skilled trades workers at the OGRA/ROMA conference this March (see page 48). Smitherman’s office is working on what’s been called a “transformational” piece of legislation for Ontario (see page 24). In his own words, “[The Green Energy Act] would give communities and homeowners the power and tools they need to participate in the energy business in the new green economy.”

But are the “communities and homeowners” interested in changes to the economic and energy framework? If the question period following Smitherman’s speech is any indication, they’re not.

First up was a worker who has made his livelihood working in coal-fired generation plants. Ontario’s plan to phase out coal is making him nervous. He made a variety of statements about how coal is safe and clean and natural gas is dirty and unnecessary. Then he finished it off with, “This change will hurt Ontario workers; it won’t help them.”

If the workers who would help implement these new technologies are resistant to change in the industry, then those looking to make the change may as well be running in sand.

John Nicholson, editor of our sister magazine, Canadian Water Treatment, has experienced that resistance. “Having worked with emerging technology companies in Canada, I’ve experienced first-hand the trepidation municipalities and even some consultants have with new, disruptive technologies,” says Nicholson. “Newer, greener technology may be overlooked in favour of the same old way of doing things.”

The current generation of workers—with, of course, some exceptions—aren’t spending their time learning about renewal

engines (see page 40) and smart grids (see page 28). And neither are most politicians. The second question came from a Bruce County, Ontario politician who said that his municipality had been allotted funding under the federal stimulus plan, but was concerned about the “use it or lose it” proviso. “Please advocate on our behalf and make sure we don’t lose that funding,” he asked Smitherman.

This man has lived and worked in Bruce County for 76 years and Smitherman was talking to him about two-way transmission and rooftop solar panels—all he wanted was to fund basic maintenance.

It’s the province’s responsibility to help smaller municipalities who don’t have the resources to use or lose their funding. But that’s easier said than done. It’s not just the feds that are tangled up in red tape and process; bureaucracy is hard to overhaul at any level.

And let’s not forget the third barrier to change: the general public. It looks like Ontarians are reacting to the Liberal Party’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act in the same way they reacted to the federal order’s Green Shift Plan: with fear. Who can blame them? Canadians are attached to tradition—it’s why we still get pleasure from a long train ride across our country’s unique terrain (see page 12).

The public has been behind historic cultural changes of the past—without them, all of our progressive ideas and innovative technologies wouldn’t make it past the pilot project phase. If you build a LEED-Platinum building, it won’t be energy efficient unless the occupants understand how to live in it—for example, when a window opens in a climate-controlled room, energy efficiency literally goes out the window.

Part of the solution may be getting more people online and connected to information so they can educate themselves (see page 44), and another part of it may be funding education for professionals and labourers already working in the industry. Or, it may be that the solution is time. World Green Building Council executive director Andrew Bowerbank said during a presentation at Americana this March (see page 48), “Change is generational.” Canada may have to rely on the next generation to see any significant change in the way we plan, build and manage infrastructure.

4 ReNew Canada May/June 2009 www.renewcanada.net

FEATURE CONTRIBUTORS

Letters

Next issue: July/august

advertising Deadline: June 5, 2009

call todd: 416-444-5842, ext. 111

www.renewcanada.net

Larry FrolickLarry is the author of Bastard Eden/Our Chernobyl (2008) and is a regular contributor to ReNew Canada. .pg 12

Kari DowKari is a researcher at University of British Columbia’s Design Centre for Sustainability and is currently completing her Masters in Landscape Architecture.pg 18

Tanya GulliverTanya is a freelance writer, grad student, community development consultant and university instructor in Toronto, Ontario.pg 19

Alex AylettAlex is a writer and researcher on urban redesign and sustainability.pg 28

StimuluS Progress

On April 7, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird and Federation

of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) President Jean Perrault issued a letter to all Canadian municipal councils outlining several implementation details of the infrastructure investments contained in the 2009 stimulus package, as well as updates on previous infrastructure announcements originating with the Building Canada plan. Those details reinforced the government’s desire to get shovels in the ground as quickly as possible, so as to maximize the short-term economic impact that these investments will generate.

Although money has barely begun to flow, those Association of Canadian Engineering Companies (ACEC) members actively involved in the infrastructure-related field are hoping for a flood of project proposals over the next several weeks and months.

Given that several engineering firms have reported reduced workloads in the face of the economic downturn, these announcements can’t come soon enough.

When the stimulus package was first unveiled, ACEC recommended four key principles for effective implementation of the stimulus measures. These included:

• Minimize bureaucracy and red tape in the approvals process. The federal government has agreed with this principle, as evidenced by changes to environmental assessments, amendments to the Navigable Waters Act, and the elimination of formal approval bureaucracies that will expedite project approvals.

• Projects should be chosen strategically, not just for the sake of expediency. ACEC expects that owners will choose projects based not only on how shovel-ready they are, but on their long-term strategic value to Canadians. The $1 billion Green Infrastructure Fund states this goal upfront, but we expect other programs will follow the same principle.

• Professional consultants should be chosen using Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS). As the recommended best practice, a QBS-procurement system for the selection of professional consultants will ensure maximum value for the taxpayer. Given that all levels of government will be involved in procurement, we’re looking for leadership from all levels of government in implementing QBS-based procurement tools.

• Work on projects should be outsourced to private interests. In order to generate the maximum economic stimulus, work on infrastructure projects should be outsourced to the private sector—otherwise stimulus money will simply be used to subsidize government operations. ACEC and its member organizations will monitor implementation to see if governments are adopting this principle.

Consulting engineering firms across Canada are anxious to start working to put into place the next generation of infrastructure. With the proper leadership and policy choices on the part of the federal, provincial and municipal governments, consulting engineers will be best placed to ensure that projects are delivered not just in a timely manner, but in a cost-effective and highly innovative manner as well.

Jeff Morrison, President and Chief Operating Officer, ACEC

IN THIS ISSUE

Actual Media 36

AIU Holdings 35

Aecon Infrastructure 21

Autodesk 2

BOMA Toronto Conservation and Demand Management Program 29

Bridgepoint Group 46

Canadian Brownfields 2009 34

Canadian Brownfields Network 36

Canadian Water Treatment 45

CH2M HILL 17

CleanEARTH Solutions 33

Corporate Knights 26

CPCI 15

CUTA 18

Decommissioning Consulting Services 31

EDC 20

Enbridge 27

Federation of Canadian Municipalities 22

Golder Associates 33

Gowling Lafleur Henderson 9

Halsall 39

Hatch Mott MacDonald 24

Infrastructure Ontario 51

John Laing Infrastructure 7

Maxxam Analytics 25

MMM Group 37

Municipal DataWorks 49

PCL 41

Pinchin Environmental 37

PricewaterhouseCoopers 8

RCCAO 40

Riva Modeling 43

Sanexen 31

Stantec 24

Trow Associates 45

URS Canada 26

Wardrop Infrastructure 8

WeirFoulds LLP 52

W.P. Osborne 10

XCG Consultants Ltd. 37

Projects should be

chosen strategically,

not just for the sake

of expediency.

—Jeff Morrison

Don DrummondDon is chief economist and Senior VP at TD Bank Financial Group.pg 47


I ’m writing to share some important information about changes to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Green Municipal Fund

(GMF) that I think will be of interest to your readers. GMF is a unique program that supports municipal

initiatives across Canada that benefit the environment, local economies and quality of life. The GMF provides below-market loans and grants, as well as education and training services to support municipal initiatives that improve air, water and soil quality, and protect the climate. Grants are available for sustainable community plans, feasibility studies and field tests, while a combination of grants and loans are available for capital projects. Funding is allocated in five sectors of municipal activity: brownfields, energy, transportation, waste and water.

Over the past year, GMF has reaffirmed its commitment to a more client-centred service and adopted a continuous improvement approach. We have been listening to what municipal governments across Canada have to say, and we have heard them loud and clear.

They’ve told us that they want to be able to apply for grants and loans at any time of year, and to know far in advance what kinds of applications will be eligible: we have made the necessary changes to meet this need. We’ve removed all deadlines to apply for grants and below-market loans for capital projects. Municipal governments and their partners can now apply whenever it best fits into their project cycle. We’ve also locked in the eligibility requirements from now until at least March 31, 2010.

They also told us that they want a streamlined applications process that is easier and takes less time: we are currently redesigning our processes to meet this need. As a first step, we now review new applications on a monthly basis, and are committed to providing a response as quickly as possible.

We are listening, and we are working hard to meet the needs of municipal governments across Canada. We will keep the lines of communication open on ways to simplify and streamline our processes and to improve GMF products and services. Comments or suggestions are always welcome.

Best regards,

Andrew Cowan Senior Manager, Knowledge Management Unit FCM’s Green Municipal Fund

more Supportfor local ProJects

Letters

“ smart grid and smart growth comes apart when it runs into stupid budget.”— glen Murray, ceo and president,

canadian urban institute

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Opening Shots


ReLocate

Teresa Sarkesian is leaving her job as director of business development at the Cement Association of Canada. She will be the new VP, goverment and member affairs with the Electricity Distributors Association of Ontario.

Patrice Impey is the new CFO and GM of financial services for the City of Vancouver. The search committee was chaired by the city manager and included the City’s GM of human resources. The selection process included input from members of City Council, the City’s corporate management team, and senior staff within financial services.

Neil McCrank is the new VP of asset management at Plenary Group. Neil brings hands-on experience with public sector facilities gained as a facilities manager

for both Johnson Controls and Alberta Public Works, and as an

Robert Prichard, former CEO of Torstar Corp., will be the transition advisor for the much-publicized Metrolinx-Go Transit merger. Many industry insiders have argued it is the best, most efficient way to get transit built in the GTA. Representatives for the Toronto Board of Trade have said numerous times that the best way to manage transit in Toronto and urban centres is to appoint former private-sector power players to advisory roles in order to move projects and plans forward without all the bickering, red tape and political rigmarole (to use Hazel McCallion’s favourite word). Metrolinx chair Rob MacIsaac and GO chair Peter Smith will be part of a transitional board of directors. After the merger the new board will be made up entirely of private-sector representatives, kicking municipal leaders out of the process.

NeilMcCrank

area maintenance manager for the Edmonton Catholic School Board. His P3 life cycle and operations knowledge and his first-hand experience in managing public sector facilities is a great addition to the Plenary team.

Linda Petelka, the manager of business and infrastructure services for the Region of Halton in Ontario, has been selected as one of the 2009 APWA Top Ten Leaders of the Year.

The award recognizes the outstanding career service achievements of individual public works professionals and officials from both the public and private sectors.

Quebec Finance Minister Monique Jerome-Forget announced on April 8 that she is resigning and will leave politics. Raymond Bachand, who is also Quebec's economic development

minister, will take over the portfolio.

LindaPetelka

renewcanada.net/ topics/blog

read ttc chair adam Giambrone’s response at


Transportation

Don Streuber is president of Bison Transport, headquartered in Winnipeg—the geographical bull’s eye of the country and the central hub of our national rail and trucking systems. Bison is one of the country’s largest trucking companies, with a thousand tractors on the road, each weighing over 14,000 pounds, and, at any given hour, most of them pulling time-sensitive trailer loads between Halifax and Vancouver Island, down to California and across to Florida.

It’s a tough job, made tougher by political inaction on national infrastructure issues.

“Even before I became president ten years ago,” says Streuber, “we noticed the country’s infrastructure slipping. New roads and bridges do get built, but ongoing maintenance is a problem. Sixty per cent of our business is east-west; and around 40 per cent is north-south. Why is it, then, after all these years, that we still do not have a proper four-lane highway going across the country?”

