going underground · 2020-07-27 · by andy manahan departments 4 editor’s note david dehaas...

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ALSO: Our Northern Premiers on Major Projects plus The LEED® List

May/June 2007

pg. 31

Energy: Power lines,

Nukes and Coalpg. 12

Cities of the Future

Page 34

GoingUNDERGROUND

IntegratedTransportation

Contents

16 29

26

12

There’s more than just utilities

running underground: miners

at Cigar Lake, 660 kms north of

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, dig for

uranium to fuel nuclear power plants

(see page 16).

About the Cover

31

M AY / J U N E 2 0 0 7

eNerGY 12 high voltage Plans for an east-west energy transmission line go

ahead even as industry insiders say it’s not possible. By Dan O’Reilly

16 Nuclear Spring Nuclear reactors provided 15.5 per cent of Canada’s electricity last year and that number is poised to go up, not down. By Neil Alexander

18 Gasification Taking the “dirty” out of coal. By Boyd Mitchell

SubSurFACe utILItIeS 22 virtual underground New technologies help

developers design around utilities. By Mira Shenker

24 Getting Lucky Updates to GIS/GPS technology help Las Vegas deal with a growing demand for water distribution. With files from Lisa Witty

trANSPortAtIoN 29 Wanted: National transit Strategy

By Michael W. Roschlau

31 transportation Infrastructure Canada’s gateway to a strong economy. By Rodney Wilford

GroWth 40 the Greater Golden Plan

Ontario’s award-winning Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. By Miles Andrew Baker

43 the big Nasties Planning for infrastructure under the new Places to Grow Act. By Philippa Campsie

46 research equals results Toronto-based Neptis Foundation mined regional thinking to create stats that helped push provincial planning. By Glenn Miller

FeAtureS 20 Nunavut’s broadband highway

The road to economic development in the North. By Lorraine Thomas

26 the People Deficit Canada is still looking at a shortage of skilled trades workers. By Greg McMillan

28 Defining the “Qualified Professional” By David DuBois

34 Cities of the Future Sustainable communities are going up as pilots in every province – time to change traditional development norms. By Mira Shenker

38 Green build-up The construction industry is open to sustainable methods, but most haven’t made a change – yet. By Andy Manahan

DePArtMeNtS 4 editor’s Note David Dehaas hears both good,

bad and ugly on his local radio station.

5 Letters Our Northern Premiers on infrastructure, plus P3s scrutinized and budgets criticized.

8 opening Shots Big City Mayors want our pennies, overpass concerns and more.

10 reLocate Jobs gained and lost in the industry.

39 the LeeD List Five new certifications.

47 reMediate Holland’s how-to for optimizing land use. By Niels Hartogs

48 reevents Americana, CANECT and more.

50 Closing Shot Western Canada wants better roads.

CoverP

hoto:Cam

eco

May/June 2007 reNew Canada 3www.renewcanada.net

May/June 2007 volume 3 Number 3

eDItor David Dehaas

ASSoCIAte eDItor Mira Shenker

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vP PubLIShING Ray Blumenfeld

CIrCuLAtIoN Allison [email protected]

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CoNtrIbutorS Neil Alexander, Miles Andrew Baker, Philippa Campsie, David DuBois, Niels Hartog, Andy Manahan, Greg McMillan, Glenn Miller, Boyd Mitchell, Dan O’Reilly, Michael Roschlau, Lorraine Thomas, Ron Wilford.

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editor’s Note

By David Dehaas

The Good, The bad and The uGly

Then there was the ugly. The former chair of the TTC, Howard Moscoe, proposed that the way to solve transit problems was – wait for it! – to raise taxes on city parking lots by some huge amount so that they would have to double or triple what they charge for parking, so that, in turn, all those who currently drive into the city would leave their BMWs and Lincolns at home, schlep themselves down to their local bus stops and thus participate in the culturally emancipating experience of public transit twice a day.

Not adding new buses or streetcars or subways. Not improving service. Not removing the traffic (and other) bottlenecks in the system to reduce travel time. No, no, no. None of that – in short, what Mr. Moscoe proposed was the inevitable last resort of the social engineers when their government imposed monopolies can no longer compete: punishing the competition with the big stick of government regulation, legislation and taxation.

It’s policies like this that made East Germany the dominant economy of Europe. Or, no, wait – it’s what destroyed their economy and led to the collapse of their state.

The lesson to be learned from all this is to move forward, to find solutions and to take real action as Mr. Giambrone proposes. It’s not to move backward as his predecessor suggests, or to use the vital interests of the city to play political games against the provincial and federal governments. In other words, let’s just get on with it.

All of the politics of public infrastructure – the good, the bad and the ugly – was brought startlingly into focus for me in the space of a seven-minute news broadcast on my local radio station as I was driving in to work one day last March.

First, there was the good. Adam Giambrone, the new and perhaps coincidentally very youthful chair of the TTC, had announced a bold and far-reaching plan to build new light rapid rail lines in the City of Toronto. From what I heard – and what I saw of it on TV the night before – it sounded pretty good, although we are not yet in a position to judge it on its merits. But the scope and boldness of the plan imbued me with a certain confidence in the people, which translates directly into confidence in their plan.

Then – in the very next story on that newscast – there was the bad. Toronto’s mayor, David Miller, commented on the TTC plan by roundly denouncing the federal government for not providing funding for transit to the city; this was odd, given that the feds had kicked in $962 million barely two weeks before. But mayors are mayors, bless them, and, as we have pointed out in this space before, mayors get elected by campaigning against things – not for them. So if Mayor Miller thinks that slamming the federal Conservatives and the provincial Liberals – he now being neutral since the recent and well publicized lapsing of his NDP membership – will get transit built, then good luck to him.

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4 reNew Canada May/June 2007 www.renewcanada.net

FeAture CoNtrIbutorS

Letters

Thank you for supporting ReNew Canada.

Call 1.800.344.7055 ext.1 to be part of the

July/August issue. The deadline is June 29, 2007.

The face of business in Canada’s North is rapidly changing. Our northern territories are

building on our well-known assets and embracing the opportunities that globalization is creating.

Yukon is at the beginning of a long and promising new era in economic growth and development. The territory has more than 4,800 kilometres of all-weather roads and easy access to two ice-free ports. Since April 1, 2003, through devolution, decisions about Yukon resources are made by Yukoners. The Yukon government has worked to establish regulatory certainty for our resource sector investors. Yukon First Nations are in a unique situation compared to many parts of Canada: 11 of 14 First Nation Final Agreements are now signed, which means that Yukon provides business certainty and transparency in land and environmental regulations. To fully realize the potential of Yukon’s resources, our government is supporting a number of significant infrastructure initiatives. Industry has determined that both the Mackenzie Valley and the Alaska Highway pipelines will be needed to meet the energy demands of the south. The Yukon government has also continued to advance the Alaska-Canada rail link phase one pre-feasibility study. The opportunities in Yukon will be second to none as

it moves forward through expansion and diversification of the economy.

East of Yukon, in the Northwest Territory (NWT) the business climate is looking very good: mining, oil and natural gas, construction, tourism, diamonds, fur and trade are all key contributors to the territory’s GDP, which was $4.1 billion in 2006. The territory’s scheduled marine service extends more than 5,000 kilometres,

linking the entire Mackenzie River and Arctic Ocean to Canada’s rail and highway system. Much our growth can be attributed to the export of our world-class diamonds, with over $3 billion in projected new mining investments. Oil and natural gas pipelines exports are valued at over $200 million a year, and expected to increase to billions per year with development of the Mackenzie Gas Project (scheduled to begin construction in 2010). In fact, the Mackenzie Valley has the potential to become Canada’s “energy transportation corridor,” providing

The Mackenzie Valley has

the potential to become

Canada’s “energy

transportation corridor.”

www.renewcanada.net

(continued on page 6)

Ron WilfordRon Wilford is an international transportationand trade consultant.pg. 31

Niels HartogDr. Niels Hartog, PhD, is an In-SituRemediation Specialist.pg. 47

Michael RoschlauMichael Roschlau is president &CEO of CUTA, chair of the FinanceWorking Group of the NRTSIand co-chair of the Canadian MotorCarrier Passenger Council.pg. 29

Our 3 NortherN PremierS On iNVeStmeNt oPPortuNitieS

IN thIS ISSue:

Autodesk 11

Atlantic Industries Ltd. 24

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP 19

Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP 30

Canadian Brownfields 2007 49

CPCI 7

Canadian District Energy Association 17

Corpfinance International Ltd. 15

Corrugated Steel Pipe Institute 25

Canadian Water Treatment Magazine 18

EarthTech 30

Faubourg Boisbriand LP 46

Gartner Lee 44

Giffels 17

Goodmans LLP 41

Gowlings 9

Federation of Canadian Municipalities 52

Harfan 20

Halsall Associates 39

IBI Group 44

Jacques Whitford 43

Macquarie 14

Marshall, Macklin, Monaghan 17

Miller Thomson LLP 2

MultiVIEW 42

Ontario Public Works Association 49

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 51

Reflektor 21

RIVA Online 33

Seneca College 27

Strategy Institute 49

Terrasan Corporation 37

Toronto Economic Development Corporation 33

TSH 48

UMA Group 41

XCG Consultants 42

Quebec’s Inuvik region is 500,000 kilometres of Tundra. This shot was taken last July in Puvurnituq.

Greg McMillanGreg McMillan is a journalist with extensive experience in domestic and foreign markets. pg. 26

Lorraine ThomasLorraine Thomas is a communication consultant who has been working in Canada’s North since 1987. pg. 20

Photo:H

annahShenker


In your last [March/April 2007] issue, your editor called on Canada’s government to provide stronger policies to help protect natural spaces and promote environmentally-conscious design and planning. But in 2007, it’s become clear that most of the promises for environmental spending in federal and provincial budgets are not worth the paper they are written on. So little detail is provided and so much is subject to subsequent change that today budgets seem to be no more than just another round of election campaign promises.

In 2005, the federal Liberal government tabled a budget that never gained the approval of the House of Commons. Most of the environmental programs that began implementation were cancelled when the Conservatives came to power. The 2006 Conservative budget was the most environmentally weak that we had seen in years. The Conservatives operated throughout the 2006-2007 fiscal year on the Liberal spending estimates, providing no details of their own. Of course, they did not abide by them but cancelled environmental and energy programs on a whim without any ratification by the House of Commons. Now we have the 2007 budget, a document that is so lacking in detail in its environment and energy aspects that it is impossible to know exactly how they will spend the money

voted to them by the House of Commons. The 2007 Estimates are equally vague.

Any environmental spending programs that make it through get lost in the maw of bureaucracy. Money allocated to environmental programs is often transferred from one department to another to pay civil service salaries. It is true, as Steven Harper says, that the system has extraordinary ways of thwarting the will of the Cabinet of the day. The problem is that if the system is thwarting the will of Cabinet in ways that support environment and sustainable development then we are unlikely to blow the whistle. If monies intended for environmental projects are being diverted to other things that are only slightly environment-related, there’s no point in blowing the whistle because it happens so often it’s just not interesting anymore.

Canadian governments seem to have lost the ability to plan. It’s time we reminded our governments that sustainable development is all about long range planning for a more sustainable future, and that governments, which lurch from one agenda to another as quickly as the finance minister changes socks, are not going to achieve the kind of prosperous and healthy society all of them promise.

Colin Isaacs editor, Gallon environment Letter [email protected]

Letters

www.renewcanada.net

economic opportunities for many of our Aboriginal development corporations. Like the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, who are a third-owner of the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. The NWT also has vast untapped hydro development potential to add to its many natural gas and oil prospects.

Moving further east we find Nunavut, the country’s newest territory. Since formation in 1999, Nunavut has made significant investments in human resources capacity and economic infrastructure. With a strong public service base, Nunavut is now building a private sector market economy that is open to investors. Nunavut is an increasingly attractive location for mineral investment. In the last eight years, mineral exploration investment has increased five-fold and Nunavut is now the northern leader in exploration investment. There is now an operating diamond mine, and two gold extraction projects in the permitting stage. In addition, Nunavut is seeing growing interest in the known deposits of uranium, silver, nickel, copper, iron ore and colored gemstones as well as up to 15 per cent of Canada’s total petroleum reserves.

Northerners are modern people – adaptive, entrepreneurial and creative- – who choose to live in a place that affords us an extraordinary quality of life. Innovation is the true spirit of the North and we are forging ahead to build tomorrow’s northern economies. By combining the wealth of the land, the resources of the people and the commitment of industry, Canada’s North is poised to make a major contribution to this country. We invite everyone to take part in these prosperous times. Join us in building the North’s future – and Canada’s future – together.

Premier Dennis Fentie, Yukon

Premier Joe handley, Northwest territories

Premier Paul okalik, Nunavut

(continued from page 5) Federal and ProViNCial eNViroNmeNtal budGetS are beComiNG meaNiNGleSS

P3s Or triPle-Whammy?In Australia, Labor party members

are keen to finance major infrastructure projects via public-private partnerships [P3s] and justify the higher costs of this form of financing by the “transfer of risk” to the private partner.

Critics of P3s point out it’s impossible to shift the risks for the provision of facilities such as schools, hospitals, roads and other public infrastructure, such as courts, from the government to the private sector. As has been pointed out, the cost of capital to the least credit-worthy state government is still better than the most credit-worthy corporate customer. What’s more, private sector efficiencies in construction can be captured through competitive tendering and operating contracts.

P3s are expensive to mount. Participants in Australia have been limited in practice to about three or four major banking institutions and the processes leading

to the successful bidder is inherently secretive. Why are labour party [I’m wondering about this. In Australia it is called the Labor Party. In Canada we have a “labour parties” like the NDP. I’m not sure which he is going for] members suspicious of these deals? The failure of governments to provide meaningful cost-benefit studies of the projects selected, the failure to provide timely information as to why P3s are chosen rather than traditional schemes, to open tendering processes all in the name of “commercial in confidence” and the practice of the leading players in arranging P3s employing recently retired politicians involved in the process from the government side are just some of the reasons. It leaves one with the feeling these deals are potentially corrupt.

Ken Davidson The Age, Australia [email protected]

nunavut has made significant

investments in human resources

capacity and economic

infrastructure. With a strong public

service base, nunavut is now

building a private sector market

economy that is open to investors.


side, while others say it was the west. Gilles Dupaul, the engineer who designed the bridge, said that the reinforcing steel bars were not long enough, nor were there enough of them. Currently, the province plans to reinforce the 15 other overpasses that followed the same design as the Concorde overpass. Findings from the enquiry are due October 15th, 2007. Details at cevc.gouv.qc.ca

BIG CITY MAYORS WANT BIG BUCKS“Cities play an integral role in terms of generating wealth and growth. However, for this growth to occur municipalities also require significant investments for infrastructure and to ensure they can offer first-rate services,” said Monteral Mayor Gérald Tremblay as the Big City Mayors’ Caucus released the final component of their proposal to restore fiscal balance to Canadian municipalities. The Mayors met up in Toronto on May 3rd to announce the details of their proposal. They want the federal government to surrender one out of the six cents per dollar consumers contribute to the GST. The Caucus, which is comprised of the mayors from the 22 largest cities in Canada, expects that one cent of the GST would yield approximately $2 billion for their cities and $5 billion for all municipalities. As of print, the federal government has not committed to the plan, and shows no signs that it will. Details at onecentnow.ca

WORLD TO SPEND OVER $41 TRILLION ON INFRASTRUCTUREBooz Allen Hamilton, a Virginia-based consulting firm, has estimated that over the next 25 years the cost to maintain, modernize and expand basic utilities and transportation will require approximately $41 trillion – with a whopping $22.6 trillion on water/sewer infrastructure, $9 trillion on power, $7.8 trillion on roads and rail, and 1.6 trillion on air and sea ports. In Canada and the U.S. alone an expected $6.5 trillion will need to be spent. Details at boozallen.com

opening Shots

Infrastructure reporting from across Canada. Send your news and announcements to [email protected].

