+ Energy Megaproject · 34 News from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Newfoundland and P.E.I. 34 Energy...

$9 00ReThink. ReBuild. ReNew.

renewcanada.netWhat P3s Really Mean for

Domestic CompaniesThe Cost of Free Money

July/August 2009

PM

#4

08

54

04

6

+Energy Megaproject Potential in NB

+ Federal Feedback: Does Stimulus Equal Sustainable?

3150: AN ASSET MANAGEMENT ODYSSEY

SPEciAl iNSErT canada’s

Top 25 Energy infrastructure

Projects

NRTSI’s Second Chance at Success

Engineering, The Next Frontier

How to Fight for Your local Project

Bigger, Broader, Global: The New canadian Mega-company

14

Contents

20

25

July/August 2009

30

FEAtuREs 26 Building a Round table The future of the

National Round Table on Sustainable Infrastructure. By Reg Andres, Ric Robertshaw and Wally Wells

BuREAuCRACy 14 getting It Done How to move projects forward

at the local level. By Myron Belej

18 Bio-Cracy Steps to freeing bioenergy projects from regulatory barriers. By Bruce McCallum

20 Merge Ahead Acquisitions and mergers abound, creating an industry of mega-companies bidding on mega-projects. By Mira Shenker

ENgINEERINg 28 technofix Engineering the Earth to help mitigate

the effects of global warming. By Mira Shenker

30 Accounting 101 Why engineers should stop ignoring PSAB 3150. By Reg Andres

REgIONAl FOCus: AtlANtIC CANADA 34 News from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Newfoundland and P.E.I.

34 Energy Independence A northeast energy corridor could be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Canada. By Charles Mandel

36 Newfoundland underground Historic infrastructure. By David J. Penny

DEPARtMENts 4 Editor’s Note The elephant in the FCM conference room.

By Mira Shenker

5 letters Carl Bodimeade on “good” versus “shovel-ready,” Gordon Campbell on just plain shovel-ready, and Michael Monette on getting Ontario GEA-ready.

8 Opening shots A look at the news you’re missing if you’re not visiting renewcanada.net every day.

10 Relocate Jobs gained and lost in the industry.

12 Rethink Special report from our Ottawa correspondent, Guy Félio: stimulus and sustainability.

25 Community Profile Moncton, New Brunswick: a 249-acre remediation. By Kathleen Brown

33 the lEED list Five new certifications in Canada.

37 stormWatch How to avoid putting the right project in the wrong community. By Storm Cunningham

39 ReFinance How Canada’s provinces have surpassed all but a few American states in the P3 market. By Anthony Ferrari

40 ReEvents Canadian Network of Asset Managers workshop, FCM’s annual conference, National Engineering Summit and more.

42 Closing shot Trade issues between Canada and the United States. By Todd Latham

ABOut thE COvERThe latest innovations in engineering and asset management examined in this issue may not be as sexy as the solar shade our cover rendering depicts (the graphic shows two-foot-diameter transparent flyers that would blur out transmitted light into a doughnut), but they’re critical to the industry’s future.

36

©Arizona Board of Regents, all rights reserved. (Roger Angel/

Tom Connors/Johanan L.Codona, The University of Arizona)

July/August 2009 ReNew Canada 3www.renewcanada.net

Editor’s Note

www.renewcanada.net

July/August 2009 volume 5 Number 4

EDItOR Mira Shenker

PuBlIshER Todd Latham

CONtRIButORs Reg Andres, Myron Belej, Kathleen Brown, Storm Cunningham, Guy Félio, Anthony Ferrari, Charles Mandel, Bruce McCallum, David J. Penny, Ric Robertshaw, Wally Wells

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

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

ARt DIRECtION& DEsIgN Donna Endacott

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

AssOCIAtE EDItOR

Kerry Freek

By Mira Shenker

help wanted

Proud members of:

Printed in Canada on Supreme Silk FSC certified paper, (10% post-consumer) manufactured acid-free and elemental chlorine-free (ECF).

Undeliverable mail return to: 11 Prince Andrew Place, Toronto, ON M3C 2H2

Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement 40854046

ISSN 1715-6734

ReNew Canada subscriptions are available for $39.95/year or $69.95/two years.