It’s a fair question, and the answer seems to lie within nationalist political agendas. Two northern routes at the edge of the Canadian frontier show some of the tough choices today’s governments have made to optimize these competing technologies for long-term strategic goals. VIA Rail operates the nation’s only Arctic train on a three times weekly, 30-something-hour run, from Winnipeg to

I f our nation was born from the ritual hammering of the last spike on the Canadian Pacific Railway line at

Craigellachie, British Columbia in 1885, it grew to adulthood with the freedom of the blacktop highway in the 1950s. Historically, we tend to view railways as a romantic nineteenth-century science, with its arcane lore of industrial mechanics—iron horses, bogies and cabooses, roundhouses, dead man’s handle—while chromed-up trucks, hurtling past chromed-up roadside diners, deliver a futurist ideology promising novelty and endless self-discovery. Trainology versus truckism: the two systems are so integral to our national identity that we have difficulty seeing them objectively. During the War, the German Army broadcast the soulful whistle-cries of prairie trains to homesick Canadian soldiers, in an effort to make them desert the battlefield. Beyond the folk myths and family memories, however, we need to ask the question:

What are the competitive advantages of these two transport systems in the twenty-first century?

Neither system is yet fully adapted to our northern terrain. Today, the Canadian environment still presents transport operators with notoriously vexing technical and economic problems.

the ocean port of Churchill, Manitoba. And a Bi-Territorial Agreement regulates the Dempster Highway, which connects the old Gold Rush capital, Dawson City, Yukon, to the “new Dawson”—the future pipeline-hub town of Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

We did both trips, and this is what we found:

Which one of canada’s two major

transportation systems is holding

up best against modern realities like

increased demand and climate change?

traiNoloGy & truckiSm

By Larry Frolick

Cred

it: Donald

Web

er

Via rail, hudson Bay line: Winnipeg to churchill, manitoba

It’s March 21, the first day of spring. The VIA train pulls out of Winnipeg at 8:13 p.m. with 36 hours to go before it’s due to arrive in Churchill on the Arctic coast. Extra trip time is anticipated for what was politely called “slow track,” as well as request stops for isolated hamlets like Thicket Ridge and Pit Siding. It was warm a few days ago. Now the

Cred

it: Larry Frolick

Jimmy works the control room on VIA’s Churchill line.


Transportation

After forty hours of convivial travel with a variety of world-travellers, we approach Mile Zero. The vast grain silos of Churchill loom, shrouded in sea-mist like prehistoric megaliths. Forty per cent of the West’s wheat and other grains once passed through here. Now it’s down to 17 per cent.

Our train wails three times. Passengers step down into the icy platform and walk out into the pure air of the Arctic coast. We’ve arrived: a triumph of near-heroic logistics.

white panorama outside the window shows the return of a prairie winter. What does the heaving and freezing of these spring thaws do to the rail tracks?

The man in charge of the passenger cars, Paul Clement, is a 27-year-veteran with VIA Rail. “We stop every sixty miles,” says Clement, “because our built-in black boxes don’t work in extreme temperatures. The train stops, the engineer gets out. He checks the wheels of the train on one side, then the train backs up and he checks the other side.”

Safety is the paramount importance for the VIA crew. Terry, the shift engineer, says that two locomotives are used on the Hudson Bay Line run, each with 3,000-hp engines. Ice crystals form at about -50°C, and if enough

housing materials and the latest furniture and electronic equipment.

We left Dawson in the morning in, of all trucks, a Yukon. The gravel-based Dempster is not an easy road to drive, even on a sunny day in mid-August when the odds of encountering black ice or sudden flooding are minimal. Like the VIA Rail line to Churchill, the Dempster is built over permafrost, and must negotiate windswept rocky passes and flood-prone bogs. Designed primarily for truck use, its tolerance for human error is low, but more amateur drivers are using it every day.

of them get sucked into the engine, it will stop dead. The extra locomotive is “just in case.” The countryside’s boreal terrain—rocky shield, bog, spruce forest, permafrost lowland—presents unique maintenance problems. Terry has taken special courses to operate a prairie train. But such training courses are not enough, as Clement explains:

“Running a prairie train is different from a mountain train. With a mountain train, you need dynamic brakes to prevent burnouts and runaways. With a prairie train you need a high order of training from staff. A few winters ago one of our engineer guys had to scrape a hole to see through the windshield of his lead locomotive, after the first engine went. He sat in a deep freezer all the way.”

As we pass Togo, Mikado, Nonsuch, passengers come and go; cargo gets unloaded at isolated stops in the middle of a vast taiga. Diapers, bulk pet food, machine parts. We pass Nonsuch, Bird, Button, and Lamprey. “Admiral Button was the first to plant a British flag in Manitoba,” says Clement. “It’s our history going by.”

Cred

it: Larry Frolick

Cred

it: Donald

Web

er

Passengers socialize and look out at the vast tundra on a VIA dining car.

Cred

it: Donald

Web

er

operator training is the invisible part of the transportation

sector’s infrastructure, with capital costs reflected upfront in

extensive training, and afterwards, in accounting contingencies

for avoidable mistakes caused by human error.

Dempster highway: Dawson city to inuvik

Completed in 1978, after much national political debate, the Dempster Highway winds north from Dawson City, Yukon, through low mountain valleys for 721 kilometres before it ends in the town of Inuvik (pop. 6,500), NWT.

The two-lane gravel “highway” provides a third, alternative route to shipping goods by sea or air to the newly-bustling town on the delta of the Mackenzie River. The government of the NWT has proposed a new $700-million extension of the road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea.

Slated for massive expansion when the gas pipeline project begins, Inuvik is already attracting an influx of young professionals who want to be able to drive their own cars. They also want the weighty things that trucks can deliver, cheaply and quickly, to their new neighborhoods of modern prefab houses, affectionately known as “The Smarties.” This new frontier generation is happy to pay for fresh foodstuffs, innovative

Because of its loose, gravel-over-bedrock construction, the Dempster is notorious for shredding new tires. The all-weather highway is ploughed throughout winter and gets mixed reviews from the truckers who use it regularly. Chris, an independent trucker-owner who lives in northern British Columbia, recounted over a cup of coffee how he delivered a load of housing spruce lumber to Inuvik, his last load of the year.

“I don’t like the ice. You can lose your rig in a flash.”

Other drivers in the coffee shop of the mid-point Eagle Plains motel, contended that the Dempster was satisfactorily functional, even relatively safe.

The Dempster Highway starts in Dawson City, Yukon and continues north for 721 kilometres.

In two days of white-knuckle driving, we passed 16-wheelers

lying upended in the ditch, along with a dozen SUVs that

had met serious grief mere inches over the crumbly shoulder.

The tow charge back to Dawson City is $700.


“The only problem is the ice on the rivers, the Mackenzie and the Peel,” said Walter, another driver from B.C. “There’s a month either way when the ice is building and they close the ferries. But the winters are getting warmer, so the freeze-up takes longer and is more uncertain. The driver on the first truck’s just got to pray a little harder as he rolls across the river ice.”

Hard ice was assumed in the design of both the Churchill rail line and the Dempster Highway. It’s clear that climate change will create mucky havoc at the northern edges of these two transportation systems, but industry leaders point to other factors that now affect the performance of Canada’s transportation facilities in less dramatic, but more cogent, ways.

technology and the human Factor

Peter Flegeris, Investor Relations with Viterra Inc., says green technology has produced a windfall that will translate into significant savings for this publicly-traded grain handling company headquartered in Regina, Saskatchewan, with annual sales of $1.5 billion. In January 2009, Viterra purchased its first green locomotive from U.S.-based manufacturer National Railway Equipment Co., with help from Transport Canada’s ecoFreight Technologies Incentives Program.

“We ordered the N-locomotive to replace existing, less fuel-efficient equipment that was being rented. The locomotive’s expected lifecycle is 20 years,” says Flegeris. “It can pull 28 loaded railcars, each car weighing about 30 metric tons and carrying 93 metric tons of grain. We expect that with current fuel prices, our return on investment exceeds five-and-a-half years on a straight line basis.”

Transportation

Called the N-ViroMotive GenSet Locomotive, it’s cuter than its guttural name

would suggest—and cleaner to operate.

Cred

it: Larry Frolick

But what about the technological thrust? How difficult is the new system to operate?

“Viterra uses EPA Tier III engines in all its new equipment,” says Flegeris. “This has become a fairly standard offering with equipment suppliers. The use of EPA Tier III engines for locomotive application is really the new development in this technology. The locomotive is actually fairly easy to use and, for the most part, operates as a conventional locomotive. We believe a 10 per cent reduction in energy per tonne handled is achievable.”

Don Streuber of Bison Transport identifies four factors that have raised the bar for technological solutions in the trucking industry during the past decade, and pushed companies like his into aggressively seeking new solutions across the board:

“The first of these recent events was 9/11, which raised insurance costs across the board,” says Streuber. “Then the new EPA standards came in 2003 and 2007. The immediate cost of emissions compliance was thousands of dollars per tractor, and those units also added weight, as much as 750 pounds, so that we had to trim our gas tanks down to 200-300 gallons to maintain our previous payload capacity. Then there is the

North American Free Trade Agreement, and rising fuel costs, of course.”

Implementation of the new strategies is ongoing, and incremental.

“Because of these factors we have become more experimental, looking for new solutions in practice. We’ve installed our tractors with auxiliary power units, which provide the drivers with heat, electricity and cooling while their engines are turned off.”

But there’s a fifth variable that provides a counterpoint to the technical questions, one that resists programming based solely on the innovation model: the human factor.

“We put an instructor in the cab for several months with every new driver who has completed all his training. The instructor’s job is to identify driver habits,” Streuber emphasizes the phrase as highly problematic. “And every driver has one.”

Up to thirty per cent of gas consumption can be affected by driver habits, which is a pure, bottom-line factor, a cost that can be reduced in real time, so the emphasis at Bison is on motivating the driver to be “fuel-economic.”

“The driver is always in danger,” Streuber maintains, “as the seasons change the driving

Rising fuel costs and new EPA standards are part of the impetus

to build more efficient trucks.

Cred

it: Bison Transp

ort

operating a transportation system

in a tough climate like canada’s has

produced both cutting-edge technology

and cutting-edge workers.

(Continued on page 17)


Transportation

Bc evergreen line One of the bigger projects to get funding through Budget09 (mentioned in last issue’s feature, “Breaking Down Budget 2009”), the $1.4-billion rapid transit line will get up to $416.7 million from the feds—$350 million of which comes out of the previously announced $33 billion Building Canada Fund. Construction is expected to start in 2010 and be completed in 2014. Around $173 million is expected to come from private-sector partners. In February 2009, the province established the Evergreen Line Project Office to manage the project and try to move it along at a reasonable pace. Details at tc.gc.ca

Bc Victoria regional rapid transit project No funding yet, but the project is looking at ways to improve transit to outer areas of the Capital Regional District. On the Victoria Regional Rapid Transit Project website, organizers say they want to develop “rapid transit options that will provide a safe, convenient, reliable, attractive and green alternative to automobile travel in the Capital Region.” There is transit already in the region: the E&N Railroad is a short line railway between Victoria and Courtenay owned by not-for-profit group Island Corridor Foundation. The project needs $100 million in track improvements, but some believe

all aBoarDVancouver’s 19-kilometre canada line is a rapid rail route that will add the equivalent of ten road lanes on a route that about half

a million people travel along daily. it’s ahead of schedule and will be open by fall 2009, and it’s the first of many new investments

that could make a mark on our top 100 list of infrastructure projects for 2010. is passenger rail travel moving ahead of highway

as the preferred mode of transportation and an answer to congestion?

making it part of the public transit system would help justify the expenditure. Details at bctransit.com/vrrt/

oN union-pearson rail link The proposed Georgetown South rail corridor expansion and new rail service between Union Station and Pearson International Airport is one of the first big projects to be implemented from The Big Move, Metrolinx’s Regional Transportation Plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. It could mean 28 kilometres of new track and would take an $875-million chunk out of recently announced transit funding for Ontario. The link would get passengers to Pearson in about 25 minutes—a convenience Metronlinx predicts would eliminate more than 1.5 million car trips in its first year of operation. Details at metrolinx.com or ttc.ca

oN harbourfront Waterfront Toronto has now decided that remaking Queens Quay into a grand lakefront boulevard is the solution the city has been waiting for. The $192-million plan features streetcar lanes in the centre, traffic only on the north side and a pedestrian-focused space on the south side is the recommended option for transforming the waterfront’s main road. Details at waterfrontoronto.ca

Is rail coming up the winner in a train versus truck battle? While VIA’s final numbers for last year won’t be out until April, ridership for the first six months of 2008 was up more than 10 per cent in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, which accounts for 80 per cent of ridership. That track is getting an investment out of the 2009 federal budget—overall Canada’s government will spend $407 million on rail infrastructure, including tracks, locomotives and stations.