MANITOBA ENGINEERS SUPPORT THEIR OWN“Engineers bring ideas to life and touch every aspect of modern life,” said Cheng Wong, chair of the committee in charge of the annual Consulting Engineers of Manitoba Awards of Excellence, at the award presentation in mid-April. “The goal of the Awards of Excellence Program is to encourage Manitoba’s consulting engineers to be creative, innovative and strive for excellence in all that they do.” This year the awards went to ND LEA Inc. (Infrastructure) for Temporary Railway Detours for the Red River Floodway Expansion, Earth Tech (Canada) Inc. for Brandon Generating Station Cooling Tower Biocide System Replacement, UMA Engineering Ltd. for the Twin Red River Floodway Bridges on Trans Canada Highway No. 1 East, among many other winners. Details at cemanitoba.com/awards/

B.C. TO HAVE WORLD’S FIRST HYDROGEN-FUELED BUS FLEET“Our goal is to see the world’s first fleet of fuel cell buses on B.C. roads by the end of 2009,” said B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell as he announced that his government would be spending $45 million on the production of 20 busses and hydrogen fuelling stations in Whistler and Victoria. This project comes under an $89 million federal-provincial partnership for fueling stations and the world’s first fleet of 20 fuel cell busses. This is the second allocation of money by the province, the first being $10 million for development of hydrogen fuel cell buses. The remaining $34 million will be spent on operational costs of the fleet for up to five years. Details at gov.bc.ca

TORONTO: MAJOR CITY OF THE FUTURE Chicago was named North America’s “Major City of the Future,” with Toronto coming in second, in a recent article in Foreign Direct Investment. The findings were based on economic potential, quality of life and infrastructure among other things. Each city in North America was placed into one of four different categories: “major” (with a population of over 2 million), “large” (500,000 to 2 million), “small” (100,000 to 500,000) and “mirco” (under 100,000). The final eight top major cities were Pittsburgh,

Atlanta, Guadalajara, Baltimore, Montreal, Mexico City, Boston and Miami. In the “large” city category Edmonton took fourth; taking top spot on the “small” city category was Windsor, fourth went to London, fifth to Waterloo, and Chatham-Kent and Saskatoon took the bottom two spots respectively; finally in “micro” Sarnia took third and Fredericton eighth. Details at eukn.org

MACQUARIE TO AQUIRE CLEAN POWERClean Power Income Fund has announced that they are in support of Macquarie Power & Infrastructure Income Fund acquiring all outstanding units from unitholders. This move came two days after the board of trustees for Clean Power recommended that unitholders accept an offer from Algonquin Power Income Fund. The Macquarie offer is approximately $6.39 per unit, which values Clean Power at $226 million – $18 million more than Algonquin’s offer. “Clean Power offers a very attractive rate of return for our investment,” said Gregory Smith, CEO of Macquarie Power & Infrastructure Income Fund. Details at macquarie.com

INQUIRY BEGINS AS MORE BRIDGES COLLAPSEOn January 28th and May 3rd small chunks of the Gardiner expressway in Toronto fell onto Lakeshore Boulevard below. In both cases there were no injuries or fatalities. In addition, on December 11th, 2006, a half-metre piece of an Ottawa train overpass collapsed into the windshield of a local businessman, the man was unharmed. The May 3rd collapse coincided with the Big City Mayor Caucus meeting in Toronto petitioning Ottawa for more money for, among other things, infrastructure. Meanwhile, the provincial inquiry into the collapse of the Concorde Boulevard overpass in Laval, Quebec, is underway. A 20-metre section of the bridge collapsed on September 30th, 2006, killing five people. Since April 9th, the enquiry has been receiving both eyewitness and expert testimony – accounts from both groups have been contradicting. Some eyewitnesses report the bridge collapsing on the eastern

Photo:G

overnmentofQ

uebec

emergency workers respond after an overpass collapses in Laval.

Photo:U

MAGroup

Ltd.

An aerial view of the Red River Floodway Bridges

Photo:C

NWGroup

/CityofToronto

From left: Larry o'brien, Gord Steeves, Anne Marie DeCicco-best, Peter Kelly, Susan Fennell David bronconnier, Gerald tremblay (at the podium), David Miller, Andy Wells, Carl Zehr and basile Angelopoulos.


PARTNERSHIPS UK GETS NEW CHAIRPartnerships UK’s (PUK) chairman, Sir Derek higgs, is stepping down after 7 years of service. Replacing him is Gordon horsfield formerly of Price Waterhouse. PUK is a public-private partnership dedicated to the delivery of infrastructure renewal and efficient use of public assets. Horsfield says, “I am joining the business at an interesting and challenging time.” Details at partnershipsuk.org.uk

AND FINALLY…Shah hosein has left the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) to return to the UK to begin work with the British Urban Regeneration Association. Hosein worked on a range of Canadian-based research and education initiatives, including CUI's Canadian Brownfields Conference. Hosein collaborated with the ReNew team regularly and will be missed. We hope to see him in his new capacity at Canadian Brownfields 2007 in Montreal, October 18 and 19. Replacing Hosein at CUI is Linda varekamp. Details at canurb.com

reLocate

ReLocate is a new section with news about the comings and goings of industry professionals. If you have any relevant news to share, contact [email protected].

The Top 100 Update

MACKINNON JOINS CANADA WESTFormer Saskatchewan cabinet minister Dr. Janice MacKinnon has joined the Canada West Foundation Board. Currently, Mackinnon is a professor of public policy at the University of Saskatchewan. She also

acts as chair for the Institute for Research; sits on the Board of Directors of VCom, a Victoria-based technology intensive TSX company; and of International Road Dynamics (IRD), a Saskatoon-based technology intensive TSX company; and on the Board of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Ombud Service on Public Policy (IRPP). Finally, she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Busy lady. Details at cwf.ca

STAFF SHUFFLE AT OCETAKevin Jones has been appointed chief operating

Compiling our Top 100 list for 2008 (for our Jan./Feb. 2008 issue),

we’re seeing several themes developing in the industry. This preview to 2008’s list is focused on power. Three additions to the top 10 are related to energy generation and transmission, a trend we think is worth noting. These projects may get bumped out of the top 10 as bigger ones come along, but it’s clear that Canada is investing big dollars in power (see page 12). Last year’s number five, the Niagara tunnel project, is now drawing mainstream attention as people begin to take interest in the innovation required to bore a 10.4-kilometre tunnel under a city.

officer at OCETA, an Ontario not-for-profit corporation that helps start-up companies commercialize new environmental technologies. tammy Lomas-Jylhä is now vice-president of Remediation and Brownfield Services. Dr. Adele buckley, vice-president Research and Technology, has retired from her position, but will assist OCETA on a senior associate basis. Steve Guerin joined OCETA as general manager of Environmental Technology Verification. Details at oceta.on.ca

MORASCO HEADS TO PLENARYPlenary Group has appointed Michael Morasco as chief executive officer of the newly formed Plenary Health and senior vice

president of Business Development. Plenary Health owns all equity in the $400 million North Bay Regional Hospital project. Morasco comes to Plenary after a stint as vice president of Partnerships British Columbia, where he was a part of a team that closed 11 infrastructure projects worth a total of $4.7 billion. Details at plenarygroup.com.

to get your copy of our

top 100 Canadian Infrastructure Projects

for 2007, contact [email protected].

Photo:Tod

dLatham

emissions will be 24 per cent lower for the same amount of power produced by the Wabamum plants, scheduled to be retired by TransAlta in 2010.

Status: Site preparation began in February 2007 and the project is scheduled for commissioning in 2011.

Major Players: Epcor will be responsible for construction while TransAlta will operate the facility. Each firm will market their share of the unit’s electrical output.

toronto Power lineLocation: Toronto, Ontario

value: $600 million owner: Hydro One

Project Details: The 26-kilometre line would go south from Markham to the Port Lands in Toronto, supplying between 600 and 700 megawatts of power.

Status: Discussions are still under way involving the Ontario Power Authority, Hydro One and Toronto Hydro. The plan faces opposition from local residents. If construction gets under way, the line could be operating by 2012.

Major Players: Hydro One, Toronto Hydro

this list is a work-in-progress. If you’re involved in a project with top 100 potential, e-mail [email protected].

alberta Clipper ProjectLocation: Hardesty, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin

value: $2 billion owner: Enbridge, Inc.

Project Details: Construction of a new 36-inch diameter, 1,590-kilometre pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin, to carry an initial 450,000 barrels of crude oil a day, rising eventually as high as 800,000 barrels a day. The Canadian portion of the project will cost about $1.5 billion while expansion of the 42-nch diameter pipeline from Superior to Chicago will cost about $800 million.

Status: Awaiting final approvals (standby arrangements have been made with material suppliers and contractors). The pipeline is expected to be operational by 2009.

Major Players: Enbridge, Inc. and Enbridge Energy Partners (its U.S. subsidiary)

Keephills3 Generating PlantLocation: Keephills, Alberta

value: $1.6 billion owner: TransAlta and Epcor

Project Details: 450 megawatt coal-fired generating plant using supercritical boiler technology which features higher boiler temperatures and pressures and a high-efficiency steam turbine. Carbon dioxide

Michael Morasco

Shah hosein

Janice Mackinnon


energy energy

Just over 120 years ago this country was bounded together by Sir John A. MacDonald’s national dream of

a transcontinental railway. Now some politicians are promoting another national dream – the construction of an east-west transmission grid that would meet Canada’s ever-increasing need for electricity.

That vision is viewed with some skepticism by industry observers such as David McFadden, partner with Toronto-based Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP and chair of its National Energy and Infrastructure Industry Group

“It implies that something akin to the building of the CPR could occur,” says McFadden. “That’s not going to happen. The line loss from British Columbia to Ontario would be incredible.”

While the national grid may or may not occur, public and private sector agencies

are overcoming tremendous obstacles to transmit power from new generation facilities into the grid.

Just one example is the development consisting of eight wind farms in Quebec’s Gaspé Bay region. It will add 990 megawatts of power to the grid (by 2012 at the latest), but not without the construction of 225 kilometres of new transmission lines, plus reinforcing an existing 270-kilometre line and other modifications, says Hydro-Québec’s Flavie Côté.

Building a transmission network is a long procedure that requires meeting strict regulatory approvals, especially if they cross provincial or international borders. Then there are geographic barriers to be overcome, concerns from Aboriginals over land claims, not to mention the inevitable opposition from environmental and ratepayer organizations

“It's quite a process,” says Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro spokesperson Dawn Dalley. Their proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project in Labrador involves transmitting power to markets in Quebec, the Maritimes and the northeastern United States. An application had to be submitted to Hydro-Quebéc’s transmission division, TransÉnergie. “[The application] is still in the process,” says Dalley. She says since Ontario is considering an “intertie” – a connection in the grid – with Labrador, an application has also been filed with that province’s Independent Electricity System Operator.

This is nothing compared to the numerous environmental, planning and impact studies and negotiations with the Innu Nation of Labrador. Dalley says plans will come into place after the environmental assessment is completed, tentatively scheduled for 2009, followed by construction completion by 2015.

By Dan O’Reilly

Will Canada bond together as one happy family

to build an east-west transmission grid to carry

energy to one and all? Is it even a good idea?

NatioN BuIldIng


At the opposite end of the country, construction of North America’s first cross border merchant, or private, transmission line is scheduled to get underway in late 2007. While the terrain is fairly benign and construction expected to be straightforward,

the approval process for line between Lethbridge, Alberta, and Great Falls, Montana, has still been incredibly complex. “We’ve been working with regulators in two countries and 300 landowners for more than two years,” says Robert van Beers, chief operating officer of Tonbridge Power Inc., which wholly owns the line developer,

Calgary-based Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. These are the kinds of barriers facing

another potential corridor that’s attracting a fair amount of press for a project still in the pre-planning stages. It’s an undertaking Ontario Minister of Energy Dwight Duncan

calls “the railway of the 21st century:” a high voltage transmission line through the forests and rock of Northwestern Ontario. The line would extend from the proposed $5-Billion, 1250-megawatt Conawapa hydroelectric generating station on the Lower Nelson River in Manitoba to connect with Ontario’s main electricity transmission

energy energy

“If built properly, transmission lines benefit all

consumers. But there’s no special benefit to having

one of these in your back yard.” —Tom Adams

Illustration:KarenH

ibbard

ProPoSeD LethbrIDGe-GreAt FALLS LINe (Alberta and Montana)Distance: 346 kilometres borders Crossed: Alberta/Montana Kilovolts: 230 Megawatts: 300

ProPoSeD KINCArDINe- MILtoN LINe (Within ontario)Distance: 180 kilometres borders Crossed: within Ontario Kilovolts: 500 Megawatts: 3,000

ProPoSeD hYDro-QuébeC trANSéNerGIe AND hYDro oNe NetWorK LINe (Quebec and ontario)Distance: 20 kilometres borders Crossed: Quebec/OntarioKilovolts: two double-circuit 230Megawatts: 1,250

TransMIssIOn liNe StatS


Macquarierecognizedearlythepotentialofinfrastructureasa

resilient,long-termassetclass.Thankstothispioneeringspirit,

ourdecade-longexperiencehashelpedusbecomeaglobal

leaderininfrastructureacquisition,fundingandmanagement.

Wecurrentlyemployover900infrastructurespecialistsaround

theworldandmanageapproximatelyC$35billionofequity

investedininfrastructureandinfrastructure-likeassetsglobally–

withsignificantgrowtheachyear.

Infact,theinvestmentbankingfunds’portfoliomanagedby

Macquarienowincludes102assetsin25countries.InCanada,

theseassetsincludetollroads,electricitytransmissionnetworks,

powergenerationfacilities,portsandsocialinfrastructure.

Elsewhere,theyincludeairports,waterutilities,districtand

renewableenergyandbroadcasttowers.

Perhapsnotsurprisingly,we’realsoseenasaninnovatorinthe

infrastructuresector.In2005,wereceivedtheCanadianCouncil

forPublic-PrivatePartnerships(PPPs)PPPoftheYearGoldAward

fortheSea-to-SkyHighwayImprovementProject.

Withallthatinmind,it’seasytoseewhyMacquarieiscommitted

toremainingthedrivingforceintheinfrastructuresectorworldwide.

energy

grid in Sudbury. Conawapa would be Northern Manitoba’s largest hydroelectric project and take eight years to complete.

Energy industry representatives and observers such as Tonbridge’s Robert van Beers, and Toronto lawyer David McFadden view the plan with some cynicism.

The country is already linked through a series of inter-linking grid ties between provinces, especially between Ontario and Quebec, which both provinces are working to enhance. McFadden says it makes more sense to improve those interties rather than proceeding with the Northwestern Ontario transmission line. “It would be like building a line from Toronto to Florida. Not only would the terrain and geography be formidable, there’s at least three dozen land claims to settle,” he says.

This project would face considerably more geographic challenges than other corridors have struggled with – four different routes are under consideration for the line. And topography isn’t the only obstacle. In March 2006, Ontario hired SNC-Lavalin and McLeod Wood Associates on behalf of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Chiefs Steering Committee to study the line’s impact on First Nations. Tom Adams, president of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based energy watchdog, says besides dealing with environmental and residents concerns, the settlement of land claims and respecting aboriginal rights are and will continue to be pivotal in transmission line construction.

“Historically, the placement and construction of transmission lines on or near aboriginal lands was extremely insensitive and inappropriate,” says Adams.

It’s not just Native peoples who are concerned about the placement of power lines. Earlier this spring Hydro One filed an application to the Ontario EnergyBoard for construction of a $600-million line from Kincardine-based Bruce Power to the Hydro One switching station in Milton. The Ontario Power Authority says the Bruce Peninsula also has the potential to produce 1,700 megawatts of renewable energy in the future. The optimal transmission route for this new power is said to be adjacent the existing Bruce Power-to-Milton transmission line.

But the project has been criticized by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, a coalition of different environmental and non-profit groups. Alliance spokesperson Jessica Fracassi says rather than spending $600 million to “marginally increase” the Bruce area’s electricity exports to southern Ontario, a better alternative would be to reinforce the existing line and lift a current moratorium on the purchase of renewable electricity from green power projects.