©2009 Actual Media Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be

reproduced by any means in whole or in part, without prior written consent from the publisher.

"ReNew Canada" and "ReThink. ReBuild. ReNew" are Trademarks of Actual Media Inc.

ReNew Canada is publishedsix times a year by Actual Media Inc.

11 Prince Andrew Place, Toronto, ON M3C 2H2Phone: 416.444.5842 Fax: 416.444.1176

Website: renewcanada.net

ADvIsORs Jane Addie, James Sbrolla

This year’s Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Whistler (see page 41) had

everything: sun, political intrigue, municipal leaders, Jack Layton. The one thing our publisher Todd Latham noticed was missing? Asset management (AM). There was no mention of life-cycle costing and no mention of PSAB 3150 (see page 30).

The larger municipalities may be just fine, but anyone who works for a small municipality would have benefited from a presentation.

At the recent Ontario Public Works Association (OPWA) Spring Workshop (see page 41), I spoke with more than a few local leaders who said it’s stressful for smaller municipalities to think about cataloguing assets and creating a long-term plan for their maintenance and renewal. “We’re just trying to get the basic work done,” said one. “We’re not asset managers.”

Forget AM for the moment and focus on this year: these municipalities are grappling with aging infrastructure, limited funding and limited staff and capital. Without the resources to hire consultants on every project, some guidelines would be helpful. Too bad InfraGuide is gathering dust (see page 26). I’m often asked if I know what’s happening with InfraGuide.

Here’s what I know.The Canadian Standards Association

(CSA) wants to revive InfraGuide—or something like it— and is running a pilot project over the next few years with $1.5-million in funding from Infrastructure Canada. The nucleus of the advisory committee for what CSA calls the Infrastructure Solutions Program (ISP) met for the first time this January.

FCM’s Andrew Cowan is the committee chair—good news for CSA if they want to use InfraGuide’s archived best practices and further build an established brand. When I spoke to Cowan, he said that’s the plan. “There will be a licensing agreement for all of the InfraGuide materials for them to update and disseminate and use the name when necessary.”

Cowan said, “This is a pilot. All of us feel we want to see something more sustainable over time dealing with best practices.”

The obvious choice in the long term is the currently reorganizing National

Round Table on Sustainable Development (NRTSI). “I think they’ll be tied into this,” says Cowan. “Not all the details are worked out yet—there will be some cross-coordination there, for sure.”

CSA’s Michael Mortimer says, “The work we’re doing supports the National Asset Management Working Group and NRTSI’s principles. But we’re down at the implementation level.”

CSA has set up a number of technical working groups to tackle projects related to stormwater, northern issues, municipal procurement, and water utilities. And asset management? Mortimer says the ISP’s deliverables aren’t directly about AM, but that some of the studies will help municipalities take steps towards developing an AM framework. For example, they might use ISP information to improve service levels without adding cost.

The reality, according to Mortimer, is that smaller municipalities will have to work with specialized consultants to put [AM plans] in place.

The same goes for nailing federal and provincial grants and funding for infrastructure projects. Stephen Cairns with the District of Muskoka inadvertently made that point during a presentation at the OPWA workshop. The town finally got funding for a wastewater treatment plant in Bracebridge out of the Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund’s third intake after hiring a consultant to put together the application.

For those municipalities who are looking for advice about implementing AM plans, there’s good news. FCM’s CEO Brock Carlton told our publisher that next year there will be a session with some of Canada’s leading AM experts.

without the resources to

hire consultants on every

project, some guidelines

would be helpful.