But that $407 million is part of a stimulus package—an attempt to perk up an ailing economy. While in March 2008 Canadian National Rail announced, as part of its Western Region capital program, investments of about $1.5 billion, later in the year the railway operator announced it would cut its 2009 spending by about $200 million. In a statement, CFO Kathryn McQuade said the company is planning capital investment in 2009 “consistent with the current economic conditions.”

And even with all this investment in rail, there are currently 48,000 kilometres of track in Canada’s rail network compared to Canada’s nearly 900,000 kilometres of road. Maybe the answer is that Canada’s 38,000-kilometre national highway system will always be the country’s main artery, while rail and transit can be the veins, transporting urbanites at a city and regional scale. It’s all about balance. —Staff

“There’s a month either way when the ice is building and they close the ferries.

The driver on the first truck’s just got to pray a little harder as he rolls across the river ice.”

The Dempster Highway takes you as far as you can go by car to this stretch in the Northwest Territories near Inuvik.

Cred

it: Donald

Web

er


conditions, and road conditions are always unexpected. Helping him to identify his driver habits—his tendency to tailgate, or wander in lane, or speed—keeps him safe, and our value-equation intact.”

Operator training is the invisible part of the transportation sector’s infrastructure, with capital costs reflected upfront in extensive training, and afterwards, in accounting contingencies for avoidable mistakes caused by human error. And just like highways and rail track, this human infrastructure needs to be maintained because it quickly wears out:

“Driver turnover in the trucking industry is a major problem,” says Streuber. “In the U.S., a turnover rate of 105 per cent per year points to a high retraining cost. Here in Canada our numbers are better, with maybe a 25 per cent annual turnover. Most trucking companies specialize in niche markets; our niches are reefers (refrigerated containers) and drive-van (closed boxes). Retention of properly-trained skilled drivers is a priority for everyone in the industry.”

Staff turnover in the rail industry is nothing like this; VIA Rail employees are in the 2 per cent level, reflecting a different working mindset where individual performance is tied to sustained teamwork and collective responsibility. The urgency of a truck driver’s schedule and emphasis on solitude not only attracts pragmatic loners, but keeps them moving in and out of the industry itself, a significant and unrecoverable cost.

The special challenges of operating a transportation system in a tough climate like Canada’s has produced both cutting-edge technology and cutting-edge people to staff it—train engineers, long-distance truck-drivers, top-hatted financial visionaries, and “navvies,” the dogged field crews celebrated by Gordon Lightfoot—all part of our national identity.

But trucks can’t do what trains do: deliver fat loads cheaply. And trains can’t do what trucks do: finalize service to the door and by the clock. If neither mode is equipped to handle modern demands and circumstances, what are the prospects of an intermediate system that might bridge the respective efficiencies of our two transportation systems?

Visit renewcanada.net

For exclusive web content and the chance to comment on this article

Larry Frolick is the author of Bastard Eden/Our Chernobyl (2008) and is a regular contributor to ReNew Canada.

Transportation

“ Everything you can imagine

that gives us a technological edge,

we are doing and will do.”

—Don Streuber

(Continued from page 14)


In 2006, the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation launched the Gateway Program aimed at fighting congestion in Metro Vancouver. Under this regional transportation

program, the province will spend billions to build a new Port Mann Bridge across the Fraser River and widen the road on either end [see “P3s in B.C.,” July/August 2008]—a surefire way to increase the flow of traffic into and out of the Metro Vancouver region. And some would argue a questionable strategy for achieving Premier Gordon Campbell’s goal of reducing B.C.’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

At the University of British Columbia’s Design Centre for Sustainability, Professor Patrick Condon and I ran an alternative scenario. What if the money earmarked for the expansion of the Port Mann Bridge was used to provide a different kind of transportation for the region? What about removing cars from the road rather than expanding infrastructure to accommodate them?

We found that for the same money, the government could finance a 200-kilometre light rail network that would place 80 per cent of all the residents in Surrey, White Rock, Langley, and the Scott Road district of Delta within a ten-minute walk of a modern tram. It would

also provide a connection from Surrey to the new Evergreen Line and connect Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge to a regional tram system.

If only half of the approximately 40 million annual trips anticipated for the new bridge were captured by such a system, it would mean a reduction of nearly 10,000 metric tons of GHG emissions per year—the equivalent of taking more than 21,000 cars off the road. This amount likely pales in comparison to the total reductions of car use throughout the South Fraser region that would result from the extensive light rail network.

Transportation

Kari Dow is a researcher at University of British Columbia’s Design Centre for Sustainability and is currently completing her Masters in Landscape Architecture.

the oNe and the maNyBritish columbia’s provincial government is poised to spend $3.1 billion on one bridge—but what if the province could use that money to buy an entire transportation network?By Kari Dow

Visit renewcanada.net/resources

to download uBc’s cost comparison of transportation modes, as well as other reports


Transportation

projects totalling $11.5 billion, and last year by removing a key component—road pricing—from Metrolinx’s final plan.

That plan was passed last November by the board of Metrolinx—an assemblage of mayors and regional chairs from the GTHA. They voted unanimously to accept the new $50-billion regional transportation plan. The Big Move aims to create 1,200 kilometres of new rapid transit, resulting in a 50 per cent reduction in passenger transportation emissions.

When the plan was released in November 2008, Metrolinx chair Rob MacIssac said, “The municipal leaders on the Metrolinx board have come together, with a single voice, to create a common vision for transportation in the region.”

But just a few months later, some GTHA mayors and regional chairs are feeling pushed out of the process.

The current Metrolinx board will be replaced by experts in planning, finance and development; former TorStar CEO Robert Prichard has been appointed as the transition advisor for the merger. Many municipal leaders—Toronto’s Mayor David Miller among them—have expressed fears that this board won’t understand the unique transit needs of their towns, cities and regions. Miller says, “It’s not something I would have done. The board was working extremely well—efficient, effective and on time. It’s a very significant mistake. Transit isn’t just about transit; it’s not like building a car. It’s about social integration and social justice.”

TTC chair Adam Giambrone blogged on the ReNew Canada website (renewcanada.

C anada is the only country in the G8 without a national transit strategy. Some Canadian provinces have

transit plans, but few have a comprehensive strategy that includes a cost and a plan to cover that cost.

In 2007, the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) estimated Canada needs to invest $2 billion a year in transit in addition to existing funding—$21 billion for transit infrastructure between 2007 and 2010.

The desire for spending to bring stimulus has helped. Federal gas tax transfers to the provinces and territories doubled in April 2009 and now provide $2 billion per year—or about five cents per litre of gasoline—for municipal transit infrastructure.

But CUTA has upped its estimate since 2007. A new report puts the number closer to $40 billion (between 2008 and 2012) for maintenance, system upgrades and expansion.

Ontario’s 2009 budget took a step toward meeting that demand this April by pouring an additional $9 billion into transit for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

New funding announcements in Ontario coincided with the introduction of new legislation: the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Transit Implementation Act merges Metrolinx (the organization that brought together politicians and transit leaders to develop a transit plan for the GTHA) with GO Transit, the provincial transportation agency.

The relevance and future of Metrolinx has been in question for some time. The province has twice circumvented the organization, in 2007 by announcing its own list of transit

net/topics/blog) that, while new funding announcements are “welcome,” this new board is a bad idea. “What’s lost in the new model is all of the experience and consensus-building that has gone into Metrolinx up until now, as well as the public accountability of elected representatives,” he wrote.

In response, Richard Joy with the Toronto Board of Trade said, “Interesting that he avoids the key point that he raises: funding. For all the good work the old board did in planning where money should be spent, they punted the question as to where to get the money, beyond the provincial start-up funds.”

Still, Miller argues that an organization that already relies heavily on consultants shouldn’t replace the institutional wisdom and knowledge of municipal politicians with policy people and planning experts. He says Metrolinx is a young organization with a staff of “very smart policy people who are not very experienced in transit.”

Politicians, he says, are better able to negotiate with each other when interests conflict. “There is a different interest between the region and the cities—think Spadina Expressway. It’s in the region’s interest to go through Toronto; it’s in the city’s interest to get people to go around Toronto.”

Leslie Woo, general manager of policy and planning at Metrolinx, says the change won’t affect the organization’s goals or the work it’s been doing. She says the goal remains “clearing the way for projects to get delivered more quickly” and that the provincial announcement of the expansion of the rapid transit network echoes their

does good governance equal good business?traNSit transforMation

By Tanya Gulliver

An expanded, revitalized Union Station was one of the “Big Moves” in Metrolinx’s regional transportation plan, released in November 2008.

Cred

it: Larry Frolick


Transportation

number-one priority. Woo says, “There are many examples

[of this structure] around the world that function, grow and flourish.”

Closer to home, the best example is British Columbia’s TransLink, the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority. While its board went from politicos to private-sector planners in 2007, major decisions are still passed through the Mayor’s Council on Regional Transportation. This council, composed of the 21 mayors within Metro Vancouver, is also charged with appointing TransLink’s board of directors and the Regional Transportation Commissioner. B.C.’s 2009 budget includes $14 billion in infrastructure spending, $2.3 billion of which is aimed at transportation projects and, as pointed out by Woo, administered through TransLink.

Across the country, transit and road spending was announced as part of provincial budgets and regional plans, all generated and administered by different types of agencies.

In Quebec, regional planning is left up to the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport (AMT), formed in 1994. Its goal is similar to that of Metrolinx: to increase the use of public transit in order to make travelling around the Greater Montreal area more efficient for citizens. But the AMT is a government agency accountable to the Transport Minister—and its board is made up of elected officials.

Alberta has a provincial transit plan. The province announced $520 million through to 2011-2012, including $10 million in 2009, as part of its Green Transit Initiatives Program (GreenTRIP), administered by Alberta Transportation. The goal is to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by getting cars off the roads. Yet, $5.8 million of that will be spent on improving road infrastructure.

CUTA president Michael Roschlau said at Americana in March (see page 48) that smaller provinces in the Prairies and Atlantic Canada simply don’t have the resources to create their own plan and that’s why a national plan is needed.

Beyond B.C., Quebec and Ontario, it gets pretty bleak for transit planning. Manitoba doesn’t have a province-wide transit plan, though it has increased transfer payments to municipalities to a total of $213 million—in part to be dedicated to transit expenditures. Nova Scotia has yet to announce its budget for 2009-2010, but in the past has leaned heavily on federal funding for transit.

Miller says the fact that transit funding and expansion is on politicians’ and the public’s radars is a good sign—and a big improvement over years past. “I was first

elected to office in 1994. In 1995 I voted for a subway extension to York University and the shovel will get in the ground this year or next; that’s 20 years from first idea to first construction. By comparison, it’s less than ten years from first idea to completion for Light Rail Transit lines.”

Tanya Gulliver is a freelance writer, grad student, community development consultant and university instructor in Toronto, Ontario.

“Transit isn’t just about

transit; it’s not like building

a car. It’s about social

integration and social

justice.”—David Miller


Victoria, British coluMBia

Suggest your community and we may profile it. Email [email protected].

Location: Southern tip of Vancouver Island

Founded: 1843

Population: 78,659 (2006)

Capital Budget: $50 million (2008)

Major Industries: Information Technology and Tourism

Funding: FCM’s Green Municipal Fund contributed $25,000 to Victoria’s Sanitary Servicing Study and Needs Assessments in 2003, and $350,000 towards the Brownfield Redevelopment at Dockside Green in 2006.

infraStats• More than 50 flights land each day at Victoria’s

International Airport from Vancouver and Seattle.

• Passenger ferries, cars, trucks and trailers make more than 100 crossings to and from the mainland daily.

• Victoria is Western Canada’s oldest city. It began as a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post.

• 3.65 million visitors per year contribute more than one billion dollars to the city’s economy.