“We should invest in more cost-effective options to meet our electricity needs such as energy conservation, renewable power and small-scale combined heat and power plants,” says Fracassi.

Criticism from organizations such as the Alliance is to be expected, says Adams. “If built properly, transmission lines benefit all consumers. But there’s no special benefit to having one of these in your back yard. Unlike highway construction which can sometimes

“It implies that something akin to the building of

the CPR could occur. That’s not going to happen.

It would be like building a line from Toronto

to Florida. Not only would the terrain and

geography be formidable, there’s at least three

dozen land claims to settle.” —David McFadden


ministers, Aboriginal leaders, environmental organizations and electricity infrastructure and financing executives will attend a second formal meeting to discuss the cross country green corridor this November.

supercomputer, but we now see that smaller, individual computers linked to networks are more powerful and more useful because they can be adapted to a variety of needs.” In the same way, it might make more sense to decentralize and move towards district energy, not mega projects.

When the railway was constructed it was a way of unifying Canada as a country, as much as moving goods and people from coast to coast. Canadians might like to think of themselves as a green nation; a green power line would not make us one. Even so, Provincial

energy

increase property values, they don’t add value to your house,” says Adams.

Any application for construction of an east-west corridor will face similar obstacles. “There are a number of issues that have to be considered and we would also have to sign a Power Purchase Agreement with Manitoba,” says Ontario Ministry of Energy spokesperson Sylvia Kovesfalvi. Crossing provincial borders is an exercise in dodging red tape – a challenge acknowledged by Minister Duncan. He has cited the province’s ongoing discussions with Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland on the need to reinforce and expand interconnections with each other as a first step in creating a national east-west power grid – an idea other federal and provincial politicians have mused about.

“Proposing a coast-to-coast transmission grid has less to do with economics and more to do with politics,” says van Beers. Most Canadians live within a short distance of the American border and it makes more sense to improve north-south links. I don’t think that a Vancouver to Halifax project would be feasible.”

And indeed the interties between Ontario and Quebec are proceeding. Construction of a $124-million interconnection between Hydro One Networks and Hydro-Québec TransÉnergie got underway last November, says Mark Graham, Hydro One’s director of supply connections.

Designed to provide Ontario with better access to Quebec hydroelectric energy, it involves replacing existing lines on an existing transmission c o r r i d o r b e t we e n H aw t h o r n e Transformer Station near Ottawa and the Ottawa River and reconfiguring Hydro One facilities at the station and at different points along the line. Work is expected to be complete by 2008.

The interconnection is one of 21 “current projects” identified in Hydro One’s 10-year Transmission Solutions plan covering the period from 2005 to 2014. Some are in the approval or proposed stage, while others are either under construction of have been completed, says Graham.

But these more focused projects don’t seem to have the appeal of a national “green power corridor.” Minister Duncan says “Building an inter-provincial green power corridor is as important to Canada today as was the building of the railway in the 19th century by the founders of our country.” Maybe the problem is the concept itself is out of the 19th century. Canadian Urban Institute’s Jeff Evenson says, “There was a time when we thought it made sense for everyone to work off one

Dan o’reilly is a freelance writer specializing in construction and infrastructure issues.


energy

The world’s main sources of heat and power continue to be biomass (like wood) and fossil fuels (like coal, oil

and gas). The energy from these sources is normally released by combustion and, as a result, they are major sources of greenhouse gases. When alternative energy sources replace fossil fuels, they extend the availability of these fuels and avoid the production of the greenhouse gases that are linked to global warming.

But classic renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydro-electricity are not the complete answer, at least for the foreseeable future.

We need to be prepared for days when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow and the hydro capacity has been maxed out. That’s why many are still looking to nuclear power. For so long a pariah, nuclear is now being pursued by environmentalists, economists, politicians and businessmen. As a result of this resurgence of interest many large-scale projects are taking place across Canada.

The first indicator of the resurgence of nuclear power was a series of announcements about extending the life of existing plants. It started in 2005 when New Brunswick Power confirmed that they would refurbish their Point Lepreau plant at a cost of $1.4 billion. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, the main contractor, is well into its preparatory work so

that when the reactor comes off line in April 2008 everything will be ready for a speedy return to service 18 months later. Nuclear power plants produce nearly $1-million worth of electricity each day – you don’t want them to be sitting idle for longer than necessary.

The $4.25-billion Bruce A life extension and restart project was announced a short time later. Life extensions are also being planned by Hydro Quebec at Gentilly and in sequence for Ontario Power Generation’s units at Pickering and later at Darlington.

This resurgence is not limited to Eastern Canada. Much of the world’s uranium, the fuel used in the current generation of reactors, comes from Saskatchewan and the new interest in nuclear power has led to a surge in its price. Uranium miners Cameco and Areva have been investing heavily in the 450-metre deep Cigar Lake mine. This mine hit problems with flooding in 2006 but a remedial plan to build a concrete barrier and use freezing techniques to dewater the mine is now being implemented and production is expected in 2010. The total project including the mine and the development of the supporting mills will cost around $1 billion. The mine will employ 250 people when in operation.

With all the ore being produced in Saskatchewan, Don Ching, CEO of Areva

Resources, says there may be a new refinery there within the next ten years. Ten years may sound distant but the time to plan, license, build and operate nuclear facilities is such that decisions will need to be taken soon.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is also planning a mining project. Instead of extracting uranium ore, the purpose of this mine is to facilitate the long-term safe storage of items that have low levels of contamination. This $700-million Deep Geologic Repository will be 600 metres underground in a stable rock formation below the Bruce nuclear site in the municipality of Kincardine, Ontario. It’s a massive undertaking modeled on similar, successful facilities abroad.

Meanwhile, Ontario knows that to continue relying on nuclear power generation, new reactors need to be built and towns are competing to secure these projects. On top of costing upward of $2 billion each to construct, new plants create jobs throughout their 50-plus year lifespans. Gregory Smith of OPG described operating nuclear reactors at a recent meeting of the Organization of CANDU Industries as “The most manpower-intensive way of producing electricity short of putting people on treadmills.” But unlike treadmills, nuclear stations demand well-trained workers and compensate accordingly.

By Neil Alexander

The old standby is seeing a resurgence in Canada.

NuClear sprIng

The $4.25-billion Bruce A life extension and restart project (shown here) ranked number

one in ReNew Canada’s Top 10 Canadian Infrastructure projects (Jan./Feb. 2007)

Photo:B

rucePow

er


energy

Even Alberta is pursuing nuclear. The oil sands are consuming large volumes of natural gas to liberate the oil, creating a major challenge to meeting Kyoto targets. Energy Alberta Corporation is offering to invest in a twin 750-Megawatt nuclear plant and then sell the steam and power to the oil companies. It is already scouting for a suitable site.

Uranium, though a plentiful resource, will not last forever and nuclear scientists are working hard to identify ways to make it last longer and to substitute other fuels such as thorium. Another concept, “DUPIC,” would use fuel from light water reactors, such as those used in the U.S., directly in the CANDU reactor fleet. Canada’s Nuclear Laboratory at Chalk River, two hours north of Ottawa, is tidying up some of its past activities and preparing for the new work that this resurgence of interest will bring. Last year a $520-million, five-year program for clean-up of the site was announced. This may be the precursor to the modernization of this national resource that saw most of its development not long after the Second World War.

Canada is rich in the ore that makes the fuel, a processor of that ore, a nuclear fuel maker and a long-term operator of reactors. It is also one of the few countries that has a home-grown reactor system and a lively industry to support it. Murray Elston, president of the Canadian Nuclear Association, says, “The aggressive investment being made in nuclear-related projects will ensure Canada retains its leading international position as a world leader in the power industry.”

Neil Alexander is the Principal Consultant on Nuclear Issues for bucephalus Inc.

Much of the world’s uranium,

the fuel used in the current

generation of reactors, comes

from saskatchewan and the

new interest in nuclear power

has led to a surge in its price.


watertreatment.ca

Get your copy.

Canada’s magazine for the commercial water treatment and water works industry.

Contact Ray Blumenfeld at 1-800-344-7055, ext. 2

energy

Clean coal initiatives have garnered large amounts of attention in both the media and politics, often

portrayed as being in competition with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. Viewing these as opposing forces is unwarranted and counter-productive. Instead, we should be both striving for renewable energy while at the same time going for greener uses of current resources.

Facilitating the uneasy union of fossil fuels and the environment will require minimizing

their harmful effects. Reduction can come by way of using natural gas over coal, driving hybrids, promoting fuel efficiency and using public transportation, but it seems demand will continue to be high. According to the World Coal Institute and The Uranium Information Center “Coal provides 25 per cent of global primary energy needs and generates 40 per cent of the world’s electricity.” With this in mind the International Energy Agency expects a 43 per cent increase in coal’s use from 2000 to 2020.

By Boyd Mitchell

According to Natural Resources Canada, “One-fifth of Canada’s current electricity generation comes from fossil fuels. We have over 8 billion tonnes of proven coal reserves, storing more energy than all of our oil, natural gas and oil sands combined.” These numbers illustrate the world’s current reliance on coal, and suggest that our reliance on it will only grow in the coming years.

Unfortunately, coal has been the poster child for the negative affects of fossil fuels, as it has traditionally been used in inefficient and highly polluting ways.

The Uranium Information Center has stated that “Coal produces about 9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year which is released to the atmosphere, about 70 per cent of this being from power generation.” Other estimates have put CO2 emissions from power generation at one-third of the world total of over 25 billion tonnes. If coal is to be used for years to come, it must become morally feasible. That means significantly reducing its environmental impact.

Coal gasification dates back to 1780, but in the 1940s and 1950s it was replaced by natural gas, which was cleaner and, at the

Coal was the main energy source for the Industrial Revolution in the

19th Century – most environmental concerns over burning and mining of the resource arose in the 1970s.

Coal gasification may be one way to lessen this energy source’s harmful byproducts.

Coal: nO lOnger a dIrTy WOrd?


around the world, so does the concern over emissions. John Holdren, a professor of environmental policy at Harvard, has indicated that if all scheduled coal burning power plants become operational, their lifetime operation emissions of CO2 will equal that of all emissions from all coal burning to date.

West Hawk is teaming with Calgary-based Radar Acquisitions Corp (RAC) to develop another gasification plant, this time in Colorado. Combined, the two projects will produce pipeline quality gas

(CTG), liquids (CTL) and power (IGCC). Their goal is to take an abundant but pollutant-rich resource and refine it to allow economic prosperity to co-exist with environmental sustainability.

energy

time, cheaper. This shelved coal gasification for some time, but the increasing demand for energy coupled with the low cost and abundance of coal has created new demand for coal – and new interest in a technology that would make its use less destructive.

Coal gasification does not simply burn coal, releasing CO2 out the stack and into the atmosphere. Instead the coal is subjected to heat, pressure and steam, breaking it down, separating the minerals (rocks and dirt) from the fuel. The remaining gas is then burned to create electricity. The waste heat from this initial creation of the fuel can be use to create steam and produce more energy in what is called a combined cycle turbine. This is done in what’s called an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant.

The process creates a combustible gas, but modern technologies have allowed the gasification process to clean this gas of virtually all impurities. During the gasification process, contaminants such as sulfur are captured and converted into commercial products, while CO2 is captured and used in oil wells for enhanced oil recovery in a form of geosequestration.

The product of coal gasification consists mainly of methane, the chief constituent of natural gas. It does not have to be used on-site. Like natural gas, it can be piped to other locations.

Mark Hart, president of West Hawk Development (WHD), based in Vancouver, B.C., says there’s no reason coal can’t be cleaned up and become an environmentally-conscious source of energy.

West Hawk is currently working on bringing coal-to-methane production to Canada; potentially through the Northwest Territories where they project their coal reserve will sustain the plant for approximately 50 years.

As coal use continues to grow, along with the number of coal-fired power plants

The increasing demand for

energy coupled with the low

cost and abundance of coal

has created new demand for

coal – and new interest in a

technology that would make

its use less destructive.

boyd Mitchell is the media manager and associate of capital markets for MACAM group.


argument to obtain investment, prompting policy makers and investment groups at the federal, territorial, municipal and Inuit organization level to work out a process where investment could be gathered and provided to the private sector to build the necessary infrastructure. Broadband vendors then competed for the contract to build a technologically advanced broadband delivery solution to one of the most inaccessible places in North America.

In 2004 NorthwesTel had launched high speed DSL in Iqaluit – the 6,000-person community is the capital of Nunavut and the only potentially profitable market in the entire territory.

But if Nunavut was going to succeed economically, all 24 communities needed to be connected.

In 2005, SSI Micro of Yellowknife (the winning bidder on a competitive RFP issued by NBDC in 2003), along with 25 local Community Service Providers, launched QINIQ – a broadband network serving every Nunavut community. Today, there are well over 3,000 subscribers, and over a third of households have connectivity. Virtually all businesses and municipalities are connected.

SSI Micro’s satellite network was designed to be extremely efficient, with traffic shaping and gigabyte caps that ensure a basic level of service for all users. The satellite signal is carried from the Internet backbone in Ottawa to a local satellite and is then sent out via a wireless antenna that blankets the entire community.

The current infrastructure is sound – its capacity can be easily expanded with minimal ground station investment. Residents are using the internet to run their businesses, municipalities, social networks, education and family connections. With the right infrastructure in place, Nunavut’s challenge is now accessing affordable satellite time, as the subscriber base has grown beyond everyone’s expectations. Infrastructure Canada currently provides a bandwidth investment that eventually goes to Telesat, the monopoly satellite provider in Nunavut. The cost to transfer data over satellite to Nunavut communities is approximately 100 times the cost of transferring data over fibre lines.

But the information transmitted is much-needed. Teachers report skyrocketing literacy rates for twelve-year olds using QINIQ. In a territory that predicts thousands of mining jobs in 20 years, it’s essential that high school completion rates rapidly improve from its current level of only 25 per cent. Affordable, evolving broadband access for the public is one critical piece in the road to self-determination in Nunavut.

With no roads connecting any one of Nunavut’s 25 communities to each other or to any other jurisdiction in Canada, the broadband highway is Nunavut’s de

facto highway. Only three communities in Nunavut actually have physical banks.

To get to a bank, people living in 22 communities have to fly to one of three regional centres at huge costs. The same holds true for hospitals, federal government offices, loan agencies and so on. There are no universities in Nunavut.

The public had a clear need for broadband, and they voiced it through the Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation (NBDC), a community-based organization. They produced an economic

By Lorraine Thomas

The infrastructure essential to keep

Canada’s most remote region connected

to the rest of the country is not highways

and ports: it’s a broadband network.

Repulse Bay satellite ground station and wireless antenna helps Nunavut get better

broadband access than most rural areas.

Photo:S

SIM

icro

Lorraine thomas is a communication consultant who has been working in Canada’s North since 1987.

nOrThern NetWorKiNG


dubbed “urban life lines,” water distribution

and sewer collection networks are just

part of the complex network that can be

mapped with new technologies.

only type of routine activity for water distribution pipes – which few utilities apply routinely – is unidirectional flushing and dead-end flushing. In water distribution and sewer collection networks there is little maintenance work in the sense that most people understand that to mean. There’s nothing akin to an oil change in a car.” That means finding out what’s underground isn’t as easy as a phone call to the city – unless there have recently been repairs in an area, they might not know.

Even a company like Toronto Hydro has trouble finding out exactly what subsurface utilities are hiding in an area they plan to develop. A current project requires them to replace all existing underground cabling within a Toronto townhouse development to upgrade hydro service. They hired multiVIEW Locates Inc. to create an up-to-date underground as-built utility layout which included a scaled, digital drawing depicting the location of all underground facilities and services including gas, water, electricity, sanitary, storm, private lighting, inverts and more.