4 ReNew Canada July/August 2009 www.renewcanada.net

IN thIs IssuE

Aecon Infrastructure 21

AIU Holdings 43

Ameresco 38

Atlantic Industries Ltd. 12

Autodesk 2

Canadian Brownfields 2009 40

CH2M HILL 27

CleanEARTH Solutions 13

CPCI 23

CPWA 22

Durham Strategic Energy Alliance 16

EDC 9

Enbridge 17

Federation of Canadian Municipalities 24

Golder Associates 13

Greyhouse Publishing 37

Halsall 33

John Laing Infrastructure 7

Maxxam Analytics 19

MMM Group 18

Morrison Hershfield 29

Municipal DataWorks 20

OPWA 41

PricewaterhouseCoopers 35

RCCAO 8

Riva Modeling 32

R.V. Anderson 18

Sanexen 31

Stantec 31

Trow Associates 30

Wardrop Infrastructure 30

WeirFoulds LLP 44

W.P. Osborne 10

XCG Consultants Ltd. 35

Zurich Environmental 11

FEAtuRE CONtRIButORs

letters

Next Issue: September/October

Advertising Deadline: July 31, 2009

Call Todd: 416-444-5842, ext. 111

www.renewcanada.net

Guy FélioGuy works with public and private agencies on strategies for infrastructure engineering and policy.pg 12

Reg AndresReg is VP of R.V. Anderson Associates Ltd. and chair of CSCE’s Infrastructure Renewal Committee.pg 30

Ric RobertshawRic is the director of Peel Region’s wastewater division and CPWA’s representative to the NRTSI.pg 26

Wally WellsWally is a past president of the CPWA, a founding member of NRTSI, and the coordinator of the Local Government AM Working Group of B.C.pg 26

the CosT Of free MOney

Recent announcements and funding programs from the federal and provincial programs

are both welcome and required. They will simultaneously stimulate the stalling economy and help address Canada’s long-standing infrastructure deficit. While we should all be very pleased to see them, I do wish to raise some cautionary notes.

Firstly, municipalities have been rushing to identify suitable projects and make sure that their applications for funding of those projects were submitted by May 1, 2009. The drive from all levels of government to accelerate projects and get “shovels in the ground” as soon as possible is commendable. Many of those projects are needed immediately, but let’s not forget that every project comes with long-term operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. In the rush, the impact of a project on the owner’s (largely municipalities’) future O&M budget may not be given the attention it deserves.

Typically, over 80 per cent of the total life-cycle cost of a project is during the O&M phase. To achieve sustainability of our infrastructure systems, we must minimize their cost at all parts of the project life-cycle—not just construction costs. Opportunities to minimize O&M costs should be identified and incorporated during design. Otherwise we’ll be paying more than necessary for the next 80 to 100 years to sustain that infrastructure. The question which should be asked for every project is, “How much will this project cost every year between construction and decommissioning, and how can we minimize that cost?”

Secondly, municipalities go to considerable lengths to develop master plans for their water, wastewater and transportation systems. Those plans identify a long-term program of capital works projects to address the needs of the community in a planned and structured manner. Municipalities should be cautious that those carefully-developed capital works programs don’t get redirected by the attraction of free money from upper levels of government. This may not be in the best overall interest of that community, although the cost to the municipality and its residents may be less in the short term.

Finally, we can’t forget about the unseen infrastructure beneath our feet upon

which our communities depend. For our infrastructure systems to be sustainable, the surface transportation infrastructure and the subsurface infrastructure beneath have to be viewed and managed holistically as a single system.

Opportunities do exist for municipalities to incorporate important subsurface infrastructure renewal programs, such as lead water service pipe replacement, into road rehabilitation projects. However, this must be carried out in a planned and structured manner if disturbance to the community is to be minimized and precious resources for infrastructure renewal are not to be wasted.

It seems every day I hear about another watermain break in one of our major cities and the consequent disruption to traffic. Much of our subsurface infrastructure is reaching the point where major refurbishment is required. Statistics Canada has determined that, on average, Ontario’s sewer systems have been in service for over half their useful life. In some of Canada’s older communities, parts of the buried infrastructure have already reached the end of their service life.

Rehabilitation of water and wastewater systems may not provide the same ribbon-cutting opportunities as a new subway line, but it’s just as essential in promoting economic activity and protecting public health.

Don’t get me wrong, the infrastructure investments being made are welcome, necessary and overdue. But let’s ensure that they’re made where they’re needed and designed for both technical and financial sustainability.

Carl Bodimeade vP, hatch Mott MacDonald and past chair, Ontario Coalition for sustainable Infrastructure.

The question which should

be asked for every project is,

“How much will this

project cost every year

between construction and

decommissioning, and how

can we minimize that cost?”