• The city’s water is supplied from Sooke Lake Reservoir. The lake water is very soft and requires no filtering. It is treated with chlorine, ammonia and ultraviolet light to control microorganisms.

• There are eight LEED-certified projects in Greater Victoria and 31 others registered to go through the LEED process during their development.

• Dockside Green, a fifteen-acre development built on a remediated brownfield site, aims to be the first LEED-Platinum sustainable community in North America.

• $1.2 billion is being invested in a secondary sewage treatment facility. Expected completion is 2016.

Community Profile

O n an island surrounded by ocean, mountains, wildlife and lush vegetation, you’ll find the City of Victoria. It sounds almost utopian. But unlike true paradise, Victoria is not immune to

the effects of years of deferred infrastructure maintenance. With some of the City’s infrastructure dating back to the late nineteenth century—sewer and stormwater systems from before 1920—engineers put the cost for projects in need of immediate funding at $92.5 million. Only $10.4 million is set aside for the city’s 2009 infrastructure projects.

Despite the need to improve some of its aging infrastructure, the City still remains committed to developing new projects.

The Province of B.C., through the Transportation Partnerships Program, is contributing $1.5 million towards the construction of an offshore mooring pile at Ogden Point cruise ship terminal. The $4.5-million project will improve the terminal’s berthing capacity and make room for longer ships. Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development Ida Chong says, “The ability for larger cruise ships to berth in Victoria is a competitive advantage for the terminal. It’s estimated that the new ships serving Alaska will increase direct spending in our community by over $1.8 million annually.”

With the upcoming 2010 winter Olympic Games in British Columbia, the city is expected to draw even more visitors.

Perhaps the projected influx of people was a motivating factor for the island to re-evaluate its current sewage treatment. For decades, Victoria has treated sewage by using screens to remove the solids, which are taken to landfills. The rest of the untreated waste is then pumped into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In 2006, Victoria dumped 129 million litres of raw sewage into the Strait every day, making the City one of the highest-profile sewage polluters in Canada.

GM of Environmental Services Dwayne Kalynchuk says, “It’s not raw sewage, it is screened.” The sewage is shot out of two outfalls: the Macaulay Point Outfall pipe, which travels 1.8 kilometres away from shore and rests 60 metres below the surface, and the 1.2-kilometre, 65-metres-deep Clover Point pipe. The pipes rest on the ocean floor and shoot liquid waste out of small holes called diffusers. The waste hits the fast-moving currents of the ocean, where, many argue, it gets diluted safely into the natural flushing currents of the Strait.

The debate continues between those who believe the ocean can flush away the waste, and those who say the lack of treatment is doing untold damage to the ecosystem. Whatever the case, Kalynchuk says the City is “moving forward with providing a secondary sewage treatment.”

By Kathleen Brown

Victoria’s inner harbour has a mini-airport that acts as a private seaplane base.

Cred

it: Tourism V

ictoria, Image B

ank

Old Town, built up between the 1860s and the 1890s, is a tourist draw.

Cred

it: Tourism V

ictoria, Deanne G

illespie


Last July, when I asked the Canadian Wind Energy Association’s VP of Policy Sean Whittaker about barriers

to wind development, he didn’t mention legislation. “Transmission is the issue,” he said. That hasn’t changed. But a few other things might.

If Bill 150—or as it’s more affectionately known, the Green Energy and Green Economy Act (GEA)—passes, then renewable energy approvals would allow green energy projects to be built regardless of zoning and building code restrictions, subject to provincial regulations on setbacks. At least that’s the idea.

“In principle, it’s a real opportunity for new renewable generation and the transmission required to get that energy online,” says Valerie Helbronner with Torys LLP.

In principle. But in order to deliver cleaner, economically viable energy production, the GEA has to be well mapped out, and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MEI) still hasn’t hashed out all the details. At a Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) session on March 26, Deputy Minister with the MEI, Saäd Rafi, (See page 49) was asked how land-use planning fits into to the new legislation. He said, “We’re looking to do away with the zone designation. It’s part of

the commitment to having a working feed-in tariff.” In other words, that’s an area they have yet to consider.

The Ministry is taking meetings with associations and developers and plans to create a Renewable Energy Facilitation Office to build an effective Act.

Helbronner says, “One of the biggest issues is making all the consultation processes work in parallel under a tight timeline.” Bill 150 is in committee hearings already; it’s going to its third reading in May and to force of law by June. Before then, it has to be reviewed by the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario Power Authority

ontario’s green energy and green economy act is making some big promises—

but it’s a bit fuzzy on the details.

actiNG green

By Mira Shenker

Energy


Energy

(OPA), Hydro One and other distributors, not to mention consultations with multiple stakeholders and the public.

To further complicate the process, Helbronner points out one noticeable absence in the queue of consultants: the Ontario Energy Board (OEB). “As an independent regulator it has an impossible role to play,” she says.”It has to specify transmission.” According to the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, it will cost $60 billion to expand and reinforce the Ontario grid and bring on new generation. Someone needs to work out who is building these new lines and, more importantly, who is going to pay for them.

Once that’s decided, developers will still need to consult with aboriginal communities, as stipulated in Bill 150. “The principle behind it is really important, but I’d like to know where aboriginal consultation fits into the streamlining process,” says Helbronner.

While this legislation may move forward with more than a few questions unanswered, at least one thing is clear: the intention is to improve on the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) launched two years ago. The GEA would do away with RESOP’s size limit of ten megawatts, give green projects priority connection to the grid and a feed-in tariff that eliminates some of the issues that, at a practical level, were a major barrier to new projects.

John Kourtoff, whose company Trillium Power Wind Corporation is looking to develop offshore wind, calls this new legislation “transformational.” In Germany, advanced or differential tariffs like the one proposed in the GEA encouraged people across the country to participate in the renewable energy sector because they were assured a reasonable return on investment (ROI).

it will cost $60 billion

to expand and

reinforce the ontario

grid and bring on

new generation.

It’s not all about Ontario’s power and transmission capacity—the grid has to connect to New York, Quebec and possibly well beyond. At a recent CUI Urban Leadership Series talk, Deputy Minister with the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure Saäd Rafi said his offices have been in detailed talks with the Charest government to make sure Quebec and Ontario are on the same page. But soon there may be cause to talk to Manitoba. “Recently, there has been some renewed interest from our federal counterparts in an east-west grid,” said Rafi.

no GriD is an iSlaND


Energy

It also promoted the decentralization of power generation, something the industry would like to see the MEI address. At that CUI session, Rafi was asked how distributed energy fits into the plan and he said, “[The GEA] is not intended to exclude it.” During a later presentation, the Canadian District Energy Association’s Bruce Ander said, “We should do a lot more than not exclude it. It should be strategically incorporated as a tool to support renewable energy generated through the GEA.”

But the GEA doesn’t deal directly with grid modernization; it only lays the groundwork. Bernadette Corpuz, with Gowlings’ National Energy and Infrastructure Industry Group, says smart grid “is not one of the GEA’s major tenets, but it’s critical.”

The act does allow for local distribution companies (LDCs) to pursue their own renewable and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects as long as they’re under ten megawatts. These projects are expensive, and the new legislation can’t change that. But it can at least free LDCs from provincial and federal constraints and get them a better ROI by raising the base rate offered by the OPA.

Anders says the MEI should instruct the OPA to release the new clean energy Standard Offer Program it’s working on as soon as possible. “It wouldn’t interfere with the GEA or feed-in tariff program.”

On the other hand, rush the process—any more than it already has been—as the industry will end up facing the same practical issues it did with RESOP. In response to the crowd’s request for details, Rafi said, “This is not an overnight effort.”

someone needs to work out

who is building these new

lines and, more importantly,

who is going to pay for them.

Mira Shenker is the editor of this magazine.


don’t assess, eNaBle

Energy

north america’s largest machine—our

power grid—could be reprogrammed.

get Smart

By Alex Aylett

Science fiction author William Gibson once quipped that the future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed. Turn on your computer and you have a prime example.

The electricity that powers it runs through a system whose basic principles haven’t changed in over 100 years.

Smart grids are now promising to help spread the future around a little more evenly. Think of them as the Internet for electricity. Modernized grids would integrate information technologies into the way we generate, transmit and use energy. The payback? More sustainable, reliable and efficient access to electricity. General Electric estimates that if 50 per cent of households in the United States installed smart meters (one basic component of a smart grid) resulting efficiencies would reduce CO2 emissions by 19 million tons.

But efficiency is only half the story. Smart grids lay the groundwork for more ambitious plans that would profoundly change the way we produce and use energy.

Our current energy system is an enormous one-way conversation: our electricity use tells utilities how much power we want; they either give it to us or the grid goes down. Making the utilities’ job even more difficult is the fact that individual energy use is highly uneven. Home electricity use can increase by 700 per cent in the space of minutes as we arrive home to cook dinner, and by 300 per cent every time we boil a kettle of water. The end result is a costly and inefficient system. Generators have to be built, maintained and fuelled to meet these spikes and then idle for much of the rest of the day. Some estimates show that the top 10 per cent of our generation capacity is used as little as one per cent of the time.

Smart grids offer an alternative to this dysfunctional set-up. The new grid is made up of a series of components:

Smart meters provide minute-by-minute billing, allowing the utility to give clients incentives to shift major appliance use to times when electricity is plentiful, and therefore cheaper.

Smart-switching allows clients or utilities to automatically disable non-essential appliances at times when the grid is under strain.

visual displays mounted in your kitchen can show you when electricity prices are high, how much each of your appliances is using, and remind you to reconsider the way you are using power.

Overall, this helps even out energy use throughout the day and significantly reduces both peak energy demand and the increased generation capacity needed to meet it. Just making the way we consume electricity more visible to us can reduce overall consumption by 15 per cent.

Evening the load is the most immediate impact of smart grids, but they open the door to much more. Smart meters allow customers to be paid for power that they feed back into the grid from, say, a solar panel on their roof or a local combined heat and

I n 1973, the federal cabinet developed a policy that eventually became the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). In 1976, Ontario passed a similar act which, until the mid-

eighties was colloquially referred to as “the environmental exception act,” since almost everyone was exempt. Today almost nobody is exempt from the Environmental Assessment (EA) process. And that’s a problem. Too many assessments are being done on projects that both the public and private sector know will go through in the end. Rod Northey, an environmental lawyer with Birchall Northey in Toronto, says Ottawa would have to completely overhaul the CEAA to make it relevant, not “streamline” it, as the feds have promised to do and as Ontario’s new Green Energy Act (GEA) will attempt to do.

Attempts to streamline the EA process are pointless, says Northey, as they don’t address the real problem: “The idea that you have to look at alternatives is good, but not if you‘re looking at them only to dismiss them.”

According to a white paper developed for RCCAO by MMM Group says, a complete review looking at what other jurisdictions have done would be preferable, but we can get by with non-legislative streamlining initiatives. That’s the tactic the GEA will take. Torys’ Valerie Helbronner says the GEA aims “to get away from jurisprudence and case law in terms of the duty to consult all parties on every project.” In other words, rid the system of NIMBYism; cut out redundancies; push projects through without years of zoning applications and Ontario Energy Board hearings—if there was ever a legislative machete big and sharp enough to whack through that jungle of red tape, it’s the GEA.

Mark Brickell, with the Niagara Economic Development Corporation, says we could start easy and just change the name. “Referring to it as an EA process has created much confusion and misunderstanding amongst the general public,” says Brickell. “Many people believe EAs are primarily, if not exclusively, about the natural environment. This, of course, is not correct. If the process was renamed something like ‘Infrastructure Enabling Process’ it would more accurately reflect the driving need behind the process.”

The bottom line according to Northey: the EA process is a mess. “The key should be innovation,” he says, “instead it’s about window dressing.”

complete the ReNew Canada 2009 Readership Survey and we’ll donate $2

to habitat for humanity reStores

across canada on your behalf.



Energy

power plant (CHP). They also synchronize the integration of all these small power producers into the grid. Combined with the right feed-in tariff incentives, this could cause a major shift. Instead of bringing electricity in from inefficient sources in the hinterlands, with all the associated transmission losses (up to five per cent in Ontario, and averages of 9.5 per cent nationally in the U.S.), it’s produced from a renewable energy system close to where it’s used.