They used tools like electromagnetic line locators, ground penetrating radar systems and sewer video inspection units. “Basically,” says multiVIEW’s John Scaife, “our process was to obtain current topography survey data from Toronto Hydro and supply our field crews with some maps we possess from a few of the utilities. Our technicians figured the routing of all locatable underground

Subsurface utilities Subsurface utilities

“Spring is like an autopsy. Everyone wants to see the inside of the frozen mammoth,” wrote Leonard Cohen about that time of year when the snow melts and pedestrians

get to see all the coffee cups, cigarettes and other junk that had been there all along, out of sight. The same sort of awakening occurs when a water or sewer main bursts and the city sends a team of workers in orange vests to dig it up. Photos of these incidents make the front page of the paper as reporters and alarmed citizens wonder who’s maintaining these assets. But most of the time, those same people don’t think about what’s underground because it’s not visible.

As it turns out, unless there’s been a recent study on the subsurface utilities in an area, it’s not easy to find out exactly what’s underground. National Research Council’s Yehuda Kleiner says, “The

By Mira Shenker

maPPiNG The

undergrOund

This CAD drawing created for a Toronto area shows electrical lines in red, water in blue, gas in yellow, sewers in green and telecom in orange.

Photo:m

ultiVIEWLocatesInc.


Subsurface utilities Subsurface utilities

In the U.S., Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) just launched a “Know What’s

Below - Call Before You Dig” campaign. Professional or homeowner excavators can now call 811 before beginning any excavation project. A call centre will notify the appropriate local utilities, who then send crews to the requested site to mark

the approximate location of underground lines for free. When we took on the task of finding out just what lies beneath Yonge Street in Toronto, we realized we could really use that 811 number. Phone calls to the City, utility providers and researchers – even a trip to the library – resulted in a limited amount of information. So just what’s running beneath Yonge Street?

infrastructure, captured the position of these features and we delivered this information as a digital CAD drawing.”

Jeff Davidson at Toronto Hydro says, “The subsurface mapping allowed me to design our underground infrastructure as to not conflict with the existing foreign utilities as well as the private utility requirements. It allowed us to keep our required clearances from these utilities for the best civil layout.”

Normally, Hydro relies on its own records and as-constructed drawings to layout a new design. But those records can be incomplete. Davidson says, “Traditionally as a public utility we were not responsible for private property installations. In addition, it’s been about 40 years since it was originally installed in this area. There would be no way for Toronto Hydro to track the new installation of utilities within the complex since the original construction date.” Davis says he contacted the housing complex and they told him that they didn’t have accurate records of the area.

Hydro can use the information they are able to get from foreign utilities, but it’s complicated. Davis says, “With each utility using different methods to relay information (landbase and un-scaled drawings) it historically means that information was not provided in a consistent and uniform fashion.” In the past, once all the information was collected, they would transfer that information to working design drawings. But they would often have to backtrack when a utility they hadn’t mapped was discovered.

Now, before breaking ground, before starting on their design, developers can find out exactly what’s waiting for them below the surface.

even a company like

Toronto hydro has trouble

finding out exactly what

subsurface utilities are

hiding in an area they

plan to develop.

Mira Shenker, b.A., is an editor at ReNew Canada magazine.

WhaT lIes beloW

Photo:Tod

dLatham

We think this is telecom going in at the corner of Yonge and Eglington in Toronto (this April), but that information wasn’t available through the city.

1 12

4

3

1. existing storm sewers and combined sewers installed between 1966 and 1983

2. the original water pipes at yonge and eglington were put in place between 1901 and 1920 – they’ve since been upgraded.

3. there is no sewer system under this block (as of 1989)

4. Pipes are owned by the city and the cost of upgrades is estimated at $800 million.


Subsurface utilities

Las Vegas may be known for its bright lights, but water is also essential to the area’s thriving businesses. The

division responsible for the area’s asset and facility information processes more than 200 new projects and work orders each month. They also install an average of 200 miles of distribution and transmission mains annually. With commercial and residential development in Las Vegas growing at a rate of 6 per cent annually (over the past 10 years), the Asset Management/Facility Management/Geographic Information Systems (AM/FM/GIS) Division won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

The division needed to respond to the increasing demand for products and services caused by this growth, while still keeping costs for service delivery relatively low and satisfying expectations of staff, management, and customers.

A lot of the AM/FM/GIS’s efforts go towards generating and maintaining as-built information for its facility and pipeline distribution network. Internally, they had developed as-built and map generation systems as well as advanced office and field data distribution systems (using automation to integrate CAD and GIS technology). However, recent advancements of spatial technologies demanded a more advanced management system than could be created internally.

While the existing Legacy System supported the LVVWD workflow and business processes, it required high-level maintenance and was constrained by a large amount of code (over 41,000 lines), complex architecture, and lack of open architecture of the multiple components. It couldn’t provide cross-system support for geometric networks and key database data quality functions. The system needed constant validation that the physical

properties of the GIS database accurately reflected the engineering characteristics of the water distribution network. Many of these checks could be performed only after the project was as-built and entered into the GIS database. This meant the Division was paying its GIS staff to spend as 25 per cent of its time correcting post-processing connectivity and logical errors.

Maintenance of the Legacy System was also a costly overhead burden. Procedures had to be written in several programming languages to integrate CAD and GIS data. Once the data was integrated, staff devoted significant time to development and testing whenever changes were implemented – some code changes required as much as a month of testing to validate system functionality.

topobase takes over

A new system, called Topobase, worked with the CAD/GIS system already in place – it simply modernized its content management. Integration of the CAD and GIS work groups became efficient: the system introduced capabilities for multi-user editing, version management, and real-time attribute and spatial data validation. It also allowed workers to perform a wide variety of validation in real time while the as-builts were being verified.

integration and implementation

The LVVWD worked with Autodesk Consulting (creator of Topobase) to plan for the initial rollout of the system. After extensive workshops, they trained a group of users who became in-house experts and technical resources to the rest of the staff. This workshopping process allowed the division to anticipate user issues, so that when staff was trained, there were few speed bumps.

The las Vegas Valley Water district (lVVWd) is responsible

for getting water to more than 1 million people. The right

system for monitoring underground utilities is crucial.

BrIghT liGhtS, BIg SyStem

Display Model: The Topobase System integrates CAD and GIS – users working with geospacial data can bring in a base map from another program and use Topobase Water to maintain water utility data.

Image:A

utodesk


Staff picked up the new system easily because new tables in the Topobase schema were created based on the existing GIS database design of the Division. Both the legacy system for as-builts and Topobase systems were operated in parallel for several weeks prior to full implementation, allowing the Division to phase the implementation. In five months, the new system was fully implemented.

the bottom line

Using the new system, projects are expected to be completed 20 per cent faster for the same administrative cost. The effort for data correction is expected to be reduced by at least 15 per cent. Based on its current workload, the division estimates that these improvements led to an annual cost savings of around $250,000.

Reducing the overhead associated with managing legacy CAD/GIS interoperability and content management systems led to even more savings. The division is saving an estimated $210,000 here and estimates that the new system (requiring only 7,600 lines and providing more functionality) will reduce system operation and maintenance by at least 60 percent – an annual cost savings of around $460,000.

Inspectors are now able to collect GPS data for as-builts, integrate it into the maps and downloaded into the database much more quickly. The software connectivity tools ensure that any changes to the original construction plans are reviewed and that spatial data are validated, allowing the division to turn around reviewed as-builts in less than a day.

Now those 200 projects and work orders per month are easily handled with no backlog of requests for maps and as-builts. Support for geometric networks and logical connectivity are maintained and generated in real time and staff is free to focus on systems development rather than maintenance.

Compiled by ReNew Canada’s staff with files from Lisa Witty, Autodesk.

Subsurface utilities

• The new system uses an application programming interface (API) to store data in native database formats. This flexibility allowed the Division to integrate their existing data and create custom applications to support business processes.

• Infrastructure design and management within a single environment. The enhanced environment provides tools to manage all the events that take place in the life cycle of infrastructure assets – on-the-fly spatial validation can visually confirm connectivity in the water distribution network, educing an existing layer of legacy code that checks for data integrity and quality issues.

• Centralized spatial information database synchronizes data between the CAD and GIS applications using a common Oracle Spatial database, simplifying the process of working with geospatial information. Efficiency of the business processes are achieved by eliminating the overhead burden for checking errors and maintaining additional code.

InfrasTruCTure aSSet data


George Gritziotis, executive director of Construction Sector Council (CSC), has a lot on his plate. A

year ago, he was facing an admittedly dire situation: shortages of skilled workers in the Canadian construction industry. And no quick fixes were evident.

The consensus among experts is that there is still a people deficit today. There are still no quick fixes. The supply of labour will be a continuing challenge, but Gritziotis, his fellow board members and other construction industry insiders are feeling much better about the worker situation, thanks to a mobilization of resources across the country.

“I am tremendously optimistic,” Gritziotis said.

Industry insiders have identified areas across the country that need bolstering to ensure that there will be a steady supply of skilled workers to keep up to the anticipated demand, and virtually all agree with the steps being taken now, as well as what steps need to be taken in the future.

Statistics in a collaborative report between the Canadian Construction Association and the CSC released last December show that construction employment is expected to level off in 2007 after years of significant growth. After growth rates of 7.1 per cent in 2005 and 2.7 per cent in 2006, growth in the construction labour force is expected to slow to 0.9 per cent in 2007 and 1.4 per cent

in 2008. Furthermore, during the next ten years, the industry will need to replace over 150,000 retiring workers, or 19 per cent of the current work force.

Potential problem solvers are a better immigration process, national standards for training and apprenticeship, as well as more youth, women and aboriginal recruitment.

A recent forum hosted by the CSC addressed the construction industry’s human resources needs. They stressed the need for owners, contractors, labour groups, educators and governments to communicate and collaborate in a more efficient manner – a process that is underway right now. The CSC provides data through its forecast report entitled Construction Looking Forward, which looks at all facets of construction industry, including the labour force. Provincial labour market information committees are now gathering current information and will release the next report this spring for the period from 2007-2015.

KMPG International also conducted a Global Construction Survey in 2007, which concluded that the shortage of qualified contractors around the world is without a doubt the biggest challenge to construction projects in the future.

The KMPG study also found that with market demand expected to increase significantly over the next five years, this issue is set to intensify as the pool of qualified contractors is reduced and the wider shortage of skilled labour contractors impacts the ability of teams to deliver on projects.

As far as Canada is concerned, Gritziotis pointed out that the labour deficit issue is a regional phenomenon that needs to be addressed by understanding local labour market realities. He said some regions may have a plentiful supply of qualified labour while others attract workers from other parts of Canada and abroad.

Paul Douglas, president and Chief Operating Officer for PCL Constructors Inc., said “We will need to go outside the country to bring skilled workers here to satisfy the domestic demand for at least the next two years.”

Gritziotis said “Bringing in skilled workers from outside the country is part of the solution, not the only solution. We still need to utilize our existing workforce by attracting women, youth and aboriginal people.”

He said “One of the problems [with binging in foreign-trained skilled workers] is that there is no national systematic approach to

Industry insiders say the

gap waiting to be filled by

skilled trades workers is

as big as ever.

By Greg McMillan

The peOple deFiCit

“We will need to go outside

the country to bring skilled

workers here to satisfy the

domestic demand for at

least the next two years.”

—Paul Douglas


Seneca College has created a Canadian first – a new Centre of Excellence in the Built Environment. It highlights the academic status and life cycle sustainability role of technologists, technicians, trades persons and those in emerging fields like brownfield remediation.

Beginning in September 2007 up to 20 qualified students will receive a one-year “Green Scholarship” for the first year of their four-year applied degree program in Integrated Environmental Site Remediation.

We are proud to announce that to date, the following organizations have generously contributed to the scholarship program: The Cement Association of Canada, ReNew Canada magazine, Jacques Whitford and Parc Downsview Park. Be a Green Scholarship supporter – call Bill Humber, Chair, Centre for the Built Environment

20 Green ScholarshipsIntegrated Environmental Site Remediation Degree Program Offered in 2007

Proud Green Scholarship SupportersSeneca College

1750 Finch Ave. East, Toronto, ON M2J 2X5

T: 416-491-5050, ext. 2500

E: [email protected] W: senecac.on.ca

assessing their credentials. This needs to be addressed.”Douglas said “One thing needing to be changed or looked at is the

ability to work across Canada. A tradesperson may be certified to work in the province they passed [an apprenticeship program] exam in, however they may not be able to work in another province with their current certificate.”

Douglas said another tack the construction industry is taking to offset the worker shortage is to minimize the labour content required. “Some examples of that are modularization, using prefab materials, and choosing low labour – but more expensive – products and systems.”

Grant Trump, president and CEO of ECO (Environmental Careers Organization) Canada, said “The number-one issue for a lot of companies is the worker supply situation.” But he points to an ECO partnership forged with Royal Roads University in Victoria that provides distance learning online as an example of how to fight the shortage. “Immigrants, for example, can get accreditation before they even come to Canada,” said Trump. “They can have the same credentials as a person in Canada. It’s all part of the solution.”

In Ontario, Mike Yorke, vice-president of the Carpenters Union, Central Ontario regional council, strongly believes that with appropriate investment in skills development and training, and worker mobility initiatives, the majority of Canada’s skills shortages can be addressed. He says extensive labour market surveys and projections have been made to determine and plan for training and work force needs. “There are various training partnerships, such as CHOICE (Career, Help, Opportunity, Incentive, Community Employment) and OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) and investment in training by unions. We address the issue of, and communicate with, the communities that represent undocumented skilled workers.”

“[The Carpenters Union] has implemented a variety of outreach programs and recruitment partnerships,” said Yorke. “For instance, we are addressing the industry’s crucial need for concrete formwork carpenters, as well as a program to enhance the skills of interior carpenters.”

Governments are addressing the shortage of training programs. Ontario’s Apprenticeship Training Tax Credit, designed to assist employers to hire apprentices, has been extended to 2012. British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell recently announced a provincial investment of $2 million to create a second Cranbrook campus for the College of the Rockies, offering trades and technology training to support local industry.

In the boom province of Alberta, Neil Tidsbury, President of Construction Labour Relations (CLR) in Alberta, said there has been a sustained push on starting and training apprentices. “There are currently record numbers of apprentices,” he said. “With only 10 per cent of Canada’s population, we routinely graduate more than 20 per cent of the journeypersons. There is also considerable effort being directed toward mentoring the apprentices and the tradespeople engaged in training them on our major sites, with staff dedicated to that role.”

He said that worker shortages are particularly noticeable in supervision and site management. “We at CLR, along with the Alberta Building Trades Council, have developed and recently reviewed and upgraded a leading-edge program for foremen and general foremen called Better SuperVision,” he said. “This program is now delivered under license everywhere but Ontario and Quebec. We have a companion program for the next tier of supervision/management called Leaders Building Leaders. Both are well subscribed. We are still building the capacity to deliver more of these courses in Alberta, recruiting and training instructors.”


The Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) recently introduced a new regulation to control the assessment and restoration of contaminated sites. Some believe it was designed to regulate

procedure rather than to confirm the environmental quality of the restored property. Gone are the days when a team would work with the MOE to confirm that a restored property was suitable for the intended land use and that the MOE would then sign off.

Restoration of a contaminated site can be an inexact and costly endeavor involving multi-disciplinary teams – all of which are accountable to the one entity with the overall responsibility.

In Ontario, most of the responsibility for assessment and restoration appears to have been allocated to the qualified professional (QP). However, it can be argued that the clarity of the QP’s role has been diluted, possibly even confused, by the inclusion of a broad spectrum of practitioners who can contribute only to portions of the assessment and restoration process.

One viewpoint sees merit in limiting the definition of the QP to the Professional Engineers of Ontario and the Association of Professional Geologists of Ontario. Other types of practitioners could then fill the gap – a new term, “contributing practitioners” (CPs), could be introduced. These CPs would be accountable to the QPs, who would be ultimately responsible for the competence of the finished product. Phase 1 and phase 2 site assessments and risk assessments could be conducted by CPs and the QP would then take the lead role and the discretion to exercise professional judgment. The QP would provide reliance with the associated mandatory insurance.