—Carl Bodimeade

Anthony FerrariAnthony is president of Bridgepoint Group Ltd.pg 39


Ontario’s Green Energy Act (GEA) received Royal Assent on May 14, 2009. Ontario could become a model

for others—but not if it doesn’t develop a best practice. The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) believes Queen’s Park could be doing more. OSPE’s new GEA Task Force has divided the issues into five subject categories and come up with recommendations.

1. Environmental ObjectivesAdding inconsistent sources of energy like wind and solar to an electrical grid that’s known to have limited capacity and range of operations requires judicious supply-demand management and grid analysis. These types of renewables are best used in conjunction with localized power requirements that don’t place demand on the grid transmission network. The government should use this new Bill to support cogeneration and geothermal technologies.

2. Anticipated Economic growthThe provincial government estimates the Act will create 50,000 new jobs in Ontario. But successful job creation depends on more than just passing this Act. Production of solar and wind energy technology and materials

is already established as a strong industry in other countries. Jobs will only come to Ontario through investment in research, development and commercialization in the province. The Bill should identify measures to encourage domestic equipment supply and the use of local engineering and other resources. Homeowners could contribute to economic growth by producing energy and selling any excess back to the province, but they would first need to make significant investments into the interconnect. Alternatives such as building code changes to better use passive/active solar energy and thermal storage should be considered.

3. Electrical Distribution ChallengesSupply mix incentives should consider distribution impacts and set appropriate targets or limits on the various forms of energy generation. The Bill should also encourage energy producers and users to reduce air pollution rather than a primary focus on the generation of electricity.

4. governance ImplicationsThe GEA, particularly the proposed Renewable Energy Facilitation Office (REFO), may be one chef too many in a

crowded kitchen. The Bill could be revised to clarify the role of each body: the Ontario Power Authority should set priorities for adding new green generating capacity to reflect its supply plan; the Ontario Energy Board should administer an appeals process of decisions made by the REFO. The Bill should also clearly identify and provide an extended mandate to all forms of green energy production and utilization, not just electrical generation.

5. Role of the Engineering ProfessionElectrical generating companies have traditionally used professional engineers in the design, operation and maintenance of their facilities and, consequently, complied voluntarily with the public safety provisions in the Professional Engineers Act. Bill 150 opens energy generation to individuals who are often neither trained nor accountable under that Act. The Bill should be revised to ensure the provisions of the Act apply to all green energy production and utilization projects that have the potential to affect public health and safety.

Michael Monette Past president and chair of OsPE

letters

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

hOw the WesT waS RuN (of RIveR)

I read with great interest Mira Shenker’s March/April 2009 editorial “The Bad Re.” While

green energy stocks may have taken a drubbing from the recession, in British Columbia they are far from down and out. I represent B.C.’s largest run-of-river hydro developer. The company’s flagship project, the Toba Valley/Montrose Creek run-of-river hydro project, is currently under construction north of Powell River, with completion scheduled for 2010. This project employs approximately 290 workers on site and has created more than 889,000 person-hours of employment.

All the best,

Martin livingston living Communications Inc. vancouver, British Columbia

Editor’s Note: Thanks for the positive news. We’re well aware of B.C.’s run-of-river projects—in fact, the Toba Valley project is profiled in our joint editorial supplement with Alberta Oil magazine inserted into this issue (page 22, centre).

tIMe tO BuIlD

ReNew Canada readers know that these challenging

economic times provide opportunities for governments to partner and take advantage of this slow period to build infrastructure that will both support communities and keep people working.

For everything from large transportation projects, to schools and hospitals, to smaller water and sewer developments, we can build public infrastructure at more affordable rates today than at the height of an economic boom. In British Columbia, we are working with federal and local governments to invest $14 billion in infrastructure. This work is expected to create about 88,000 jobs.

However, all governments must find new ways to stretch taxpayer dollars as far as possible.

In B.C., all public sector capital projects between $20 million and $50 million are screened to determine if they are suitable to be delivered as a public-private partnership (P3). To date in B.C. about $10-billion worth of P3 projects are completed or underway, and more than $4 billion in private investment is being leveraged through the P3 process. Not only have our P3s transferred risk from

the taxpayer to the private sector, but they have allowed government to leverage private-sector expertise in building projects faster, better and at lower cost.