Along with innovative financing mechanisms and a decrease in start-up costs for small-scale renewables, smart grids may push us into an era where homes and buildings will be both producers and consumers of energy.

The same technology that makes this possible also allows the grid to detect disturbances and reroute electricity to prevent cascading outages like the ones that closed down the Eastern Seaboard in 2003, and to heal itself after more minor disruptions.

People have been working with these technologies since the early 1990s. But only now are major developments underway, in part because of the U.S. administration’s $4.5-billion investment package for smart

grids and Ontario’s plans for a Green Energy Act (see page 24).

How far these changes will go is anybody’s guess. Fundamentally, smart grids open up the energy grid to innovation.

Already, even more creative applications of smart grid technologies are being dreamt up: it’s rumoured that newly-formed vehicle leasing companies in the United States are working on energy systems in which idle electric vehicles act as storage for intermittent renewable. They could use what is essentially a fleet of mobile batteries to buy electricity from the grid when it’s cheap and sell it back later. As well as turning a profit, they’d be helping balance loads from distributed generation sources.

There are also large-scale plans to use smarter routing technology and major new transmission infrastructure to deliver

renewable energy from a point of production to where it’s needed: for example, solar power from the southwest to larger urban centres further north, or wind power from the Maritimes flowing down to U.S. customers.

By some accounts, the energy grid that criss-crosses North America is the world’s single largest machine. Over the next few years, we’re going to see what happens when portions of that machine take a big step into the future.

People have been working with these technologies since the

early 1990s. But only now are major developments underway,

in part because of ontario’s plans for a green energy act.

Alex Aylett is a writer and researcher on urban redesign and sustainability, a senior research associate at The International Centre for Sustainable Cities, and a regular contributor to ReNew Canada.


Each issue, we round up

recent news from a different

region in Canada and devote

even more space to a closer

look at an issue or trend in

that region. Our July/August

issue will profile Atlantic Canada.

AirportsThe government of Quebec will invest $106 million over the next five years to update airport infrastructure in Nunavik, Northern Quebec, and on the North Shore. A total of $55 million will be spent to extend runways and make improvements to the airports in Puvimituq and Salluit in Nunavik, as well as Port-Menier and Saint-Augustin on the North Shore. In Puvimituq, $16 million will be spent extending the runway and improving lighting to allow the airport to handle larger planes. Details at finances.gouv.qc.ca

merGerS

GENIvAR GrowsThe GENIVAR Income Fund has acquired ENTRA Consultants Inc. (an Ontario-based transportation planning firm), Sherbrooke-based Envirotel 3000 Inc. and Montreal-based WSA Trenchless Consultants Inc. GENIVAR’s president and CEO, Pierre Shoiry, says, “Given the need for transportation infrastructure development and improvements across Canada, we are strategically positioned to take part in a wide range of emerging projects.” The Fund has also acquired three consulting engineering firms: Les Consultants GENIPLUS Inc., Nageco Inc. and Consumaj Estrie Inc. Details at genivar.com

DeVelopmeNt

Griffintown FizzlesWithout sacrificing the entire $1.3-billion project in Griffintown [see “The Worst-Laid Plans,” May/June 2008], Devimco announced that, starting in 2010, it will implement an alternate scenario that better responds to the “new economic and financial reality” and that will conform to planning regulations adopted in 2008. Difficult access to bank financing led Devimco to scale down the project, which would be mostly residential with some commercial spaces, to 30 per cent of the original scope. Full details of this new scenario will be made public towards the end of 2009. Details at projetgriffintown.com

CHUM RFPs ReleasedThe Province has put out a Request for Proposals for the construction of Montreal’s new mega-hospital. The Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) is already a major university hospital centre, but by 2013 the plan is to make it a bigger, better, leading-edge facility. It’s also being sold as a huge urban project that will benefit the city’s economy and urban core. It’s located in what is meant to become the Quartier de la santé and, according to the hospital, will bolster Montreal’s reputation as a leader in health research. Details at communiques.gouv.qc.ca

FuNDiNG

Big SpendingQuebec will spend $2.3 billion on new infrastructure projects, including over $1 billion for water work improvements, under PRECO, the new federal Programme de renouvellement des conduits d’eau potable et d’eaux usées. The federal government will contribute $760 million, or one-third, of the $2.3-billion total—that’s partly repackaged funding, and partly new money from the federal stimulus package. Last year, $4 billion in federal funding was announced for highways, waterworks and other projects, most of which has yet to be spent. During the announcement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, “Our government is working closely with provincial governments to cut red tape and to ensure that projects that create jobs get underway quickly.” Apparently any municipality that applies for funding will hear back within seven to 20 days.

Regional Focus

canada’s largest province has:

a population of 7,782,561 (statscan 2009 estimate)

a gross domestic product of about $295 billion

an economy that ranks 43rd in the world and 22nd in comparison with the oecd countries

the world's largest producer of hydro-electric power (hydro-Québec, which employs 46,000 people)

the second biggest container handling port in canada (Port of Montreal, with annual revenues of about $2 billion)

a ground transportation industry worth $7.2 billion (2004)

QueBecprovince by Numbers


Q uebec’s budget, like most other provinces, is an attempt to stimulate the local and national economy.

The total stimulus package for Quebec is $15 billion over the next two years. But the amount includes money from the already announced $42-billion infrastructure renewal program. That funding was set aside in 2007.

Still, Quebec Finance Minister Monique Jérôme-Forget said in her budget speech, “We are among the governments that are addressing the economic slowdown the most aggressively.” Shortly after that speech, she resigned as finance minister (see page 10).

Premier Jean Charest says he’s confident that because of his government’s five-year, $42-billion infrastructure renewal plan, Quebec will be out of the recession in 2010. This March, he told the National Assembly, “We have placed our priority on the economy and on jobs. The Quebec economy

and Quebeckers are doing better thanks to the actions taken by our government.”

The challenge for Quebec—like everywhere else—will be moving federally-funded infrastructure programs from announcements to action.

Charest may be hoping that his plans for Quebec’s north will be pushed forward quickly because of U.S. demand for renewable energy. Part of Quebec’s plan to defibrillate the economy hinges on the United States’ recognition of hydroelectricity as a source of green energy. That would give hydro projects a boost and support Charest’s plans for Northern Quebec. With the right support, Quebec plans to increase generation of hydro and other renewables by 14,000 megawatts by 2035. Plans include new hydro development projects, the opening of new mineral mines and for new road

systems linking isolated communities. But not everyone’s excited about

Charest’s plans for Quebec’s northern communities. The Assembly of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL) released a report saying no matter what the Premier says on the participation of the First Nations in the “Plan Nord,” they wonder what real intentions are concealed behind nice principles. “For the time being, words are meaningless,” said Ghislain Picard, chief of the AFNQL, after reading the remarks made by Charest in his opening address to the National Assembly. “There’s no question for First Nations to participate in a project without our titles, our rights, our interests and our aspirations being fully taken into account,” said Picard.

—Staff

stiMulating BuDGet talk

Regional Focus


Brownfields

coal-fired thermal power generation.In May 2004 the province and the federal

government signed a memorandum of agreement to spend $400 million in a 60/40 split: $280 million federal and $120 million provincial.

But the project has been criticized for its slow momentum. Back in 2001, Mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality John Morgan told CBC reporters that remedial work was moving too slowly.

Plans to clean up the site go back as far as 1986, when the first of three other multi-million-dollar cleanup plans was announced. Now, in 2009, the project is still in start-up mode.

The municipality’s former director of engineering, MacDonald came on as president and CEO of the Tar Ponds Agency in late 2008 and says the job will be done by 2014. “We will do this right. And when we do, we will be known as leaders in the field of environmental remediation.”

Gary Campbell, president of Nova Scotia Lands, the crown corporation responsible for Sydney Steel Corporation (Sysco), says it’s important to look at what has been accomplished already.

“We’ve done two phases of roadwork as we cleaned the site up and created Harbourside Commercial Park. We now have 20 tenants in the park, a new building and are negotiating to have a second office built.”

The project is now at a turning point, with the two most important contracts in the works. A pump-around will divert water from two brooks that run through the site so that the solidification and stabilization of the north and south ponds can be done in dry conditions.

T his spring, excavators will begin mixing a tailor-made recipe to stabilize and solidify 700,000

tonnes of contaminated sediments contained in two ponds next to the former Sydney Steel plant. What has been a monumental blight alongside Nova Scotia’s Sydney Harbour will finally be remediated.

The $50-million contract will be awarded to an off-island company that has proven ability in mixing solidifying ingredients to prevent leaching of contaminated sediments containing heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Cement will be mixed into the contaminated material to bind and immobilize the pollutants and protect the surrounding environment.

The remediation process is designed to connect off-island companies with Cape Breton businesses and skilled workers so that it benefits the community as much as possible, says Sydney Tar Ponds Agency CEO Kevin MacDonald.

Randy Vallis, project leader with Public Works and Government Services Canada, says because of all the activity planned for 2009—haulage roads, solidification and stabilization of the ponds, and remediation of the coke ovens site and former Cape Breton coal mine sites—the availability of labour and equipment will be a challenge.

“This is not a mega-project where you have a lot of people, but it will take a lot of equipment like high hoes to do the mixing, trucks to move material, and cement to be moved,” says Vallis.

AECOM Technology, the company with overall responsibility for the project, had their engineers do bench-scale testing of the material in both the north and south tar ponds and identified several mix recipes with varying percentages of cement that can successfully treat the sediments. The mix ingredients tested are all locally available: Portland cement, slag from the former steel mill, quicklime and fly ash, a by-product of

The ultimate plan is to expand the existing Sysco wharf as part of the redevelopment and add a heavy commercial water supply from a nearby lake to the park’s infrastructure. Sysco is also working with the Whitney Pier Historical Society to build a track-and-field area and a trail system to separate the pier from the site.

“When we’re done, we’ll have 500 acres of commercial and industrial land behind a large wharf in the centre of a city to equal Woodside Industrial Park in the Halifax Regional Municipality,” says Campbell.

Still, critics of the plan, including federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May and environmentalist David Suzuki, say the technology that’s been chosen won’t get the job done properly.

Vallis says he’s confident solidification/stabilization is the best approach—and one that will do more than just smooth over a blemish. “We’re here to remediate and remedy not just an eyesore, but in actual fact something that has spilled over onto the community itself. We’re in the process of restoring the environment.”

can one of canada’s worst brownfields ever really be clean?

reStoriNG sYdneY harBour

By Wes Stewart

Wes Stewart is a retired newspaper reporter living in Cape Breton.


CleanEARTH Solutions Ltd. provides complete and continuous enhanced deep in situ aerobic hydrocarbon bioremediation solutions for soil and groundwater without chemical release or mechanical aeration.

This is how it works: Cytokinetic electrolysis stimulates cell development and delivers an aerobic condition, deep in situ. Hydrocarbons are exposed, emulsified upon contact and held in suspension to enhanced bioavailability and mitigate flow impediments. Prolonged metabolic activity is sustained, from start to finish, while a robust colony of hydrocarbon consumers act upon a full range of petroleum hydrocarbons, toxicities and fractions.

CleanEARTH Solutions Ltd. provides ecologically responsible and worker friendly solutions. Approved for use in the European Union after being tested in accordance with their environmental regulations. Use Hydrocarbon EM and BioActivate to avoid the increasingly burdensome dig-and-haul.

Enhanced deep in situ aerobic bioremediationP r u d e n t r e s p o n s e . E c o l o g i c a l l y r e s p o n s i b l e .

www.cleanearthltd.com

Contact: Kevin Sharfe, President, Clean Earth Solutions Ltd.178 Pennsylvania Avenue, Unit 4, Concord, ON L4K 4B1Tel: (905) 482-2149 TF: 1 (866) 885-2706 Email: [email protected] Cell: (647) 220-8005

Dealing with contaminated sites involves more than just finding the right soil remediation technology

and applying it. Each technology should be considered and applied within a range of options, including risk assessment, for managing contaminated sites. Environmental policy and regulations vary between jurisdictions and can influence which method to use—there's no simple recipe that both tells developers which technology to choose and how to reassure the public once that choice has been made.