Narrowing the definition of the QP to a licensing body may make the MOE uneasy. But it would have the advantage of keeping a clearer definition, administered under an established control body within existing legislation. This designation framework would follow marketplace trends that indicate the majority of the work is currently completed by members of these licensing groups. Currently, lawyers, bankers, investors and some municipalities prefer to have reliance on a Record of Site Condition signed, sealed and delivered by a professional engineer or geologist, since their contracted terms request a current license.

These professionals are accustomed to being responsible for the protection of the public – a role that’s essential in the assessment and restoration of Brownfields. They have the skills to lead multi-disciplinary teams. They can also be relentless perfectionists, exercising their professional judgment for optimization of contra-posing issues.

Through discussion with many practitioners in this local Brownfield arena, this is one point of view that’s developed. If you have something to add, don’t hesitate – these issues need to be discussed.

Greg McMillan is a journalist with extensive experience in domestic and foreign markets and has published a book on the history of relations between Canada and the Dominican republic. he is an Associate and Senior Writing/Communications Strategist with C2e Consulting in toronto.

“While it seems clear that both replacement demand and construction activity will drive the need for more tradespeople in Alberta for many years to come, building an Alberta work force to meet our peaks is not responsible or sustainable,” Tidsbury said. “Mobility is the sometimes forgotten piece of the work force development and delivery puzzle. “Accordingly, we are working with our government, the federal government, and with CSC and others to enhance worker mobility from one province to another.”

Allison Rougeau, Executive Director of Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, a not-for-profit organization that promotes and supports apprenticeship training and education systems, said it is important that employers involved in apprenticeship programs see a positive return on their investments.

“There is an opportunity here,” she said. “As of June 2007, the federal government will be implementing apprentice tax incentives, and grants for apprenticeships.”

“We need employers to see that there is a definite upside to getting involved in an apprenticeship program. A study shows that only 17 per cent of potential employers were engaged in training apprenticeships. So there is a huge opportunity here to do more.”

“One of things we have instituted since December, 2006, is a significant skilled trades advertising campaign aimed at youth with spots on places such as MuchMusic.” But, she added, it is important that employers buy into the message as well.

All across the country, similar steps are being taken, all chipping away at the problem at hand.

Griziotis said “At our board meeting, we are touching on all areas. Whatever we do has to be a national response to meet the regional needs.”

“At my office, there are a lot of people

with gray hair, a lot of people just out of

school and not a lot in between – it’s a

demographic gap. There’s a big gap in

planning in the electricity industry and

across industries. Lack of skilled trade

workers is a pinch point in terms of going

forward with a project. It’s madness

in terms of getting any job finished in

Western Canada.”

— Dr. Jan Carr, CEO of the Ontario Power Authority

(OPA), addressing the Economic Club of Toronto.

David Dubois,Ph.D.,C.eng,P.eng., is Director of brownfield redevelopment and vice President at Ch2M hILL. he specializes in the assessment, restoration and management of contaminated sites /brownfields intended for redevelopment. David is a Qualified Person as defined under o.reg 153/04.

deFiNe “QualIfIed”The role of qualified professionals needs to be narrowed for more efficient assessing and restoration of brownfields.

By David DuBois


transportation

Increasing infrastructure investment is evident in the federal government’s portfolio. The Urban Transportation Showcase Program, the

Infrastructure Canada Program, the Gas Tax Fund, the Strategic Infrastructure Fund, the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, the Public Transit Fund, and the Public Transit Capital Trust are just some of the most prominent transit programs created in recent years.

While these initiatives are appreciated, they have created a bewildering set of eligibility requirements and conditions that are confusing for even the most well-informed stakeholders. Much of this was simplified in the 2007 federal budget, which created the Building Canada Fund. This fund is endowed with $8.8 billion over the next seven years, but its project-specific nature stops short of providing a long-term commitment that is rooted in solid public policy. Indeed, the focus on “projects” suggests a temptation for politically motivated funding as opposed to sustainable investment in long-term plans.

In that context, the time has come to create a National Transit Strategy, as recommended by the Big City Mayors Caucus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The proposed strategy is linked to shared priorities: economic competitiveness, improved quality of life and addressing climate change and air quality issues.

As transit’s share of urban travel continues to grow, federal and provincial governments must provide long-term reliable investments so that transit systems have the financial certainty they need in order to meet the needs of Canadians now and in the future. We can debate how best to achieve this, but no one can deny it must be a national goal. If we don’t move quickly to fix the problems hampering our cities, especially the ones for which transit is a key component, we may well lose our position in the front rank of nations and never get it back.

Given the importance of a national commitment to transit, the strategy should be made permanent through legislation. It should include five components: investment, integrated land use and transportation planning, demand incentives, innovative research, and accountability.

By Michael W. Roschlau

The federal budget did not

include a national transit strategy,

leaving certain industry insiders

worried about how Canada will

move its growing population.

PlaN In MOTIOn

Public transit ridership is up by an average of 3.42 per cent across the country – that equals an

increase of 30 million transit trips – and could increase even more with government support.

Photo:cuta

Photo:cuta

Photo:Tod

dLatham


transportation

In terms of investment, the strategy proposes that $2 billion be allocated annually for capital expenses, to maintain transit systems and to expand them to accommodate both population growth and a modal shift toward transit over private automobiles. This amount would be revisited over time to see whether it’s adequate, and adjusted to keep pace with inflation.

Land use and transportation planning must be integrated to ensure that development supports transit and is oriented toward it. There should be appropriate land use densities and a balance of municipal economic, social and environmental priorities. Cities would therefore only be eligible for funding if they have a council-approved land use and transportation plan that favours transit as the primary means for accommodating future growth in travel demand.

For a transit strategy to be successful some people may need additional incentives to use transit. The federal government can play a strong role in developing tax incentives that support transit. As such, the existing tax credit for monthly transit passes should be expanded to include a tax exemption for employer-provided transit benefits.

Another important component of the strategy provides research to support greater transit use. Two kinds of research are needed: cooperative research that promotes information sharing and innovation among transit systems and research that identifies policy approaches all governments can use to increase ridership and to meet important economic, social and environmental priorities through increased transit use.

Given the proposed scope of the national transit strategy, it’s important that all governments work together to ensure that there are appropriate accountability measures in place. A permanent national transit strategy that is legislated to demonstrate commitment and provide predictability will not only greatly improve the quality of life and competitiveness in Canada’s cities, but can also go a long way to meeting federal objectives: to ensure that our cities are great places to live and work.

Michael roschlau is president & Ceo of the Canadian urban transit Association, which represents the public transit community across Canada. In addition, Michael chairs the Finance Working Group of the National round table on Sustainable Infrastructure and is co-chair of the Canadian Motor Carrier Passenger Council.


transportation

Last summer Ontario’s Ministry of Transport (MTO) announced the biggest investment Ontario’s highway infrastructure had seen in at least a decade – a $7

billion infusion into the ReNew Ontario program. Last year also saw what Alain Robert, president of the Québec Road Builders Association, called the highest investment in Quebec’s highways in 10 years. Officials at the MTO say an investment in highways is an investment in “the backbone of the economy.” Ontario’s highways carry $1.2 trillion worth of goods every year and the Ministry says traffic is stopping them from getting to market on time.

Highways are just one of three key infrastructure elements that support our national economy by allowing exporters and importers to move goods to market. Railways and highways move goods to

ports, facilitating the water-borne commerce that contributes $175 billion to the national economy every year.

With trade growth forecast for the next 10 years, investment is needed in all three modes of transport to keep Canada competitive. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce wrote in a 2005 policy report: “Improved transportation links, both rail and road, to ports and increased port capacity are required to facilitate Canada’s growing trade volumes. Without improved access to Canadian ports and the ability of Canadian ports to handle increasing cargo volumes, Canadian ports risk losing traffic to U.S. ports, which in turn will negatively impact the Canadian economy.”

Below is a rundown on the current state of transportation infrastructure – the problems they face and how they can be better integrated.

By Ron Wilford

Canada’s ports, railways and highways help make up an international supply chain – there are a few weak links.Photos:Tod

dLatham

Global gaTeWays


transportation

Ports

There are three major international container shipping ports in Canada: Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax. A fourth, Prince Rupert, is scheduled to open in late 2007. Thousands of containers pass through these terminals each week. Within each port are from one to four container terminals where ocean-going container ships berth to load and unload 20/40-foot standard shipping containers. These container terminals are separate from bulk or grain terminals and tend to require more real estate per tonne of cargo.

The rapid growth in containerized trade over the past 10 years has outstripped growth in capacity of the terminals and railways. Labour action, such as the Vancouver truck strike of 2005 and the CNR strike of 2007, and even train derailments have direct and indirect impact on the import and export economy. Exporters face financial penalties, including the loss of contracts, if they fail to meet delivery terms. Importers face the potential of lost sales, out of stock situations and even plant closures resulting – in extreme cases – in layoffs. Importers are increasing inventories to deal with an unreliable supply chain (caused by the unpredictable nature of the intermodal chain). Those costs are ultimately borne by the consumer. Exporters may also have to advance shipments in order to meet contractual obligations and must bear the associated costs themselves, reducing the profitability of their businesses.

From an infrastructure perspective, the west coast is faring better than the east. After a divisive, four-year approval process, the port of Vancouver has finally received approval to move forward with the development of a third berth at the Roberts Bank Deltaport terminal. Once approval for a second container terminal at Delta is gained, it’s anticipated that the overall investment in the port will top $ 1.4 billion and container capacity will exceed 3.5 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units), placing the

port of Vancouver in the top 10 of Canadian infrastructure improvements.

What about the East Coast? The scale of investment there has been much smaller, in part due to the maturity of the trade volumes entering and exiting the key ports, Montreal and Halifax. The growth in these volumes has been modest over recent years while Vancouver managed the explosive growth from Asia, but this situation is changing.

U.S. West Coast gateways experiencing ongoing congestion are sending overflow to Canada’s East Coast gateways. On top of that, importers are looking to the East Coast to pick up volumes diverted from Vancouver. This growth could be positive, but only if the physical capacity of the system can bare it – and it doesn’t look like it can.

In Montreal, there is little or no real estate onto which the port could expand. The island’s south shore holdings at Contrecoeur have not yet been developed to handle the container trade, and there are no immediate plans to do so. Investment in infrastructure is pegged at $120 million for 2005-2009, with the money being spent on technological improvements as well as upgrades to

the container terminals, but major port redevelopment is not yet on the agenda.

Halifax has its own set of challenges. While attractive as a port due to its deep harbour and proximity to the great-circle route shipping lanes, it’s constrained by the single CN railway line linking the port with the industrial hinterland of central Canada and the U.S. Midwest. This tenuous link suffers from rolling stock shortages that impact inland transit times, as well as a lack of viable competition from other operators, leading some importers and exporters (as well as shipping lines themselves) to go through Montreal. As its regional market expands, Halifax will attract more global container carriers allowing it push out into underdeveloped markets.

railways

The majority of Canada’s goods are manufactured hundreds or thousands of kilometres from its ports. Import and export containers must travel by rail to get to market.

The Financial Post has reported that Canadian National Railway (CN), with access to five saltwater ports in North America,

“Industry needs to provide

government with a clear

view of the serious impact

on the Canadian economy

when sections of the

infrastructure, such as the

railway or the ports, fail.”

—Dave Seabourn

Photo:Tod

dLatham

Vancouver has one of three major international container shipping ports in Canada.

Montreal and Halifax have the others.


transportation

counts on containerized shipments for 18 per cent of its revenue while Canada Pacific Rail’s (CP Rail) reliance on the segment is about 27 per cent. Yet neither railway appears to be keeping up with the growth in container volumes to the satisfaction of importers, exporters and the port authorities. According to a major Canadian retailer, there is little confidence in the railways’ ability to provide the much-needed consistency of service demanded by the Canadian consumer.

CN and CP Rail have played a legendary role in this country’s development. Our transcontinental railways enjoy a duopoly in Canada, yet they appear to show no sense of responsibility beyond that to their shareholders, who have enjoyed steadily increasing share value over recent years. During the CN strike of 2007, CP declared force majeure in order to mitigate any blame and claims of liability from their customers. If recent comments by CP’s CEO Fred Green are any indication, the stage may now be set to effect a change in attitude on the part of the railways: “Our national transportation network has neither the quality nor capacity to ensure we can capitalize on the economic growth opportunities we see coming in the next five, 10 or 20 years. This network is critical to our nation’s economic future.”

Initiatives such as fleet renewal, co-production between CN and CP (where railways use each other’s track) and inland terminal reorganization are most welcome, yet the railways must coordinate their own business models with the larger import-export economy to ensure efficient investment in rail infrastructure development.

highways

Gridlock is more than an inconvenience on a highway network that provides essential links to ports and inland rail terminals. Urban growth without protection for future expansion of highway rights-of-way have led to congestion on key arteries such as Highway 401, the Queen Elizabeth Way in Ontario; Highway 20 & Highway 40 in Quebec; and Highway 1 in B.C.

Beyond congestion, driver shortages and escalating fuel costs mean truckers are unable to pick up slack left by railways. Because all three modes are connected, municipal and provincial highway planners must be part of any private infrastructure improvement initiatives, such as rail terminal development, or any federal infrastructure projects, such as port expansion.

One of the key words to come out of all of the discussions on supply chain infrastructure is leadership. Without a strong direction from the federal government, developments will continue to be piecemeal and those who rely on the marine container mode infrastructure will continue to be frustrated. One of those people is Dave Seabourn, director of international merchandising at Wal-Mart Canada. He says, “Industry needs to provide government with a clear view of the serious impact on the Canadian economy when sections of the infrastructure such as the railway or the ports fail.” If industry and governments work together, Canada’s trade-based economy can continue to grow, but if the infrastructure to support that growth isn’t developed, the system could fail.

It’s time for all stakeholders in Canada’s trade infrastructure to come together to agree on an immediate action plan that will meet our current and projected short, middle and long term trade objectives. The failure to do so will impact our ability to compete and win in the global marketplace.

ron Wilford is an international transportation and trade consultant. he worked in various management positions for two major container shipping companies over an 18-year period. Wilford is a former president of the toronto Steamship Association.

• City of Toronto’s designated redevelopment corporation;

• An arms-length, self-financing corporation that builds value for Toronto and its citizens;

• Owns 500 acres of land, manages 580,000 sq.ft of building space, and leases properties to more than 75 businesses;

• Explores, pilots and implements financial incentives and redevelopment tools such as Tax Increment Financing;

• Acquires strategic brownfields and underutilized sites for employment revitalization;

• Strong environmental commitment, not only with brownfield remediation, but with leading environmental sustainability in all of our initiatives.

7th Floor, Metro Hall, 55 John Street

Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

W: www.tedco.ca E: [email protected]

TORONTO ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION


Waking up, you hear birds from the sky garden of the flat beneath yours. Outside your front door, you see the large, brightly-coloured wind cowls that are an integral

part of your neighbourhood’s natural ventilation strategy. Traditional brick and oak weatherboarding, both produced locally, contrast with the post-modern equipment.

The street is an extension of the living space: with cars passing through only for large deliveries, the only traffic comes from bicycles. Children are playing as you walk along the street past solariums – a key element of the passive solar system. People lounging in the solariums provide eyes on the street while they chat to their neighbours.

This may seem like an idealized image of the future, but it was a typical morning for Rodney Wilts as a resident of BedZED (The Beddington Zero Energy Development), the U.K.’s largest carbon-neutral eco-community. What makes the community sustainable is modern – and quickly evolving – technology paired with low-tech changes to social and transportation infrastructure.

Communities like this can be built now, but it means overhauling long-standing building and developing standards. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) has been sustaining the slow process of changing development norms by promoting their concept for “The Living City,” a vision for the year 2100 of mixed-use, sustainable communities that work with, not against, their surrounding ecosystems. They’ve built a model community called Block 39 in Vaughan, Ontario, as a first step. It’s Ontario’s largest Energy Star for Homes project and, according to the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), may be the largest green community in North America.