British Columbia has also launched a $14-billion transit plan with a goal of doubling transit ridership by 2020, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 4.7-million tonnes cumulatively. The plan includes $10.3 billion for four new rapid transit lines including the Canada, which is being built as a P3. We are also investing $1.2 billion for a new, energy-efficient, high-capacity RapidBus BC service in our urban centres, and investing $1.6 billion for 1,500 new, clean energy buses.

By investing today in a wide range of infrastructure projects, we’re not only taking advantage of better market conditions for construction, we’re saving taxpayers’ money. We’re also keeping people employed in their communities. This is critically important: when the economy rebounds, the skilled workers we depend on will still be here. Communities can ill afford to see workers move away or abandon their vocations.

British Columbia Premier gordon Campbell

engIneerIng an ACT

View this report and more atwww.rccao.com

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

RCCAO members include: Carpenters’ Union • Greater Toronto Sewer and Watermain Contractors Association • Heavy Construction Association of Toronto

• International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 793 • International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 46 • Joint Residential Construction Council • LIUNA Local 183

• Residential Carpentry Contractors Association • Toronto and Area Road Builders Association

University of Toronto civil engineering professors have completed a report looking at the connections between water leakage and energy usage. It is estimated that by aggressively rehabilitating leaking pipes, 30 per cent of the energy used to pump water in Ontario could be saved. Over the past 10 years, the energy costs of deferring maintenance on leaky water systems has totaled about $160 million.

The report points out that incorporating energy-savvy design, ramping up the use of advanced technologies and using new financing tools will be beneficial to improve the life span of water infrastructure and enhance conservation efforts.

This RCCAO-commissioned report was released in June 2009

Incorporating Sustainability in Infrastructure ROIThe energy costs of deferred maintenance in municipal water systems

Opening shots

These are just a sampling of the latest news updates to renewcanada.net. Find these stories in full along with blogs, archived issues and event listings on our website.

Harper Delivers Quarterly Update on Stimulus FundPosted on 11 June 2009: Today Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a speech in Cambridge, Ontario—a quarterly update on his government’s Economic Action Plan. “Today, I am here to announce that only 10 weeks into this fiscal [...]

Rookie at the HelmPosted on 10 June 2009: Yesterday the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA) hosted a session with Rob Prichard, the self described “rookie at the helm” of Metrolinx. The newly appointed president and CEO said, “This is the first address I’ve had to make [...]

$3.4 Billion for Ontario MunicipalitiesPosted on 08 June 2009: Communities across Ontario are getting $3.4 billion in joint federal-provincial-municipal funding for nearly 1,400 infrastructure projects. Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister John Baird and [...]

$125 Million in Stimulus Funding for SaskatchewanPosted on 08 June 2009: Last Friday, $125 million in infrastructure funding for a roadwork, water, sewer and other projects were announced for Saskatchewan. Premier Brad Wall and Saskatoon Rosetown-Biggar MP Kelly Block announced [...]

Feds Fund Northern HydroPosted on 01 June 2009: Hydroelectric transmission lines and generation in Whitehorse, Yukon, may be the first infrastructure to get funding under the federal government’s $1-billion Green Infrastructure Fund, part of the Government [...]

Staffing Continues at PPP CanadaPosted on 29 May 2009: Another director has been appointed to PPP Canada. Peter R.B. Armstrong, executive chairman and CEO of Armstrong Group, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of PPP Canada for a two-year term. Armstrong [...]

renewcanada.net/topics/blog/Swedish Study Tour Posted on 26 May 2009 by Glenn MillerMy return visit to Stockholm begins in style, as I am whisked from the airport to downtown at 200-kilometres per hour on the Arlanda Express, a privately operated high-speed electric train that runs from the international airport to downtown Stockholm. The environmentally conscious theme continues with a hybrid taxi to the Scandic Park hotel, located across from Humlegården, one of the city’s many parks. All very fitting, because we are here to learn about energy from waste, and other environmentally attractive technologies and applications, ranging from steel mills whose waste energy is used to heat the local town to a place that runs its transportation system on biogas [...]