The Sydney Tar Ponds Association (see page 32) may endorse solidification/stabilization as the most effective method of treatment, but how do we really know which technologies are appropriate?

The Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN) is forming a technical committee (CBNTC) that will aim to identify and offer best practice information for common recurring technical issues constraining brownfield development across Canada. The nucleus group in Ontario, led by David DuBois, a well-known environmental professional in Ontario, will be expanded to include others from across Canada.

CBN already provides strategic guidance in support of brownfield redevelopment in Canada—the national network has been supporting the restoration of brownfield sites and promoting the interests of brownfield practitioners since its launch in 2004. Created in response to recommendations in the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy’s (NRTEE) National Brownfield Redevelopment Strategy for Canada, its mandate is to:

Act as enabling mechanism to implement recommendations made by the NRTEE for a national brownfields strategy;

Deliver outreach and capacity-building initiatives to raise awareness on the benefits of brownfields redevelopment;

Create linkages and connectivity between private industry, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. To this end, the CBN has developed strategic alliances with environmental industry associations and organizations across

Brownfields

the canadian Brownfield

network’s new technical

committee aims to topple

brownfield barriers.

techWorking


Canada that have a vested interest in brownfields redevelopment; and,

Consolidate regional and local issues into an integrated plan for national and provincial action.

CBN has had a bird’s-eye view of the industry, watching as technical issues repeatedly act as barriers to redevelopment—and helping promote localized solutions where possible.

Now, with the creation of a new technical committee, the CBN aims to provide a national forum to find and promote Canadian-made solutions across the Canadian brownfield community by identifying and addressing these barriers. The CBNTC will provide the objectivity that has been missing, helping to find solutions to existing constraints such as management of excess materials; soil vapour intrusion and modelling; preferred environmental control measures; and the selection of remediation technologies. It will identify sustainable, credible and pragmatic solutions in support of remediation.

Once formed, the CBNTC will showcase solutions proven across Canada and—in an open forum—present best practices for discussion and consideration.

The CBNTC will start pulling together its team based on nominations. The goal is to bring together professionals from most major regions across Canada. The 8 to 12 members of the CBNTC will form the base of a broad network of professionals reaching out through online mediums, like a CBN blog. The eventual goal—what will make this a unique endeavour—is to dismantle the other less tangible barriers to remediation such as a lack of consumer confidence. The CBNTC will make its list of best practices available to the industry through an accessible online network. It will also reach out to the public to foster a better understanding of brownfield issues—maybe even triggering a growth in consumer confidence for the use of brownfields as a safe, sustainable, non-renewable resource.

—with files from David DuBois

Brownfields

In several jurisdictions, impaired soils excavated are considered waste and sent to landfill—but this is not a sustainable option. It has a high carbon footprint, consumes replacement aggregate resources and, for some inner cities, can cause traffic conjestion, accidents and damage to road infrastructure. As landfill tipping fees increase, and the environmental costs of transporting soil are felt, these regulations need to be re-examined with a perspective focused on balancing cost with closure. The CBNTC will do a jurisdictional review of soil handling practices and policies for a sampling of Canadian, American and European jurisdictions. Potentially funded by sponsors from the willing pool of operators, developers and contractors, the study will create a list of best practices in Canada and internationally.

Once that study is complete, the committee will move on to the next development constraint—soil vapour simulation and measurement, and soil treatment technologies are just two potential areas of focus.

to submit a name, contact [email protected]

Want to nominate someone to the cBN technical committee? Nominees should be recognized as experts in their area.

cBNtc’s first case


actualmedia.ca tf: 1.877.663.6866 e: [email protected]

Business Publishing, Graphic Design and Digital Communications.

Governments in Canada and elsewhere are looking for ways to stimulate the economy, and in

many cases this means developing property that is currently sitting idle—possibly because of issues such as impacted soil. It’s important that taxpayer dollars be spent in ways that create not just construction jobs, but long-term viability for the projects themselves. Unless a project is sustainable, it’s likely to become a costly white elephant and a case example of how not to spend tax revenue.

It’s important to gather as much data as possible before embarking on a project. There are three factors that determine the success of an environmental project such as brownfield development:

Environmental aspect: Soil and/or sediment quality; water issues including improvements to be made to surface and ground water and the amount of water usage by the project; ecological issues including impacts on biodiversity, species status and wildlife habitats; atmospheric issues such as greenhouse gas and other emissions; consumed energy; consumed materials; transportation impact including vehicle traffic to be generated; output of hazardous and other waste; and impact of steps taken to manage impacted soil, water and sediment.

Social aspect: Health and safety for local residents and workers; impacts on the community; local job creation and training; corporate image; and standards, laws and regulations.

Economic aspect: Initial capital cost; operation and maintenance cost; litigation potential; potential grants; economic advantage to the local community; donations to the community; impact on

local suppliers; reliability of maintenance and repair; research and development; and technological uncertainties.

All of these elements can be quantified. In some cases, the numbers will have more hard data behind them. In others, they will be estimates.

Gathering this data makes it possible to determine which of these listed factors will have no significant impact on the project, which will be a weak or strong asset and which will be a weak or strong detriment.

Beyond helping to avoid costly missteps, planners can use the data to decide among various possible scenarios and choose the one that will create the most benefits and the fewest problems.

Brownfields

the DeVelopmeNt is in the DetailSdata collection for project perfection.

By Robert Noël de Tilly

Robert Noël de Tilly, P.Eng., is a project manager and project director in the Montreal office of Golder Associates Ltd.

unless a project is

sustainable, it’s likely to

become a costly white

elephant and a case

example of how not to

spend tax revenue.


A triple-bottom line approach has been an important part of community improvement in a town in New Mexico. An ore-processing operation had spread copper contamination in the town’s soil at concentrations

of several thousand parts per million. There was a need to remove the contamination, but also to pull the town out of an economic and social slump.

The sustainability evaluation tool used in this case included several alternative scenarios for environmental, economic and social improvements: the status quo before the work had started, the project as it was carried out, a hypothetical project that met regulatory requirements but went no further, and another hypothetical project that would have met stakeholders’ ideal goals.

The sustainability of this redevelopment project was improved by encouraging landscaping suitable to the dry climate, using local resources to supply backfill and landscaping materials, and hiring and training local workers.

Analysts found that the results of the actual project were close to those of the ideal goals laid out in the hypothetical project.

While the results are clear around town—local residents are gratified by the property improvements, there’s an increased sense of civic dignity and more buildings are being painted and repaired—a detailed analysis provides valuable, quantitative data that can be applied to future projects.

— Jeanette M. Southwood and Diane Crawford

Brownfields

tool case


Once the different specialty fields are collaborating, the only barrier to filling this brownfield redevelopment market gap is the labour market shortage—it’s difficult to rely on the expertise of environment professionals who don’t exist.

Graduates from post-secondary institutions have been a traditional source of labour for the environmental industry. But ECO Canada’s demand-and-supply labour market studies show the number of graduates has been decreasing despite a growth in enrolment. Students are having problems with the math and science requirements of their programs.

The labour shortage is not limited to the environmental industry. ECO Canada found that Canada simply doesn’t have the human resources requirements associated with the cleanup of contaminated sites.

The solution is not simple: Canada’s education system needs to be overhauled.

Most small Canadian communities have brownfield properties in the centre of town—creameries,

mills, factories, rail yards. Property values in small communities are low; without the significant incentives larger cities are able to provide for brownfield developers—and skilled professionals to do the work—these sites will sit untouched.

Current owners have no incentives to divest of such properties; developers and municipalities see no benefit of taking on the environmental liabilities. While these sites may have significant social value to the local community, they have no economical value.

Valuable sites in big cities are getting attention because developers can make a business case for remediating them. The low-hanging fruit may be gone, that’s true. But professionals that are developing creative approaches and exit strategies are creating value for brownfield sites—finding ways to get to the next tier of fruit.

These solution-finders usually specialize in the science of site assessment and remediation. But in order to see the solution, they need to look at the contaminated properties from all perspectives. Look at a brownfield property from all angles—environmental risk management, planning and development, and finance—and you’ll uncover its redevelopment potential (see page 36).

Math and science should be taught—as early as elementary school—in a way that encourages creativity, not fear. Teachers need more training to build those skills—but that’s not possible in a system that’s undergone major budget cuts over the last

ten years. This is a responsibility that falls on governments, private sector, educational institutions, professional societies and individuals.

Without creative professionals, changes to our educational system and support from all orders of government, Canada’s small towns will remain scarred with contaminated sites.

the nrtee counts as many

as 30,000 brownfields

across canada. few of those

are in urban mega-centres.

What will it take to get the

smaller sites remediated?

reMediation reSourceS

By Tom Williams

the low-hanging fruit may be gone, that’s true.

But professionals that are developing creative approaches

and exit strategies are creating value for brownfield sites.C

redit: C

arl Friesen

Demolition on this contaminated downtown Toronto site will lead to re-use.

ReMediate

TomWilliams is a partner at XCG Consultants Ltd. He believes there’s value in the abandoned industrial property in the heart of his small Ontario community.


the leeD® liSt sPonsored BY

5 NeW leeD® certiFicatioNS iN caNaDa total leed® Projects: 146 9 Platinum, 55 gold, 47 silver, 35 certified

this column reports on new leed®-certified projects in canada using information from the cagBc. leed® is administered by the canada green Building council. cagbc.ca.

this column sponsored by halsall. halsall’s purpose-driven approach to sustainability consulting focuses on connecting each client’s success factors to practical solutions. With our solid technical foundation, we provide green advice for forward-thinking building, community and policy development. halsall.com

minto South merivale Business park - phase onecertified: february 9, 2009 leed®-nc leeD® consultant: the Minto green team

Ottawa, ON – Highlights: Notable features of this project include the highly efficient plumbing fixtures reduce water consumption by 35 per cent, including waterless urinals that save up to 45,000 gallons of water per year. The HVAC system utilizes excess heat from the ground process areas to heat floor perimeter spaces, and there are high efficiency evaporative cooling, condensing boilers, and a fully networked building automation system maximize energy efficiency and reduce total building energy use by 37 per cent compared to a building that is just compliant with minimum building code requirements.

École Victor Brodeurcertified: January 21, 2009 leed®-nc silver

leeD® consultant: advicas group consultants ltd.

victoria, BC – Highlights: The building was designed and built to endure heavy occupancy use for an anticipated lifecycle exceeding 60 years. Through the pursuit of Materials & Resources Credit 8, Durable Building, the project has measured and verified the overall long-term durability of the exterior envelope, interior finishes, and building components and systems. The exterior envelope was designed and constructed from durable materials and systems that best suit the West Coast climate. Durable interior finishes include the use of highly polished exposed concrete flooring in the main circulation spaces of the school.

aquaquest - the marilyn Blusson learning centrecertified: december 1, 2008 leed®-nc gold

leeD® consultant: stantec architecture

vancouver, BC – Highlights: Considering the Aquarium’s mission and the climate of Vancouver, potable water conservation was integral to the design of Aquaquest. All of the rainwater that falls on the project’s roofs or planted areas is collected and stored

aylmer ministry of Natural resources office certified: January 21, 2009 leed®-nc silver

leeD® consultant: enermodal engineering ltd.Aylmer, ON – Highlights: The building design team used many simple but very effective energy-saving strategies to achieve commendable results, including 44 per cent energy cost savings. These strategies include higher levels of roof insulation, high performance windows, energy recovery ventilation, high-efficiency water heaters, energy-efficient lighting with occupancy sensors.

Cred

it: Ben R

ahn A-Fram

e Stud

ioC

redit: E

nermod

al Engineering Ltd

.

for toilet flushing or site irrigation. The result is that no potable water is used for irrigation of the planting on site. Reducing potable water usage to less than one per cent for sewage conveyance was achieved by using rainwater for toilet and urinal flushing. By using efficient fixtures and captured rainwater, the project realized 84 per cent reduction in the use of potable water.

Cred

it: Minto D

evelopm

ents Inc.C

redit: C

olin Jewall

Cred

it: ME

JA

Fifth town artisan cheese projectcertified: March 12, 2009 leed®-nc Platinum

leeD® consultant: enermodal engineering inc.