The TRCA’s timeframe for when Canada can expect to have people living in these “Living Cities” may be realistic given the slow pace of change – this is a country where the standard railway width is still based on the span of two horses – but some are

worried no progress is being made.“I think a reality check is long overdue,” says Toronto architect

Allan Killin. “Martin Liefhebber and the gang did the [CMHC] Healthy House more than 10 years ago and we have yet to progress from there.”

Andrew Bowerbank, director of sustainable development at TRCA and executive director of the CaGBC’s Toronto chapter, sees Block 39 as a way to make major progress with the developer community. “It’s an educational process,” says Bowerbank. “We took builders who had barely heard about any of this stuff and said, ‘Let’s educate you at our cost and you’ll see if there’s value in what we do.’”

Wilts, a green building consultant with Loop Initiative, says, “There’s already a good body of knowledge out there. The process of planning can take five or six years easily. I think we need to get on with it.” Bruce Krushelnicki, director of city planning for Burlington, Ontario, told the crowd at a seminar on applying Smart Growth policies in Ontario (see page 40) that it took nine public meetings and three-and-a-half years just to produce 16 units of infill to get to a density of 35 people per hectare. Wilts says the technology at BedZED is now 10 years old. “Some of the technology at BedZED – like their biomass combined heat and power plant – did not work properly [at first] but they’ve been able to make adaptations.”

By Mira Shenker

green communities are sprouting up across Canada, but still mostly as pilot

projects that follow a model of development we have literally outgrown.

lIVIng CitieS

“Green building is a hot trend; a lot of builders

are very interested in it. What’s tricky is they’re

unknowing about what’s involved so they

end up being so cagey that they overprice it.”

—Martin Leifhebber

Photo:K

PMGArchitects


The technology may be stronger now than it was 10 years ago, but without financing these projects will stall at the planning stage. Martin Liefhebber, one of few architects who can say he has over two decades of experience in green design says, “Green building is a hot trend; a lot of builders are very interested in it. What’s tricky is they’re unknowing about what’s involved so they end up being so cagey that they overprice it.” Bowerbank says Block 39 is a way of showing developers that green can be affordable.

Developers also need to realize that sometimes redeveloping an existing community to increase density and efficiency is smarter than leveling a property or seeking out greenfields for housing starts. Mark Poddubiuk at L’Oeuf Architects in Montreal says, “Research has proven again and again that what we save in terms of embodied energy is much more than building new, energy-efficient buildings. Developers don’t like this, but existing buildings have value – why do we have to go back to a clean slate all the time?”

Killin criticizes Block 39 for being a greenfield development when the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) estimates that 66 per cent of the buildings that will be standing in 2050 are already built. “Governments love housing starts,” says Killin, “but that’s not the way to build communities.” However, given that greenfields will likely continue to be developed, Bowerbank says it makes sense to explore approaches that incorporate the natural world into developments going up in non-urban settings like they did with Block 39. Poddubiuk says, “Even with greenfields, there’s an ecology [to be preserved]. A major shift in attitude is needed from frontier-mentality to being

inspired by the site itself, not just what you can impose on it.”

Rockliffe’s architects took the surrounding ecosystem into account, creating green channels that would run through the development, allowing for biodiversity. The plans are impressive, but the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. The bulk of these sustainable communities are funded by government bodies. Canada Lands Corporation (CLC) is involved in two out of three of the projects listed on page 36. They are an arms-length crown corporation and as master developer will be bearing a lot of the cost at Rockliffe.

There’s an opportunity for the private sector to get involved as master developers, and potentially owners of these types of communities. Sandy Springs, Georgia, is a newly incorporated city that is entirely run by the private company CH2M Hill. Would they have taken ownership of a more expensive community like Rockliffe?

“The [developers] we’ve talked to are very interested,” says CLC’s Rick Hughes. “They see sustainability as being quite marketable.” Mattamy Homes, Walmart, Tridel, Minto and others are definitely seeing the marketability of green. They’re using LEED membership as a draw to potential buyers. Where the private sector has stepped in so far is with operations and maintenance, Wilts says sometimes governments aren’t in a position to run utilities – like BedZED’s biomass system. “Hiving those sorts of things off to people who have expertise and interest in them makes sense.” With Rockliffe, Hughes says, “We’re looking at ways the community could be better maintained [once built], because the City of Ottawa is strapped. We’ve talked with engineering consultants Halsall about having some kind of private utility operator.”

the Key to the

sustainable Cityeducate

People who are building, developing, designing and engineering green need a model to learn from. Toronto-based building consultant John Godden says there’s only so much you can teach skilled trades workers with a PowerPoint presentation.

That’s part of what TRCA is doing with projects like Block 39 and The Living City Campus at Kortright in Ontario, where they are taking a 1970s building to LEED platinum. Bowerbank says “On a scale of one to 10 for sustainability, Block 39 is about a three. We’re not necessarily saying a community needs to be built this way; we’re saying it can be even better. To get to this point is easy—and developers would agree—but there are a lot of questions and education required to get there.”

Partner up

“Utility involvement is crucial to new developments,” says Bowerbank. Manitoba Hydro supplies materials related to energy-efficiency from both its PowerSmart programming and the Winter Heating Cost Control Act. Developers can also make solid partners and they seem to be opening up to green. Poddubiuk says, “The older generation of developers are coming to [our firm] for consultation on green developments. They’ve seen the Al Gore movie and they want to make up for [the damage done].”

The City of Ottawa has set up “innovation teams” for intense consultation and workshops to develop the former Rockliffe airbase into a community with greenways like the one rendered here.


Public relations

The public’s expectations and attitudes have a lot to do with a project’s success. “Where models help is with awareness and public incentives,” says Wilts. BedZed, while not a model, is an example of how a project can get things moving. It was used to kick off World Wildlife Federation’s One Planet Living Program and promulgate it around the world. TRCA can use Block 39 in the same way, as a tool to move the Living City forward. Bowerbank says he’d like to see a conference centre on site. “Hopefully we can interact at not just a national, but an international level,” he says. “I was invited to a green building conference in Denver, the environmental commissioner of Brazil is interested in the campus, the Netherlands, England, Japan – there’s growing interest.

the right incentive

Research and analysis done by the NRTEE suggest that market-based instruments that use a mix of economic incentives can be more effective than laws and regulations in the long run. The town of Vaughan encouraged the development of Block 39 by fast-tracking development because it’s an EnergyStar community. Disincentives work, too. Dockside Green enforces a potential penalty of $1 million ($1 per buildable square foot) if a building doesn’t achieve LEED platinum.

transportation

These communities can’t be islands. They need to fit into their region’s transportation plan. Accessibility is a problem for Block 39, but Bowerbank isn’t worried. “This is going to be the new High Park of the 905 area. Transportation will come over time. In fact, we’re already talking to York region about it,” he says.

The planned redevelopment of the 336-acre former Rockcliffe airbase in Ottawa has led to complaints from residents of nearby communities who are worried that major arteries could become unmanageably crowded once the relatively dense development is finished. Krushelnicki says the issue is at the planning level. “We’ve got to reduce the need to move or we’ll never reduce congestion,” he says. “No more separating land uses. We have to live and work in the same place.”

At this stage, big pilot projects like Block 39 are just large-scale experiments. But they are helping sustainable ideas become mainstream Planners

are embracing Ontario’s Growth Plan and asking for less conservative numbers in terms of density requirements; developers are looking for green projects; even Wal-Mart is talking mixed-use, LEED-certified complexes. Momentum is picking up, now Canada needs to increase its level of commitment – both in dollars and public support – to maintain a steady but slow pace of change. At that seminar on planning for growth in Ontario Krushelnicki said, “Even if you lean hard on the wheel, it takes a long time for a boat to turn around when it has this much forward momentum. But once it starts to turn, it’s pretty fast.” Canada is approaching that turning point in terms of a major attitude shift and new development standards. We just need to keep leaning on the wheel.

Photo:K

PMGArchitects

roCKliFFe laNdiNG, oN. Canada Lands Corporation will develop this 325-acre former airbase. Rodney Wilts says, “It’s an urban infill project – there’s a river on one side, but there’s urban development all around it, so it’s a unique opportunity to protect and conserve green space.”

• network of greenways will integrate concepts of landscape regeneration, storm water management and wild life and pedestrian connections

• high density, mixed-use urban villages within the greenways

• network of bike lanes and off street multi-use trails with access to regional trail system, linking to downtown

• transit-oriented development

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doCKSide GreeN, bC. Co-developers Vancity and Windmill Developments along with the City of Victoria want to be the first to get LEED platinum certification for buildings developed in a master planned community.

• access to BC Ferries via the Galloping Goose trail

• Phase 1 building, Synergy, will save an estimated 259 tonnes of GHG’s per year

• individual metres provide real time info to residents

• PV panels for landscaping areas

• downward facing lights reduce light pollution

• biomass system will result in the first GHG positive community development in North America

okotoks, ab. The 143-acre town of Okotoks lives within their local environmental means. Water use is limited to the carrying capacity of the Sheep River watershed. One of the first to apply growth boundaries almost 10 years ago, the town realizes eco-efficiency through urban design, renewable resources and recycling.

• water conservation and innovative storm water management

• extensive open space system, ecological landscapes, walking/cycling access

• population cap (25-30,000 people)

• work, recreation, education and shopping within walking distance of homes

• 52-home subdivision (Drake Landing, see inset) will incorporate solar seasonal storage technology – designed (in partnership with land developer United) to meet 90 per cent of its space and water heating requirements from solar energy

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nofokotoks.InsetPhoto:N

RCan

Mira Shenker, b.A., is an editor at ReNew Canada magazine. [email protected]


Brownfield and Impaired Real Estate

Terrasan management assesses each brownfield or urban renewal site and initiates economic studies, environmental engineering, remedial action planning and architectural design to strengthen the viability of the project. Detailed consultations are carried out to align the redevelopment plan with the municipal objectives. Terrasan addresses each redevelopment site for its uniqueness to the community, the economics, and the future revitalized outcome.

Terrasan Corporation

Terrasan Environmental Solutions Inc

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Phone 416.201.9982 Toll Free 1 866 84-TERRA

Foundations for Urban Renewal

Terrasan Corporation is a privately owned property development company that focuses on urban renewal, impaired, and brownfield real estate. With its seasoned management team, Terrasan Corporation identifies, acquires, and develops environmentally or geotechnically impaired properties and brings about well planned

Terrasan works with municipalities, land owners, banks, and real estate investors to implement environmental remediation solutions within all urban renewal and brownfield land parcels. The specific business case brings the investment strategy for market redevelopment. Terrasan’s investment forms the foundation for the re-development master plan including vibrant new residential communities, mixed use commercial and industrial projects.

Terrasan Corporation creates vibrant new communities and integrates the investment strategy with municipal economic development and community sustainability goals.

Terrasan Corporation revitalizes urban clusters, brownfields, waterfront and marine properties and reinforces the economic development goals of a the community. Terrasan bridges the old industrial uses to vibrant new mixed use and commercial investments that bring and reinforce economic renewal.

and architecturally advanced urban renewal projects that revitalize contemporary urban communities.

Terrasan Corporation has allocated capital to purchase, remediate and develop derelict, idle, underutilized, and brownfield properties and it assumes a lead role in new urban economic development.

“S igns of Intelligent Design: the insulation in your new home works a lot like the insulation in your body … really! In a nutshell, it works like this: the exterior

walls and sheet rock are what’s called an ‘air barrier.’ Like your skin, the air barrier can keep out only so much of the heat and cold outside. That’s why your home also needs a ‘thermal barrier,’ which is the actual insulation material. You could compare this to the thin layer of fat, small blood vessels and sweat glands just beneath your skin. At Artistic Homes, we make sure that, like your own body, the air barrier and the thermal barrier are touching each other at all points. We do this by blowing in our insulation, so we’re certain of full coverage and proper insulation.”

The above quotation is from a marketing brochure prepared by a New Mexico-based production house builder with green aspirations. It was handed out on a tour of new housing developments in Albuquerque as part of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Building Conference last March.

If proper use of thermal insulation and the development of tighter building envelopes are considered a major qualifying criteria for green builders, then it would be safe to say that many Canadian-based builders have been at least light green for a couple of decades, simply because of the demands of our colder climate.

When the R-2000 program was launched in the early 1980s, only a handful of Canadian builders truly embraced the “house as a system” concept and only a relatively small percentage of new homes were built to this energy-efficiency standard. But over time these standards have been incorporated into our building codes and better construction techniques have evolved to the point where earlier standards for R-2000 can be considered today’s mainstream.

That won’t be enough for much longer – the standards to qualify as green are becoming even tougher. A recent report by The Clean Air Partnership states, “‘Green’ building has become synonymous across Canada with achieving sustainable development principles and having a measurable impact on greenhouse gas reduction.”

At a November 2006 seminar on sustainable design with masonry, engineer Bill McEwen said while green buildings will offer a healthier living environment to achieve a higher standard there must be measures to reduce a building’s ecological footprint – including energy, materials and impacts on surrounding areas.

One such standard is the LEED Canada program, a voluntary, consensus-based standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings with a primary objective to minimize environmental impacts (details at cagbc.org). The majority of Canadian builders are not currently achieving a LEED standard. Of those builders that are attempting to cater to growing consumer demand for green building projects, the leading edge innovators are large, integrated real estate companies. At this stage, only one residential structure has been LEED certified in Canada – a multi-residential high-rise building in Toronto. Other buildings that have met the LEED criteria tend to be in the commercial and institutional building sectors.

With Ontario’s Places to Grow (see page 40) legislation encouraging more intensification projects, many communities will be mandating smaller residential buildings. While this will mean less energy to heat/cool, it will also create some potential LEED-standard residences. At the very least, it will provide an opportunity for new homebuyers who want to spend more for quality construction and materials

A growing number of contractors and builders are getting over their initial scepticism about the implementation of LEED, but the program is definitely not standard. Part of the problem is the lingering perception that a LEED building is vastly more expensive and more time consuming, when, in fact, the cost premium to build to LEED standards is generally only 2-5 per cent of overall construction costs. Of course, that increase in up-front costs is later realized through operational savings.

To allay the fears of mainstream builders, Austin-based architect Peter Pfeiffer speaks regularly at NAHB conferences. His seminars are called “Green by Design: You Don’t Have to Go Weird to Go Green.” Pfeiffer cautions that a building will not perform well if green features are not properly built. “A high performance house is like a high performance car: it will need more attention and operator skill,” he said at last March’s National Green Building Conference.

Simple measures such as building orientation and material choice can have a tremendous impact on a building’s efficiency, but only if properly implemented. Masonry materials alone (brick, block and stone) can contribute to achieving LEED rating points in several categories (durable building, energy performance, recycled content and regional materials). These products are not revolutionary, but they are green – just one example for builders of how “green” doesn’t have to mean “new” or “expensive.” As the marketing brochure noted above, “intelligent design” is good design, not necessarily new.

The Gold sTandardThe construction industry is open to green methods, especially when it

gets their projects certified, but green building is far from mainstream.

By Andy Manahan

Andy Manahan is a MasonryWorx board member and also executive director of the residential and Civil Construction Alliance of ontario.

With files from Lauren Gropper, Sustainability Consultant, tridel.

at this stage, only one residential structure

has been leed certified in Canada – a multi-

residential high-rise building in Toronto.


NeW leed CertiFiCatioNS iN CaNada

This sponsored column reports on new leed-certified projects in Canada. leed is administered by the Canada green Building Council. cagbc.ca.

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

the leed® liSt

mount royal College Centre for Continuous learningCalgary, alberta leed® gold

The Centre achieves an energy cost performance of 57 per cent better than the Model National Energy Code for Buildings, and energy consumption savings of 57 per cent through highly-efficient heat recovery units; domestic cold water for building cooling; significantly high thermal resistance in the exterior walls and roof; variable speed drives for

the heating and cooling distribution pumps; and demand control ventilation using CO2 sensors.