Relocate

After 13 years as president and CEO of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Group, Jacques lamarre is passing the title on to Pierre Duhaime. Lamarre will join Anthony Comper, the former chairman of BMO Financial Group, and Carol Diane Pennycook, law partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, as part of the new board of directors of PPP Canada.

scott R. Butler is the new manager of policy and research at the Ontario Good Roads Association.

Kenneth l. young is the new VP and treasurer of pipe rehab company Insituform Technologies.

Ian theaker has left his role as the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) technical manager with the Canada Green Building Council to work at Halsall. Theaker says his main task

will be “technical input and leadership on green projects, to combine the firm’s main knowledge systems and the best approaches to doing specific things to individual buildings to program development.”

Golder Associates has selected one of its own, Canadian engineer Brian Conlin, to steer the firm’s global operations.

gerry Davis, who has been acting general manager of public

works for the City of Hamilton since January 2009, is officially accepting the position. Davis had been senior director of capital planning and implementation for the city since 2003.

Chris thompson took over hon lu’s role as provincial brownfields coordinator at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing this June.

Jim steer recently joined First Capital Realty as director of sustainability programs. Steer will be heading up the company’s energy and environmental initiatives.

Mayor of Summerside, Prince Edward Island Basil stewart, is the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM)new president.

Dave Amm, VP of Hatch Mott MacDonald, was elected chair of Consulting Engineers of Ontario (CEO) for 2009-2010 at the organization’s annual general meeting.

Bob youden, former CEO of Jacques Whitford, will lead Stantec’s Canada East region. Don Belliveau of Fredericton, New Brunswick has been promoted to lead the firm’s industrial practice. He takes over the position from Bob gomes who became Stantec’s president and CEO in May.

Canadian development executive lorne Braithwaite was named CEO of Build Toronto, the new agency created along with Invest Toronto to replace the Toronto Economic Development Corporation.

Douglas younger and heidi visser have joined Aird & Berlis LLP’s corporate/commercial group and national infrastructure team as partners.

Roland Aurich is the new president and CEO of Siemens Canada Ltd.

The Ontario Power Generation (OPG) board of directors has named tom Mitchell as president and CEO. Mitchell, who is currently OPG’s chief nuclear officer, is replacing Jim hankinson.

Municipal councillor from the Town of Greater Napanee, Peter veltheer, is the Ontario Municipal Association’s new president.

BrianConlan

Dougyounger

heidivisser

Iantheaker

Jimsteer

Send your news and tips to [email protected]


Rethink

Whether ISF money is flowing fast enough for projects to be completed by March 2011 or

completion deadlines should be extended as requested by the Association of Canadian Engineering Companies (ACEC) is an issue policymakers and elected leaders will have to debate. What we do know is that the various funds have generated lists upon lists of “shovel-ready” projects that are being evaluated for approvals, with a few already underway. Eventually however, some of the country’s existing assets will need to be repaired or renewed, some will be improved or expanded and, in many cases, local governments will have this new infrastructure to manage.

Accelerated programs like the ISF are complex and difficult to manage. In a March 5, 2009 letter to the secretary of the Treasury Board, Canada’s Auditor General (AG) Sheila Fraser said, “They [managers] will need to balance the government’s wish to move quickly with the requirement to exercise due regard; this will require sound analysis of risk, and appropriate delivery mechanisms commensurate with those risks.” The expectations from the AG relate to selection criteria, clearly defined objectives, accountability and performance measures.

Assuming those requirements are met, what will the results be in terms of the long-term sustainability of the infrastructure being repaired, renewed or newly acquired by Canadian communities?

There’s no need to get into exactly how large the infrastructure deficit is—it’s big. Programs like the ISF pay for capital projects, inherently considering the proponent will have enough resources, over the life cycle of

the assets, to properly operate, maintain and repair them. But this isn’t part of what will be audited.

Construction activity over the next 18 to 24 months will be high. In Ontario alone, sources indicate there are 2,746 applications, for example, 312 from Chatham-Kent, 302 from Mississauga, 269 from Ottawa (although the list on the Infrastructure Canada website indicates only 91 projects totalling $376 million), 150 from Hamilton, one from Toronto (there has been enough press about that one, so no need to provide details).