Picton, ON – Highlights: Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co makes use of local energy sources. The facility has 10 per cent of its electricity supplied by a 1.8-kilowatt wind turbine and 9.4 square metres of photovoltaic panels. Computer simulations estimate the combined contribution of these systems equates to over 10 per cent of the building’s annual electricity load. Fully 34 per cent of the materials used to construct the Fifth Town facility are from local sources. These materials include reclaimed wood, reclaimed steel beam, granular, precast concrete tanks, Durisol ICF blocks, concrete, and dimensional lumber.


RCCAO 25 North Rivermede Road, Unit 13Vaughan, Ontario L4K 5V4Andy Manahan, executive directorE [email protected] P 905-760-7777

RCCAO members include: Carpenters’ Union • Greater Toronto Sewer and Watermain Contractors Association • Heavy Construction Association of Toronto • International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 793 • International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 46 • Joint Residential Construction Council • LIUNA Local 183 • Residential Carpentry Contractors Association • Toronto and Area Road Builders Association

Water Pipe Infrastructure and Sustainability

View this report and more atwww.rccao.com

While it is recognized that leaks in water distribution systems result in the discharge of treated water, what is less understood is the increase of power costs and reduced performance of the system. University of Toronto professors have been engaged by RCCAO to more holistically study the compelling reasons for ongoing asset management and rigorous leak management. The study will point out why better infrastructure management will boost return on investment for both water and electricity systems.

Report to be released in May 2009.

sure we understand the problem.Laissez-faire capitalism is getting no small

amount of blame for our current woes. It arose from Adam Smith’s concept of the “invisible hand.” Smith was fully aware that his magical hand had no basis in reality; he invented it to cure a specific problem. When his book, The Wealth of Nations, was published, the British government (royalty, aristocracy, and Church of England) was choking entrepreneurs and economic growth. Smith realized he must grossly exaggerate his case in order to make an impact, thus his invention—in the hyper-religious milieu of late 1700s—of a godlike, metaphysical “hand” of the free market that transformed greed into public service. No matter how self-interested a business transaction, society would come out the better for it. So, no need for government to protect the people from rapacious business practices.

Smith would never for a moment have believed that educated people would come to believe his rhetorical fiction so wholeheartedly. But most of what he wrote was right. He

What caused the current economic crisis? Some blame the mindless sheep masquerading as American

bankers, or the casinos masquerading as investment houses on Wall Street. Others point the finger at ineffective regulators, or at the dismantling of good regulations (such as the Glass-Steagall Act in the United States). Those terrified of acknowledging basic flaws in their worldview blame the “greedy bad guys” or “credit-addicted compulsive consumers” for abusing a good system.

Blameworthy candidates all, but individuals didn’t cause this mess: the system as a whole is fundamentally flawed. We need more than Band-Aids on our banking boo-boos.

At least US$2 trillion (including World Bank and International Monetary Fund contributions) will be spent globally in coming years to revitalize economies. That amount of money could restructure the entire system, not just goose it—and Canada is perfectly positioned to lead the way. But before we discuss the solution, let’s make

focused on the value-adding efficiencies of specialized production, with a heavy emphasis on manufacturing. There wasn’t much on how the structure and function of our communities added to economic health, but he couldn’t cover everything, and planning wasn’t even a profession at the time.

But what wasn’t evident to Smith in 1776 was that he was taking the basis of Britain’s wealth creation for granted: fossil resources and ecosystem services.

Now, fossil fuels are killing our economy and its waste products are killing us. Fossil top soils are mostly gone, and fossil aquifers are turning into sinkholes.

The situation sounds hopeless, but the solution is already here. The ideal solution is to create wealth from undoing that damage, restoring the underlying basis of wealth. This economic shift from dewealth to rewealth involves renewing infrastructure, remediating brownfields, restoring heritage structures, and replenishing natural resources.

This restoration economy isn’t just an

the Secret to reBuilding NatioNal WealthWhile the world talks non-stop about an end to capitalism, unregulated markets and globalization, a basic economic shift is being overlooked. By Storm Cunningham

StormWatch


idea; it’s a $2 trillion per year reality. In the United States alone, over $17 billion has been invested in over 40,000 river restoration projects since 1990. Most older cities already rely on rewealth for 80 per cent or more of their economic growth.

For the past two decades, the dewealth-rewealth shift has been inexorable, but incremental. Now, however, it has reached a potential tipping point. The new stimulus funds can make rewealth the economic policy default, and dewealth the exception, fixing our economy’s basic problem.

A healthy portion of the US$789-billion stimulus package is focused on renewing infrastructure, as well as restoring wetlands and rivers. A $9-billion provincial investment in Toronto’s infrastructure is also focused on renewal. But both still contain significant dewealth components. Without formally embedding this dewealth-rewealth shift in local, regional and federal economic policy, the best we can hope for is false bottoms, and bounces that offer temporary respite.

For national economic stimulus strategies to create community and regional revitalization, stimulus funds must run through a finer project filter than just “shovel-ready.” The best filter would use the three proven “renewal rules” that drive

revitalization success: rewealth, integration, and engagement. (See renewcanada.net/topics/blog/storm-watch for more details.)

We need an economic recovery strategy that quickly becomes self-propelled. That’s

where the other two rules—integration and engagement—come in. It’s from integrating the renewal of our natural, built, and socioeconomic environments—and from effectively engaging local stakeholders in that renewal—that efficiencies, synergies and positive feedback loops arise. Use all three project filters—rewealth, integration, and engagement—and the effect of the stimulus money is supercharged.

The subprime fiasco and unregulated hedge funds were just the first of many winds that are capable of blowing down our economic house of cards. If it hadn’t been them, it would have been oil prices, food prices, water and energy crises, and so on. An economy that bases growth on improving natural and built assets would be better equipped to handle these crises—and it would make

Adam Smith happy, too. Free enterprise would automatically become more socially responsible and environmentally sound, without the need for onerous regulations.

Canada is in a perfect position to lead the

world’s recovery, both as a thought leader and as an example. It has the strongest economy in the G20, and a growing comfort with the use of tax increment financing [see “Renewal Strategies for Broke Cities,” January/February 2009]. Now, if Canada could just filter federal, provincial and local stimulus funds through the three renewal rules, national recovery and world leadership would be virtually assured. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

StormWatch

Storm Cunningham is the author of reWealth! (2008) and The Restoration Economy (2002). He is the founder of Revitalization Institute (Toronto) and CEO of

Resolution Fund, LLC (Washington, D.C.).

Without formally embedding this dewealth-rewealth shift

in economic policy, the best we can hope for is false

bottoms, and bounces that offer temporary respite.


Information Technology

on to the pilot project.The Digital Cities initiative, founded

by Autodesk, uses a technology designed to create a collaborative environment for visualizing, analyzing and simulating the impact urban design and development choices will have on a city-wide scale.

And it’s not just for professionals. Members of the public, along with city government, construction and business communities, can contribute to combine mapping, building, civil engineering, and utility information into one big digital model. Instead of guessing how a project could impact the urban

As a culture, we’ve reached a place globally where a two-way dialogue on all fronts—with help from

online forums Twitter and Facebook—is an all-day, every-day normality. That’s good news for planners and green builders for whom integrated design (as described by Glenn Miller in “Thinking Big,” March/April 2009) is the ultimate city-building tool. It’s also good news for design, software and technologies companies like Autodesk. The company has come up with a program that is essentially Sim City for city staff. And one of Canada’s largest cities, Vancouver, has signed

environment, the program—in theory—will let users experience the future of the city before it becomes real.

Geoff Zeiss at Autodesk says, “Building Information Modelling is already in high demand for individual buildings. This software expands that model out to an entire city.” “Urban design on a city-wide scale is the next great design challenge,” says Autodesk’s Jay Bhatt. Vancouver is one of three pilot cities (the others are Salzburg, Austria and Incheon, Korea) that will test the software. After inputting all available Computer Aided Design; building information

gamers, move over and relinquish

the controllers to city planners.

the real siM citY

By Mira Shenker

Cred

it: Autod

esk

Planning2.0: A new pilot project called Digital Cities could create city-building fun that translates into real projects.

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Faux Planning: Sim City, the computer game where nerds become urban planners, was developed in 1993.


in less convenient places. Zeiss says that according to graphics planner for the City of Vancouver, Dan Campbell, plans submitted to the City by architects and engineers as part of the permitting review process end up on microfiche or pieces of paper in the corner. “That information could be useful to

a lot of people,” says Zeiss. Why not share it? For starters, some people

consider those plans to be the intellectual property of the architect or engineer who drafted them. It’s also costly to input all that data—transferring information from 50-year-old bits of paper to an online database is no easy task.

That’s where this model could be useful. Information is being gathered up from companies like Telus and BC Hydro who own Vancouver’s telecommunications and electricity

modelling; geospatial, civil engineering and infrastructure data, users will be able to interact with 3D models of above and below ground features in an open platform.

“By combining this data with realistic visualization, analysis and simulation tools, the City of Vancouver can deliver an intuitive way to understand the impact of plans and proposals from any point in time and from any point of view,” says Bhatt.

Where does the data for the Vancouver pilot come from? That turns out to be a complicated question. “About two years ago, virtually all geospatial data held by the Vancouver government was made available for free,” says Zeiss. “That may not sound like a big deal, but before that gaining access to government data would have been a huge barrier to a project like this.”

Autodesk was able to get some data from the city and some from VanMap (see vancouver.ca/VanMap), a web-based map system that pulls together information and data from a variety of sources including street names, property lines, zoning information, and locations of sewer and watermains.

But other information had to be found

networks respectively. Architectural drawings, government research, existing geospatial and engineering data, VanMap, city planning departments, utilities—all these sources will be pooled to compile a comprehensive database of water and transit infrastructure locations and building floor plans.

A city like Vancouver will have already started that work to comply with the Public Sector Accounting Board’s standards. Once the information is gathered from all existing—and some new—sources, then the games can begin.

“Urban design on a city-wide scale is the

next great design challenge.” —Jay Bhatt


Mira Shenker is the editor of this magazine.


despite being one of the most connected nations in the world, canada still

experiences gaps in access to broadband. some have argued that filling those

gaps would have a positive economic impact. Maybe not.


in broadband to create real returns in the form of economic stimulus—if all the other factors line up.

A 2007 report by the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI), Broadband in Ontario from an Urban and Regional Perspective, says, “Broadband can only stimulate economic

development if those who use it also contribute their own content and use access to the technology either to perform tasks more efficiently or to develop new goods and services.”

In other words, even if everyone has access to the ever-broadening World Wide Web, there’s still another obstacle: a lack of digital literacy. Digital literacy gives people the tools

T he term “infrastructure” tends to conjure up images of steel and concrete bridges, heavy

construction on roads and highways, and high-rises in big urban centres. But according to urban economist Richard Florida, it’s time to consider telecommunication lines and broadband Internet lines core infrastructure—as vital to a thriving city as power lines. In fact, in a recent opinion piece to the Globe & Mail, Florida wrote that the Canadian government should be investing stimulus funding in Information Technology (IT) over roads and highways.

Canadian Telecom Summit’s Mark Goldberg says, “It’s not an either/or proposition. Broadband is very important, but we still need conventional infrastructure. The state of conventional infrastructure today is in need of capital spending. Investing in just broadband ignores the fact that we still need roads and highways.”

But Goldberg believes that we can balance interests. It’s possible for federal investments

that allow them to be active citizens, wherein they understand how they can use the new digital tools to engage and become a part of the information system. Without literacy, “it’s like giving everyone a car, even those without a driver’s license,” says Goldberg.

The federal government prides itself

on facilitating Internet access to all of its citizens, metaphorical driver’s license or not. Canada is one of the first countries to implement a connectivity agenda with that goal in mind. Under Budget 2009, Industry Canada will have $225 million over three years to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to all communities that are currently not wired.

an it econoMY?

By Kathleen Brown

“Absolutely it is a good thing to bring the fast Internet to

everyone, but why would that have a huge effect on jobs

and the economy?” —Dave Burstein

With 60 to 80 per cent of Canadian homes in the

developed worldalready online, is there anyone left to connect?