Indoor potable water use is reduced by 80 per cent through the use of dual flush toilets, waterless urinals and stormwater for toilet flushing, as well as providing 100 per cent of irrigation water with rainwater.

The project provides superior indoor environmental quality for the faculty and students through CO2 monitoring, ventilation effectiveness, low-emitting materials, thermal comfort and daylighting.

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Challenger motor Freight operations officeCambridge, Ontario leed® CertifiedThis office project achieves an energy cost performance of 48 per cent better than the Model National Energy Code for Buildings; energy consumption savings of 44 per cent through heat recovery for ventilation air; ground source heat pumps to provide heating and cooling; increased

insulation levels in walls and roofs; high performance windows and efficient lighting design.

Indoor potable water use is reduced by over 30 per cent with waterless urinals and low flow lavatories.

Project owners demonstrated exemplary performance in regional materials choices and the selection of furniture systems with low emitting materials to provide a better indoor environment for employees.

Photo:D

yckRobertJA

rchitectInc.

m5V Presentation CentreToronto, Ontario leed® silverThis green building showcases M5V’s LEED® Candidate condo development. The Presentation Centre is a powerful tool for education, with optimized energy cost performance that is 25 per cent better than the Model National Energy Code for Buildings; and energy consumption savings

of 29 per cent through heat recovery ventilator, increased thermal resistance in the roof and walls and lowered lighting power density. The renovation of an existing building reutilizes 86 per cent of the exterior shell and structure. Indoor potable water use was reduced by 57 per cent with the installation of dual flush toilets, low flow fixtures and captured rainwater for sewage conveyance.

Photo:P

aulOrenstein

St. Gabriel’s Passionist ParishToronto, Ontario leed® goldThe project’s green features and design respond to the unique purpose of the building. They include optimized energy cost performance of 38 per cent better

than the Model National Energy Code for Buildings; energy consumption savings of 51 per cent through energy recovery; significantly high-thermal resistance in the walls and roof; and triple-glazed windows with thermally-broken aluminum frames and warm-edge spacers.

The building also reduces potable water use

by 47 per cent with dual flush toilets, waterless urinals and low flow faucets as well as highly efficient irrigation technology and drought-tolerant plantings.

Indoor air quality is increased with the use of low-emitting materials, daylighting and a “living wall” to improve air quality through biofiltration of air contaminants.

Glenmore Filtered Water Pump Station renovationCalgary, alberta leed® CertifiedThis project features optimized energy cost performance of 17 per cent better than the Model Code for Buildings through a high performance building envelope,

reduced lighting power density, city water pre-cool loop of air handling unit cooling coils, and variable speed drives on the air handling units.

The renovation of the existing building obtains all three points possible for this LEED® credit and reduces indoor potable water use by over 40

per cent with waterless urinals and efficient faucets. Green features include excellent indoor environmental quality for occupants with CO2 monitoring, controllability of systems, construction Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) management, low-emitting materials, adhesives and paints and green housekeeping.


a group effort that tapped private-sector knowledge resulted in an award-winning growth plan for Ontario’s greater golden horseshoe.

Growth

Planning’s Oscar they call it, never awarded outside of America, the highest honour you can receive in urban

planning – it’s the David Burnham Award.So it was a surprise and considerable

honour when, soon after its release last June, Ontario’s Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) was named one of two winners of the American Planning Association’s David Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan. The accolades didn’t stop there. The plan went on to win a Canadian Institute of Planners award and garner praise from planners on both sides of the border.

At first, the plan reads like the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal’s job description for the next 25 years, at least when it comes to the GGH. In many ways, the whole thing seems to be an itemized list of common sense.

The GGH encompasses 110 municipalities from the Niagara region to as far south as Kitchener/Waterloo and as far north as Barrie and Peterbourgh. Its total population is 8.1 million, meaning that two-thirds of the province resides in the area (as do one-quarter of all Canadians). The Growth Plan predicts that 3.7 million more citizens, mostly immigrants, will live in the area by 2031.

The problem the GGH faces is how it will accommodate all this growth. “We knew from rigorous analysis that already intolerable commute times would increase by over 40 per cent,” said Assistant Deputy Minister Brad Graham of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal, one of the chief architects of the plan. “Emissions from

automobiles would increase by the same amount, and we’d consume about 100 square kilometres of prime agriculture land.”

The process began years ago under Mike Harris’s conservative government. In the summer of 2002, long-time mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion, became chair of the Smart Growth Panel. Committees were formed under this banner, then came public hearings to figure out how central Ontario should develop. “The seed was planted back then,” says Joe Berridge of Urban Strategies,

whose involvement with the Growth Plan began as a member of the Smart Growth panels.

These sessions produced a report in 2003, from which some common goals emerged: the need to plan our cities better, to protect the environment and to improve transportation. “It was a bipartisan issue,” says Bob Onyschuk of Gowlings LLP, a lecturer on Smart Growth, and a consultant on the Growth Plan.

The provincial government took a lot of the findings and gave it to their newly formed Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal (PIR). “It merged the capital planning and financing from the previous SuperBuild with the long-term strategic planning of the Smart Growth secretariat from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs,” says Graham. “For

the first time the government had a separate capital management function teamed with the long-term planning function.”

The other important piece of the puzzle would be the Places to Grow legislation that the province passed in 2005. Under this law, municipalities would be bound to build in accordance to any growth plan put forward by the province. It’s what gives the plan its teeth, agree Berridge and Onyschuk. However, it has left how the growth will occur largely in the hands of the municipalities.

“The growth plan itself sets out specific targets when it comes to rates of intensification – 40 per cent of new units being built on existing urbanized land. We identify urban growth centers with specific density targets,” says Graham.

The plan also sets out the construction of five new transit corridors, multiple highway extensions, a new international airport and increased public transit in every municipality. In addition, it identifies 25 urban growth centres where the bulk of that 40 per cent intensification will occur. It establishes an economic hot zone along the Niagara border and redefines the meaning of density – combining both population density and employment density into a single number.

By Miles Andrew Baker

The greaTer GoldeN planPhoto caption here.

Rend

erings:PIR

Build-up: Hypothetical downtown streetscapes depicting density targets of 150 residents and jobs combined per hectare (left) look reassuringly similar to those showing density targets of 200 (right).

“Intensification rates were an issue – environmentalists

wanting it higher, developers wanting it lower. We zeroed in on

the 40 per cent as both significantly raising the bar and doable.”

—Brad Graham


Growth

“We knew that we needed fresh eyes and expertise that existed in the private sector,” says Graham. To that end the growth secretariat contracted ten different firms to help them craft the Growth Plan. “We’d form tables with all of the consulting groups with provincial officials. Not only would they work on their specific projects, we’d get together on a weekly basis to talk about each other’s work,” explains Graham.

There were three central groups involved in creating the plan: consultants contracted from the ministry, the community stakeholders (environmental groups, developers and community leaders) and the growth secretariat in PIR.

“I can’t say enough about the fundamental importance of our stakeholders as well as my colleagues in other ministries here,” says Graham. “It was the effort of many, many people.”

In addition to the information collected and analyzed at these sessions, there were several hearings open to the public. Barbara Fox of Enterprise Canada, one of the companies that facilitated the public outreach, says, “I think people were glad [the outreach] was being done, and there were very good comments all the way through. Many comments and information gleaned there were used to formulate the final plan.”

But it wasn’t always easy to create consensus. “Intensification rates were an issue – environmentalists wanting it higher, developers wanting it lower,” says Graham. “But we didn’t take a lowest common denominator. We zeroed in on the 40 per cent as both significantly raising the bar and doable.”

“The one thing that most people don’t understand is that [the plan] isn’t trying to do social

engineering,” says Kevin Eby, director of community planning for the Region of Waterloo, “which a lot of people accuse it of doing by trying to promote more multiple dwellings over singles, but actually the plan recognizes that the changing demographics in our society today are heading in that direction anyway.”

Eby believes that as the baby boom generation gets older they are going to echo the trend of their parents – moving into smaller, more manageable dwellings that will most likely be shared homes. He also thinks that this plan recognizes a greater need for public transportation, “One of the things that happens is that older people can’t drive,” Eby says, “We have to provide public transit or they just aren’t going to be able to move around.”


Everyone is excited to see the next phase of the Growth Plan – implementation. “Implementation is where the rubber will hit the road,” says Onyschuk, “That is where its ultimate success will be.”

But it’s not all love-letters to cooperation helping to realize change. “The funding to make it happen is missing from the plan,” says McCallion, whose statement is echoed by other members of the Growth Secretariat. “It also lacks the waste management to accommodate all the growth that the plan sets out. McCallion attributes the lack of planning to a lack of consensus during the Smart Growth panels. The committee couldn’t agree on the methods for waste disposal or the timeline for the current landfill sites, she says.

Graham says they weren’t included because other government agencies are working on those problems. “The parallel with [waste management] is energy planning,” says Graham. “Obviously they both are important but other ministries are doing the work, so it would just be replication.”

Part of the reason the plan is getting so much attention is that there aren’t a lot of plans like it. Berridge says “The United Kingdom some years ago put forth a 60 per cent

rule [of intensification], but they included London in that, and that’s the equivalent of Toronto. But when we did our plan the 40 per cent had to apply to each place separately.”

Everything the plan puts forth can be duplicated in other jurisdictions. Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary could learn a lot from planning to intensify their downtown cores in order to avoid sprawl. But the most important lesson to be learned from the Growth Plan is not what the plan says, but how the plan was created.

It’s about managing and promoting sustainable growth, says Graham. “The issues and how you deal with them that are different but the process of engagement, to get the best minds and to look at problems in a holistic way rather than in silos, that’s a model that can be replicated anywhere.”

Winning prizes and accolades is one thing. Building a short-term consensus among stakeholder groups is another. But this plan could represent a sea of change in how we look at living in our cities or, perhaps more to the point, in how far ahead and how comprehensively we attempt to manage the future.

Growth

Miles Andrew baker is an editorial intern this month with reNew Canada. A recent graduate of Centennial College's book and Magazine Publishing program, Miles is co-editor of MoNDomagazine.net – an arts, culture and humour magazine based in toronto.

The CoNSultaNtSenterprise Canada – Stakeholder outreach, public relations

environics – Methodology

ghK International – Sub-area implementation

gowling lafleur henderson llp – Policy implementation

hemson Consulting – Housing Growth

IBI group – Transportation

lura Consulting – Stakeholder facilitation and consultation

MKI – Employment Lands

planningalliance – Imaging, illustration, 3-D modeling

urban strategies – Consulting, density targets


Growth

For those who helped craft the Province of Ontario’s Places to Grow Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, receiving the American Planning Association’s (APA) Daniel Burnham

Award must feel like the culmination of years of hard work. It may well be, but now is far too soon to bask in the glow of achievement. Hold the champagne and bring on the black coffee − the hard work is only just beginning.

Ontarians in the Greater Golden Horseshoe need this plan to succeed. The business-as-usual projections paint a grim picture of increased congestion, pollution and stress over coming decades. Nobody wants that, but history has shown that regional growth management is like herding cats. As planning historian Richard White puts it, “The idea that a local neighbourhood group or a local municipal council could be told what to do by some provincial or regional authority has been anathema in this region since the mid-1970s, and so it remains.” We can expect some lively confrontations in the next few years, as municipal councils try to implement the plan at the local level.

Places to Grow is intended to form the basis of infrastructure planning. Here, too, those responsible for implementing the plan can expect a bumpy ride. One planner I know calls this “planning for the big nasties – the big nasty highway, the big nasty landfill, the big nasty sewage plant, the big nasty electricity generation plant and transmission line.” All utterly necessary and all highly contentious. It will take some very hard work to interpret and implement the plan. Is the plan robust enough to withstand the challenges it will inevitably face?

Who’s on first?

The news release announcing the joint winners of the Daniel Burnham award – Ontario shares the award with Cheyenne, Wyoming – made special mention of “how [Places to Grow] integrates land use planning for the greater Toronto metropolitan region with US$7.5 billion in new infrastructure investment.” Well, not exactly.

Although the plan does contain infrastructure policies, it is not an infrastructure plan per se. The province’s financial commitments for infrastructure are detailed in a separate document called ReNew Ontario – a catchy name, to be sure, but it sounds confusingly like a new agency. It was released a year before the plan, in 2005; a progress report was issued in 2006. The timing may or may not be

By Philippa Campsie

The challenge of creating Ontario’s Places

to Grow plan was nothing compared to what

lies ahead: implementing the regulations for

infrastructure planning in a province whose

regions don’t like being told what to do.

maNaGiNG The BIg nasTIes

Photo:P

IR

significant, given the chicken-and-egg relationship of infrastructure development and population growth, and the amounts included in the ReNew Ontario Strategy far exceed the “US$7.5 billion” mentioned by the APA. Meanwhile, the recently formed Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (GTTA) will be working on more detailed transportation planning.

Note: The information displayed on this map is not to scale, does not accurately reflect approved land-use and planning boundaries, and may be out of date. For more information on precise boundaries, the appropriate municipality should be consulted. For more information on Greenbelt Area boundaries, the Greenbelt Plan 2005 should be consulted. The Province of Ontario assumes no responsibility or liability for any consequences of any use made of this map.

SChedule 2Places to Grow Concept

Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe 2006


So the integration of land use planning and infrastructure investment is not an achievement of the plan; it is an ongoing process currently being worked out by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal and the GTTA, and the results will emerge over the next few years. These two bodies will be making many of the crucial decisions about infrastructure investment. The plan’s infrastructure provisions represent general directives rather than specific commitments.

doing the math

Places to Grow is a high-level policy document; it contains surprisingly few numbers. There are no target modal splits, no performance measures for commercial space, no environmental or economic indicators. By comparison, the Greater Vancouver Regional District reports annually on 29 indicators as part of its Livable Region Strategic Plan. What Places to Grow does have are density targets for proposed Urban Growth Centres and new development on greenfields (which cannot be measured until 2031), a requirement to ensure that 40 per cent of all new residential units are located within the built-up area of municipalities, and a set of “forecasts” for upper-tier municipalities that represent population allocations for the purpose of infrastructure planning. That’s pretty much it.

The lack of numbers in Places to Grow is not necessarily an oversight. Numbers can be a source of unproductive conflict and measuring indicators can become an end in itself. In herding cats, it may be better not to get too bogged down in the details. Nevertheless, in the introduction to the section on infrastructure, we read, “It is estimated that over 20 per cent of infrastructure capital costs could be saved by moving from lower density development to more efficient and compact urban form. The savings could then be reinvested more efficiently.”

This statement calls for some qualification. The savings apply only to hard infrastructure (roads, water and wastewater systems), not to community infrastructure (schools, hospitals, and so forth). Furthermore, the 20 per cent figure should be related to an equally precise measurement of “more efficient and compact urban form.” Exactly how much more compact do we need to be to achieve this level of savings? Without some more definite targets, the 20 per cent savings may not be a sure thing.

The only figure to which the 20 per cent can be related is the requirement that 40 per cent of all new residential development be in the form of intensification – that is, within the build-up area. Since precise figures for current rates of intensification were not calculated before the plan was created, it is hard to know what the actual savings will be once the plan is in force. They might be 20 per cent – or more, or less. At this point, no one knows.

moving people, moving goods

Nearly half of the infrastructure policies relate to transportation.

One planner I know calls infrastructure

planning “planning for the big nasties – the big

nasty highway, the big nasty landfill, the big

nasty sewage plant, the big nasty electricity

generation plant and transmission line.” all

utterly necessary, and all highly contentious.