Considering Ottawa only—kudos to the city for posting their list of projects for public reference—in relation to the 91 projects listed, 21 are “new” and nine are “expansions or extensions,” which will add to the City’s asset stock and thus require additional operations and maintenance (O&M) funding. These projects represent close to $290 million of new or expanded assets—78 per cent of the total ask. Considering a minimum of one per cent of asset value required for O&M, the City will have to add nearly $3 million a year to maintain the stimulus-funded projects alone. Maria McRae, councillor and chair of the City’s transportation committee,

Projects under the Infrastructure Stimulus fund (ISf) and

the other dozen or so programs at the national or regional

levels will be in the tens of thousands over the next few

years. But they won’t contribute to the sustainability of

infrastructure services without proper risk assessment.

RIsky BuSIneSS

By Guy Félio

the City will have to add

nearly $3 million a year

to maintain the stimulus-

funded projects alone.


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

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

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

Enhanced deep in situ aerobic bioremediation

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

P r u d e n t r e s p o n s e . E c o l o g i c a l l y r e s p o n s i b l e .

www.cleanearthltd.com

says that for every project on the list, life-cycle costs were discussed. All projects are part of City master plans, and the new O&M pressures will be part of the next budget cycle.

So what does that mean in terms of long-term impacts? Sustainable infrastructure, even though the term is used by many in a wide spectrum of contexts, is never properly defined. For practitioners, the focus is on the root causes that result in un-sustainable infrastructure: if it isn’t adequately funded to provide the required service over its life cycle, if it doesn’t meet the needs (note: that’s needs, not wants) of the users and population in general. And if it does irreversible damage to the environment, the infrastructure is not sustainable.

Many of these criteria will be addressed by the ISF projects. The adequacy of funding over the life cycle of the infrastructure remains an issue. The ISF project applications don’t ask about the capacity of the proponent to operate and maintain the infrastructure. Should this question have been included?

In a few months from now, various auditors may start work on reviewing these programs. In Ontario, the AG’s office indicated that because it’s a new program, and considering the large amounts of money involved, it’s on a priority list for future audits. The Ontario AG has a precedent in doing value-for-money audits for municipal programs and long-term impacts on municipalities. In 2001, they looked at the Community Reinvestment Fund. Neither offices of the AG (Canada or Ontario) would say whether they would look at the service life funding for the ISF assets in future audits. The push for asset management in Australia widely originated from the AG in the states and territories—will this happen in Canada as well?

For now, all we can hope is that every community in Canada that has proposed ISF projects duly considered the life-cycle O&M costs before submitting their requests, so that in the end, the net result will be a reduction of Canada’s infrastructure debt.

Rethink

guy Félio works with public and private agencies on strategies for infrastructure engineering and policy. he is also a researcher and professor at Carleton university and a special advisor to the director of the Centre of Infrastructure Management at BCIt.


working at the local level to get

the right infrastructure built fast.

gettIng It DoNe

By Myron Belej

This digital map of the city of Vancouver was made by Autodesk as part of a pilot project to help city staff and developers get the right projects built.

Bureacracy Bureacracy

VP of smart growth and partnerships with the Niagara Economic Development Corporation, says the best defense is a comprehensive approach. “Nothing guarantees that those who are in opposition to an infrastructure proposal will change their position, especially those affected most directly and most negatively, but proposals can still succeed when their focus is on a much larger initiative—comprehensive plans are defensible.”

Communities also support projects that incorporate principles like safety, architectural quality, smart growth, environmental preservation, and opportunities for community interaction. Taking these principles into account as early as possible will allow for more time to address other concerns that come up with infrastructure projects. “And when issues arise,” says Brickell, “almost everything can be fixed by design.”

Gord Perks, a councillor for the City of Toronto, underlines the importance of pleasing not just community members, but also council members. “Sometimes people treat elected officials differently, but both community members and council members want to achieve things,” says Perks.

Brickell has served on council at both the

A new transit line, bridge, or skyscraper could be coming soon to a city near you. The new multi-

million dollar federal funding program to get “shovel-ready” projects going is the industry’s favourite topic this year.