To get your copy, contact Sharlene Clarkee: [email protected] p: 416.444.5842, ext. 117

• Smart meters, smart investment?

• Pricing water: what’s realistic?

• Accelerator funds: what’s in it for water?

watertreatment.ca

Plus! LID stormwater solutions

Mapping groundwater resources

The new national wastewater effluent standards

Coming in the May/June issue:

How Much Does Water Cost?

Dave Burstein, editor of DSL Prime, a newsletter on the business of broadband, isn’t convinced. “The claims about broadband are resulting in major waste of public money,” he says.

Most people who are economically active are already connected. According to a study by the Canadian Internet Project, 60 to 80 per cent of homes across the developed world have broadband, most for several years already—nearly all the positive effects of investing in broadband infrastructure should be visible by now.

What about job creation? Many recent funding announcements come with a job-creation figure attached, and new IT infrastructure equals direct jobs in ditch digging, modem manufacturing, engineering design, to name a few. Nobody is arguing that point, but the jobs created will be fewer than expected, as much of the equipment is imported.

“The controversy,” says Burstein, “is over whether spending on broadband will produce indirect employment growth.” Do the new users have some advanced trade that enables them to earn more? Will call centres move in because broadband has been installed?

“Most of the people without broadband are poor and elderly, so the economic impact

is slight unless their lives are dramatically changed,” says Burstein.

Burstein gives the example of telemedicine, saying that if broadband creates a boom in that industry, as was widely predicted six years ago, we should be seeing results by now since most of the country has been able to get broadband for several years. But growth in telemedicine has been far from impressive.

He agrees it’s not a bad idea to install broadband where it doesn’t exist now, but only if the funds aren’t essential elsewhere. “Absolutely it is a good thing to bring the fast Internet to everyone, but why would that have a huge effect on jobs and the economy?”

Does that mean that infrastructure dollars would be better spent on conventional structures after all? “I’d love to be proven wrong and that a little more broadband deployment has large effects on the economy,” says Burstein, “It’s just not in the data.”

Kathleen is an editorial intern at ReNew Canada. What does high-speed broadband mean to her? Bringing her parents into the twenty-first century and away from dial-up.


If wireline and wireless infrastructure wasn’t good business, it’s doubtful Telus Corporation would have a $2-billion capital budget—the most it has spent in eight years. The company is building a next-generation wireless network based on the latest version of a technology known as high-speed packet access. It will spend $700 million on wireless and wireline broadband infrastructure in Alberta this year, supporting 2,100 jobs; $500 million on broadband infrastructure in B.C., supporting 1,500 jobs; and $800 million on broadband infrastructure in Ontario and Quebec. Telus said the investment will “ensure an optimal future transition to long-term evolution technology, the emerging worldwide standard for fourth generation networks."

loNG-term eVolution


ReFinance

may have been difficult ones for action on climate change, but they did spur debate and allow for a consensus to emerge from outside government. That base of agreement—reflecting strong private sector buy-in on top of the expected environmental support—creates a strong political foundation for the Administration’s plans.

The new U.S. approach will ripple into Canada. Federal plans, from the Conservative “Made in Canada” approach to the Liberal Green Shift Plan, have been long on promise and short on action. But years of inaction by successive Canadian governments, it would seem, are now being reconsidered in light of American action. One of the Harper government’s first statements following the American election was on Canadian interest in a North American carbon market. Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice has said, “It is our view that a key objective should be a common cap-and-trade system.”

C anadians have been hearing about the need for regulation or pricing of greenhouse gas emissions for a long

time, yet we’ve seen little action. Businesses could be excused for pushing the file to the back of the drawer, but they may regret that decision as the waiting comes to an end and opportunities are presented to those positioned to take advantage.

First, the obvious: U.S. President Obama is a game-changer on this issue. His administration has turned the basic American approach on a proverbial dime, and is particularly focused on the creation of a national cap-and-trade system that will put a price on carbon for the first time. If that happens, projects that reduce emissions will be able to generate new revenue streams by selling the credits (or offsets) they create. This new “carbon finance” should benefit infrastructure, clean energy and clean technology investments. The numbers attached to this system are significant: the World Bank expects global trading in carbon to be worth US$4 trillion by 2025.

There is still some way to go for this national cap-and-trade system in the United States. Any system will have to be “made” in the Congress, where there is some opposition—but the prospect for American action is good, and growing. The Bush years

Now the bad news: any expectation that a serious approach to climate change might liberate new investment flows, through carbon markets, for things like “smart” electricity grids or public transportation, needs to be tempered with some realistic assessment of what the policies might deliver.

The first concern is over the price of carbon. Experience is scant in North America for the simple reason that regulations have been largely non-existent. The very recent experience of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Emission Initiative (RGGI) in the northeast United States would lead one to believe that carbon will be very inexpensive (2009 allowances were recently auctioned at US$3.51 per tonne) and therefore, there isn’t much of an incentive to invest in carbon-reducing projects. In Alberta, where a functioning trading system also exists, there’s another pitfall: an effective price ceiling of $15 per tonne to protect energy

can economic policy stamp

the carbon out of our collective

footprints, or will it be business

as usual in north america?

flat Feet

By Don Drummond and Alexander Wood

“ It is our view that a key objective should be a

common cap-and-trade system.” —Jim Prentice

(continued on page 48)


oGra/romaFeBruary 22-25 – toroNtoThe Ontario Good Roads Association and Rural Ontario Municipal Association joint conference was timed perfectly with announcements of a new Green Energy and Green Economy Act for Ontario (see page 24). The room was packed for Minister of Energy and Infrastructure George Smitherman’s presentation, during which he stressed the importance of creating a culture of conservation in Ontario. Len Crispino with the Ontario Chambers of Commerce identified aging infrastructure as one of four key factors affecting the province’s economy. “Our infrastructure deficit and the deterioration of our current assets have vaulted infrastructure to the top of the priority list in most municipalities,” said Crispino. Presentations are available at ogra.org

urBaN traNSportatioN Summitmarch 3-4 – toroNtoThe seventh annual urban transportation summit was—as were most of this year’s conferences—focused on stimulus funding and federal and provincial policy. City of Toronto Councillor Karen Stintz talked about the disconnect between the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) and Metronlinx’s vision and implementation. All differences aside, Stintz said it comes down to “provincial clarity on priorities and funding.” Others called for regional fare integration and the much sought after “political champion” to help solve public transit’s big challenges. Details at strategyinstitute.com

ReEvents

americaNamarch 17-19 - moNtrealDelegates to this environmental conference and trade show all said the same thing: business for those providing environmental services is booming. One consultant says his company is even opening another

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Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty confirms his government’s plans to “unleash a torrent of new, green energy” and create jobs while combating climate change.

Engineers Canada’s David Lapp updated the audience (at ReNew Canada’s infrastructure-themed session) on their joint report with the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee.

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companies from such variability. Such low charges will not materially impact most investment decisions, even in the emissions-intensive energy sector.

The more extensive experience of the European Trading System, on the other hand, would only serve to prove the wild price volatility of carbon in a market that is, after all, a creature of policy and politics.

The future of explicit pricing of carbon may still be somewhat uncertain. But it’s undeniable that carbon regulation will lead to higher energy prices, at least for activities emitting carbon. Those higher energy prices will be felt across the economy—which is not necessarily negative. It creates additional incentives for the development of new technologies and infrastructures that either use energy more efficiently or generate energy without emissions (either with renewables or by capturing and sequestering the carbon emissions).

Any regulatory package to deal with climate change will have to address the issues raised above, and many others. But as far as carbon regulations go, it’s no longer a question of if, but of when. Any business with an interest in energy, technology or infrastructure had better start paying attention.

Don Drummond is chief economist and senior vP at TD Bank Financial Group and Alexander Wood is special advisor at TD.

complete the

ReNew Canada 2009Readership Survey and we’ll donate $2 to

habitat for humanity reStores across canada on your behalf.


(continued from page 47)


office to handle the volume of business. XPV Capital’s David Henderson said during a presentation that there are opportunities globally in energy (particularly solar, which already gets 40 per cent of cleantech investment) and water (efficiencies and treatment). Paul Thoppil with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) said there are plenty of opportunities for Canadian companies of all kinds to capitalize on stimulus money worldwide. The United States, Australia, China (to name only a few of the biggies) are pouring billions into cleantech and infrastructure. And who’s going to fund all this futuristic water and energy infrastructure and technology? Plasco’s Rod Bryden said the government can help, preferably in the form of non-recoverable grants. He sees arm’s length players like Export Development Canada (EDC) taking a larger role in funding cleantech in Canada, but added that if EDC won’t help with a project, there’s always China–“their banks are full of money.” Details at americana.org

ReEvents

GreeN DiViDeNDS: Smart GriD meetS Smart GroWthmarch 26 – toroNtoAs part of the Canadian Urban Institute’s Urban Leadership series, this session included Saäd Rafi, deputy minister with the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, who answered some tough questions about Ontario’s Green Energy Act. The Conservation Council of Ontario’s Chris Winter, who talked about how to create a culture of conservation, said this is the hardest social transition Canadians will make because it involves personal change. Session chair, Ann Mulvale, former mayor of Oakville and past president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, asked the crowd to stop referring to “levels” of government and instead say “orders” of government. “We’re all equal, after all,” said Mulvale. For presentations and a list of upcoming CUI events, visit canurb.com

Canadian Water Treatment’s managing editor Kerry Freek asks Environment Minister Jim Prentice about bottled water.

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Latham

From right, CUI’s president and CEO Glen Murray, Saäd Rafi and chair of CUI, Gowlings’ Bob Onyschuk.

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Latham


Todd and the ReNew Canada team are working with Export Development Canada to produce Canadians at Work: 50 International Infrastructure Projects again this year. Look for Mexican projects on the list.

Law firm Baker & McKenzie recently invited me to a reception to meet Francisco Barrio, Mexico’s newest Ambassador to

Canada. Between talk of immigration law and his impassioned speech about cracking down on drug cartels, I asked attendees about the state of infrastructure in Mexico.

According to the World Economic Forum, Mexico is ranked 64th out of 125 countries on the Infrastructure Competitiveness Index (Canada ranked 13th).

A couple of weeks after the event, I received a formal reply from the Embassy, citing the lack of available financial resources as a barrier to development—Mexico needs to attract investment to promote exploration of petroleum deposits, refining, and construction of large pipelines. Electricity generation and distribution is another problem area. The country also has trouble finding support for hospitals, roadways and urban public transit systems.

Mexico, like the rest of the world, is trying to spend its way out of the recession. In April, over US$50.4 billion in funding for Latin American infrastructure projects was announced, including Mexican developments such as the Federal Electricity Commission’s Salamanca Plant cogeneration project and the Multimodal Corridor extension from Mazatlan to Matamoros.

But Norman F. Anderson, president and CEO of CG/LA Infrastructure, says a lot of projects are on hold—it’s impossible to get private-sector finance. “If projects aren’t already financed, it’s going to be rough going forward.” Case in point: Puerto Colonet, a mega-port planned for the Pacific coast of Baja California. Mexico's Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez announced in January that unless it secures $4.9 billion in financing, the project may be postponed or scrapped altogether. Bids were originally planned last year, but delayed until January 26 this year. However, that deadline will now again be delayed.

Despite these barriers, Mexico is being proactive. A recent energy amendment approved by the Mexican Congress contemplates the development of investment and infrastructure for renewable projects with the provision of incentives. Anderson says, "With the Latin American stimulus the public and private sectors throughout the region are making a serious decision to double the level of infrastructure investment, and build their way out of the crisis."

Closing Shot

Infrastructure investments in roads, highways and electricity will help Mexico’s tourism industry by making the country more accessible to scuba-diving enthusiasts like the author—on a wreck in 65 feet of water earlier this year.

By Todd Latham

infrastructure, por FaVor!

Photo b

y Stuart C

ove’s Dive B

ahamas w

ww

.stuartcove.com


can railroad? topple · 2020-07-27 · started that work to comply with the public sector...

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