Growth Growth


In March, statistics Canada released the first wave of results from the 2006

Census. The release centred around population growth and density. from 2001

to 2006 Canada grew faster than any other g8 country with a growth rate of

+5.4 per cent. Our population is now over 31.6 million people and climbing higher

every day. More than 80 per cent of us live in urban areas and urban sprawl is

becoming more and more evident. here’s how three of Canada’s biggest cities

grew – together, they account for 21 per cent of Canada’s population – and what

their mayors say are the biggest challenges facing their future development.

note: population is determined by census metropolitan area. —Staff

GroWth -O-MeTre

VancouverPopulation: 2,116,581

Increase from last census: 6.5 per cent

Infrastructure budget: $99.8 million for public works infrastructure in 2006

biggest infrastructure challenge: Growth

What Mayor Sam Sullivan says: “My hope is to build a multistory, industrially high-density in the middle of the city for the first time in North America since the 1920’s.”

montrealPopulation: 3,635,571


Infrastructure budget: $10 billion for the next 20 years

biggest infrastructure challenge: Public transit

What Mayor Gerald tremblay says: “Public transit is a way to improve the quality of life of the citizens.”

CalgaryPopulation: 1,079,310


Infrastructure budget: $2.2 billion for 2007/2008

biggest infrastructure challenge: Secure funding

What Mayor Dave bronconnier says: “Our Provincial infrastructure ‘catch-up’ funding will expire by 2008, and we are working with the new premier to implement a program that will see significant capital grants to municipalities over the next 10-year period in Alberta.”

The section on “Moving People” focuses on transit, pedestrian and bicycling facilities, and downplays the role of the personal automobile in transportation. The section “Moving Goods,” contains the policies relating to roads, rather as if highways were restricted to freight transportation. Increasing the mode share of transit is extremely important and necessary, but the failure to mention automobile travel in a section on “Moving People” is perhaps over-optimistic.

The task facing the GTTA is enormous. The plan contains maps that indicate the general areas for future “higher-order transit” and future “transportation corridors” (highways), but the plan is not a blueprint, it’s a vision, and the policies are the design brief, not the design.

Fasten your seatbelts

Places to Grow had its origins in the Smart Growth consultations of a previous government, which started in the prosperous, confident, pre-9/11 days of summer 2001. Smart Growth was a response to growing unease about the direction of urban development and its environmental, economic and social costs. In the six years since, particularly the last two, concern about environmental degradation and climate change have moved to centre stage. Consumers, businesses and decision-makers are being challenged to change their ways as never before.

Increasing automobile ownership and use, the deconcentration of employment, consumer demand for ever-larger houses by ever-smaller households: can these things be changed? The province is undoubtedly doing a brave thing in trying to buck the trends of business-as-usual growth. But it will take more than courage alone to change the course of the last thirty years of development. The jury is out, but it won’t take until 2031 for the verdict to come in.

Philippa Campsie is principal of hammersmith Communications and deputy editor of the ontario Planning Journal, and teaches in the

planning program at the university of toronto.

Growth Growth


Last summer ReNew’s Todd Latham had the opportunity to join the Greater Toronto

Marketing Alliance’s (GTMA) business mission to Australia. We followed up with delegates to compile two articles about the business opportunities gained and lessons learned in Sydney and Melbourne. This summer, the (GTMA) is teaming up with the Regional Municipality of Durham and Norditrade Inc to organize a business mission to Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. The theme is Sustainability and the Environment/EN2: Energy and Environment – all three European countries are among the leading countries in the world in these sectors.

This year’s mission (June 9-27, 2007) will also be featured in ReNew Canada. James Sbrolla and Mira Shenker will be joining a growing list of delegates who will be stopping in Copenhagen, Malmö, Linköping, Stockholm, västerås and Amsterdam to explore globally recognized green communities, buildings and projects.

Delegates registered so far are: Andrew Gray (TWRC), Andrew Pride (MINTO), bronwyn Krog, (Weston/Wittington Properties), Catherine Jung (Ryerson Student), Christopher Kallio (City of Newmarket), Don terry (OPG), Doug Lindeblom (Region of Durham), Garry Cubitt (Region of Durham), John Jung (GTMA), Karen Campbell (GTMA), Lars henriksson, Mayor David ryan (Pickering), Mayor Steve Parish (Ajax), Michael Angemeer veridian, Patrick Draper (York Region), Paul taylor (Globe and Mail), roger Anderson (Region of Durham Chairman), Walter Stewart (TRRA), William Smith (Siemens).

To read about last summer’s mission to Australia, visit renewcanada.net. For a detailed itinerary of the upcoming mission and registration info, visit greatertoronto.org.

—Staff

Growth

When the Toronto-based Neptis Foundation formed 10 years ago, the Toronto region was still reeling

from the effects of government decisions, which, in the opinion of Neptis’ executive director, Tony Coombes, had greatly diminished the province’s role in growth management in the region. “It also seemed to us that there were some huge gaps in information,” says Coombes. This was particularly noticeable in trying to identify the cumulative impacts of regional growth – something that is very difficult to accomplish when the public priorities are focused on performance within municipal borders.

The result is a Foundation committed to investigating the past, present and future conditions of urban regions – their use of land, their built environments, and their modes of transportation. Neptis has now completed three programs of unique research – more than 25 studies total have been conducted, all with input from academic experts.

To celebrate their tenth anniversary, Neptis has created a poster that sets out the form, density and transportation status of 16 city regions from around the world. The timing of the Foundation’s decision to plumb the depths

of regional thinking and the coincident upsurge of interest in planning issues from the provincial government is not lost on Coombes or founder Martha Shuttleworth. But they credit the change in thinking about the future of the Golden Horseshoe to the debate over the Oak Ridges Moraine or the questions uncovered by the Smart Growth Panel during the tenure of the previous government. “Give the current government credit,” they say. “There were lots of precedents for throwing out work carried out by previous administrations, but they chose to continue where the Conservatives left off.”

PIR Assistant Deputy Minister Brad Graham disagrees: “The Growth Plan’s strong policies and targets related to intensification, compact form, and more transit-supportive development patterns owe a great deal to Neptis’ research and analysis in these areas.”

reGioNal thiNKiNG: prOVInCIal plannIngBy Glenn Miller

miSSioN: eurOpe

Glenn Miller, FCIP, rPP, is editor of the ontario Planning Journal and director of education and research with the Canadian urban Institute in toronto. A version of this piece appears in the oPJ.


Holland has always been a small country with a big lack of space. A third of the country lies below sea

level and the population of over 16 million is still growing. Holland can’t reclaim land from the sea but it can take it back from idle, underproductive brownfields in and around its cities.

An example is the Port of Rotterdam, the third largest port in the world, which includes 10,000 hectares of industrial sites with prime waterfront redevelopment potential.

In the early 1980s, several large-scale soil contamination cases were discovered. Lekkerkerk would become the landmark case as the first town with a seriously contaminated housing estate, where residents suffered illnesses and death from the effects of buried toxic waste. A national evaluation was initiated and the total remediation costs were estimated at €50 billion (roughly CAD$75.5 billion). It became apparent that the majority of the urban areas in the country were mildly contaminated, while the majority of industrial sites were heavily contaminated. This inspired the Soil Protection Act, which leans on a risk-based approach toward site remediation and led to the integration of site remediation and land use planning in the late 1990s. With the new policies, the government aims to control all serious cases of soil contamination before the year 2030.

Nowadays, it’s becoming increasingly popular to develop brownfield sites within the framework of a public-private partnerships. A major obstacle to redevelopment of contaminated sites is

frequently thought to be the great effort and substantial cost associated with conventional soil remediation. The Netherlands has about 15,000 sites urgently in need of remediation within the next ten years. In 2005, a critical report from the Netherlands Court of Audit concluded that the rate of remediation strongly lagged behind this target. The new policy of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment is to increase the remediation rate from 900 to around 3,000

a year. This can only be achieved through the wider application of existing, new or improved in-situ remediation technologies.

In the years to come, several industries have to perform a branch-wide remediation involving hundreds of companies. The will for cost reduction drives a strong need for standardized remediation concepts, particularly of in-situ remediation techniques. To further develop the trust of applying in-situ remediation techniques, demonstration and verification of their application in real-

life projects is needed. Therefore, the national research institute (TNO) is running a large program in Holland (called HIP), which consists of 24 real-life, large-scale projects that showcase the application of a wide range of innovative in-situ remediation techniques at a representative range of different field sites. Sites are fitted within a schematic division into brownfield archetypes based on contaminant type and subsurface conditions. This division represents 80 per cent of the remediation market and acts as a start of the reference database for future remediation projects.

The Dutch experience could be helpful for the brownfield remediation and urban redevelopment challenge that Canadian cities such as Calgary, Montreal and Toronto are facing. In the SoilMatch program, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs supports TNO by promoting matchmaking and business development between Dutch and Canadian parties in the fields of soil remediation and redevelopment in long-term collaboration projects.

To this end, Holland facilitated the linking of Dutch top-segment contractors with their Canadian counterparts to allow common business development at RemTech 2007 in Banff, Alberta, this coming October. Ideally, Canada and Holland can share knowledge and technologies that will make both countries stronger.

reMediate

By Niels Hartog

as a country less than four per cent

the size of the province of Ontario,

holland can teach Canada a few

lessons in optimizing land use.

sMall COunTry, biG ideaS

Going Dutch: A study at the Rotterdam harbor area in Amsterdam uses acoustic mobilization of oil at a storage tank facility.

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ielsHartog

The will for cost reduction

drives a strong need for

standardized remediation

concepts, particularly of in-

situ remediation techniques.

Dr. Niels hartog, PhD, is an In-Situ remediation Specialist at tNo built environment and Geosciences, the Netherlands.


award winner and arctic explorer Claude Lemire showed attendees first hand how leading scientists are working on climate change issues. In the busy tradeshow, ECO Canada held their own awards ceremony, recognizing the Environmental Employers of 2007. Prime Minister Stephen harper acted as honorary president of the event and played to the green crowd in his closing remarks, saying “We are committed to real targets within realistic timeframes.” He also said, “Canada will be as green as Canadians want it to be – we can’t do it without public support.” The next major international conference and tradeshow for the environment is GLOBE 2008 next March in Vancouver. For information visit americana.org and globe2008.com.

ENERGY MATTERS - MARCH 26 - 27 - MISSISSAUGAThis 3rd Annual Summit on Municipal Energy Management was held by the Region of Peel and included numerous presentations on energy conservation, technologies, management and municipal policy. Council Chair emil Kolb made opening remarks. Anders Franzén, Department for Planning and Development, City of Växjö, Sweden, presented on North American cities’ preparedness in the face of an oil crisis – New York is most prepared, while Oklahoma City is at the end of the list. Magnus Schönning with the Embassy of Sweden spoke about

the country’s energy policies. Ontario’s Chief Conservation Officer, Peter Love, presented on turning energy conservation in a money-making opportunity. thomas Mueller, President Canada Green Building Council, presented their new energy education program for municipal leaders. For details and copies of the presentations contact [email protected].

CANECT - APRIL 16 - 17 – TORONTOHeld in conjunction with the IAPA Safety Show and conference, this environment-focused event is a regular stop each year for leaders in the environmental engineering industry. The organizers, Envirogate, put an emphasis on seminars and workshops to provide environmental training - a necessity for any organization committed to maintaining industry standards like ISO 14001. Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, Laurel broten, provided a keynote address. Ontario’s PC party leader, John tory also gave a presentation at an Ontario Environment Industry Association (ONEIA) breakfast meeting where he spoke on his party’s platform and the “wishing well promises” of current Liberal government. Mark your calendars for Toronto next year: April 21 -22, 2008. Details at canect.net

GTMA - APRIL 18 - TORONTOReNew Canada’s Mira Shenker and Todd Latham attended a ‘warmup’ meeting for this summer’s trade mission to Europe (see page 46). As part of the mission overview, there was a presentation by brent Wagler and Lauren Abraham from KPMB Architects on the plans for Rockcliffe Landing development in Ottawa (see page 36). Delegates from Sweden and the Netherlands had some tough questions for KPMB’s team on whether the plans went far enough on efforts for sustainability. Last May Todd traveled on the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance mission to Australia and now it’s Mira’s turn. She will be joining the mission this June – stay tuned! If you are interested in participating visit greatertoronto.org.

AMERICANA - MARCH 20 - 22 - MONTREALA Canadian Urban Institute/ReNew Canada team traveled to Montreal for the 7th International Environmental Technology Trade Show and Conference. This event has been organized by RÉSEAU Environnement since 1995. In his opening remarks, Claude bechard said “There are not many societies in the world that have the right to live in a clean environment in their charter of rights – Quebec has one of the best plans in Canada. We devote $10 million per year to innovations in energy but we have to go further and faster.” An exciting opening presentation on a recent trip to the Antarctic by 2007 Canadian Geographic

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taff

reevents

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dLatham

Ontario’s Minister of Transportation Donna Cansfield delivered a keynote address to the approximately 200 attendees.

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egionofPeel

Minister of Public Works, Michael Fortier, stops by our booth to chat with Associate Editor Mira Shenker. ECO Canada award winners.


DISCOVERY ‘07 - MAY 1 - TORONTOThe Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) held their annual conference and tradeshow. ray Kurzweil, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Kurzweil Technologies Inc., gave an opening plenary address – as a hologram. He’s been described as “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal. Ray has written five books, four of which have been national best sellers. Ray’s latest book, The Singularity is Near, was a New York Times best seller. Margaret Atwood’s Long Pen technology was on hand for that same author/speaker to virtually sign his book. It was all about OCE and their partners innovation and research development at the “Where Next Happens” conference. Details at ocediscovery.com

SENECA SUSTAINABILITY DAY - MAY 4 – NORTH YORKStudents and faculty alike joined sponsors Cement Association of Canada and others to recognize excellence by undergraduates of the Integrated Site Remediation program. Canadian Urban Institute’s David Crombie delivered a keynote address, followed by a presentation from John Wilkinson with Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation. Other speakers included Grant trump, CEO of ECO Canada, and bill humber, chair of the Centre for the Built Environment.

US INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT SUMMIT - APRIL 25 - 27 - NEW YORK, NYReNew Canada was proud to be a sponsor of this second annual event for project finance that was attended by many Canadian professionals including tim Philpotts, Partner with Ernst & Young and Larry blain, CEO of Partnerships BC. The two-day event covered requirements for a successful public-private partnership, the advantages and disadvantages of investing in the United States and comparing the U.S. market with global infrastructure investment opportunities among other topics. For an overview, visit iqpc.com.

Pictured from left: Jeffrey Steiner, President of TEDCO, David McFadden, Gowlings, and Karen Grant, Institute for Optical Sciences, in front of one of the demonstration stages.

Photo:Tod

dLatham

reevents


The really

InCOnVenIenT TruTh

Calgary-based Canada West Foundation released a public opinion survey this May (administered by

Probe Research between January 2 and February 3, 2007) and here’s the news: strong majorities in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg feel that building and maintaining the road system is a high priority. The percentage of people who think that their local government is doing a good job of ensuring an efficient road system ranges from 18 per cent in Winnipeg to 34 per cent in Calgary.

When it comes to the road system, urbanites want more to be done and they want it done better.

Where do they think the funding for these improvements should come from? The most popular option is increased federal and provincial grants. Strong majorities in all seven cities included in the survey state that increasing federal and provincial infrastructure grants – even if it means a small increase in income taxes – is a good idea.

But the idea of introducing a new local fuel or sales tax is very unpopular with at least seven out of 10 residents in each city in the survey opposing this option. Canadians

need to wake up and realize that lobbying for the government to make changes and increase investment in key infrastructure is not enough. This applies to any problem Canadians feel our government is responsible for fixing. In our March/April 2007 issue Ian Jarvis wrote: “Public concern about climate change has generally not yet evolved into an acceptance of the role that we each play individually in causing greenhouse gas emissions. It is too easy for Canadians to demand action from government. Growth in emissions corresponds directly with growth in consumption, and we are all consumers. The really ‘inconvenient truth’ is that decisions we take every day in the energy we use, the products we buy, and the things we throw away connect directly with the residential, transportation, power generation, manufacturing and other components of the escalating greenhouse gas emissions charts.”

This survey may show that Canadians recognize our infrastructure assets are in a state of disrepair, but not many of them are willing to make any sacrifices to remedy the situation.—staff

Closing Shot

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elineTessier


going underground · 2020-07-27 · by andy manahan departments 4 editor’s note david dehaas...

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