Of course, having enough capital is just one step in the larger process of getting municipal infrastructure projects designed, funded, supported and built.

Which projects succeed? Which fail? One hiccup can be enough to stall an infrastructure initiative, and wading through the conceptual planning, design, and public consultation processes can frustrate even the most seasoned development professionals.

NIMBYism is a common scapegoat when local projects fail, but Ken Greenberg, principal of Greenberg Consultants and a 20-year veteran of urban planning, doesn’t see community consultations as a major stumbling block. “The general public is ahead of government in its vision of sustainability. People respond well to projects which provide clear benefits to their community, and meaningful opportunities to participate in the public process.”

It’s impossible to argue that communities don’t sometimes stall projects. Mark Brickell,

local and regional level. He says building support for an infrastructure proposal depends on the composition of your council. Not all local governments have the same systems and structures. Smaller towns and larger cities can vary greatly, particularly where ward politics come into play.

“Depending on the circumstances, individual councils may base their decisions on ward considerations, or on the particular issue at hand,” says Brickell.

Developers, planners and designers need to learn how to work within that system, to engage local politicians by asking them directly and by learning from others with local experience.

Perks encourages proponents of infrastructure proposals to approach their local politicians as early in the process as possible. “Write down your idea in a note to your councillor. Present the big picture idea in an outline, and then take the time to meet. Start building a relationship, and building trust.”

As a councillor, Perks has championed a number of infrastructure projects, many of them in Toronto’s Western Waterfront Master Plan. Before breaking ground, extensive consultation with community groups, businesses, residents’ associations,

and civic departments took place. At that stage, councillors can act as project champions in a few different ways.

“First, they can recruit community support, by knowing the community leaders, and knowing how to reach out to their constituents to get them talking,” says Perks. “Secondly, they can serve a project management function, catching problems

that arise during the design, consultation and construction stages. Thirdly, they can help build the level of trust between civic or project staff, and the community.”

“Projects need to relate to people,” he stresses. “Cities are not a collection of buildings. They are a collection of people, and what works is walking around to get to know the affected citizens and their needs.” Perks recommends that proponents of municipal infrastructure approach their local council member with ideas that are possible,

achievable, and open to change. This gives councillors the time to review ideas, consider them with the needs of the community, and help to develop improvements before the ideas become formal proposals.

Engaging councils and communities at the right time, and with the right information, is critical to making municipal infrastructure happen. Unfortunately, says Brickell, too

often council and community members are asked for their support on the basis of two-dimensional, black-and-white, architectural line drawings.

Emerging technologies, such as those developed by the Centre for Advanced Visualization (CFAV), can help. CFAV uses software to model projects three-dimensionally from architectural drawings to represent them in their natural environment; in doing so, they create the potential for more easily understandable proposals and

potentially even faster approvals. “Some early resisters have become believers through the use of advanced visualization,” says Brickell. “Some need to see results.”

Autodesk is working with a similar concept on a city planning level with its pilot project, Digital Cities, featured in a past issue of ReNew Canada [Mira Shenker’s “The Real Sim City,” May/June 2009].

Brickell has seen the results of programs like this: incentives to create positive cycles of redevelopment. Last year, Niagara Region, in conjunction with multiple levels of government, mayors, private property owners, Niagara College, economic development officers, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, assembled, ranked and mapped a list of key properties that could be redeveloped in the region. Their report, Identification and Characterization of Niagara’s Top Redevelopment Opportunities (available at smarterniagara.com), was produced to guide development toward particular sites believed to have the most catalytic effect from a revitalization perspective.

The report ranked 78 properties on the basis of location, size and configuration, property availability, servicing, land

engaging councils and communities at the right time,

and with the right information, is critical to making

municipal infrastructure happen.


Cred

it: Autod

esk

Bureacracy Bureacracy

New York’s Bloomberg administration has issued the city’s first street design manual

in an effort to create more European-style roadways. By offering “a single framework and playbook,” as Mayor Bloomberg says in the introduction, the manual promises to simplify the design process and reduce the costs for city agencies, urban planners, developers and community groups.

The New York City Department of Transportation hopes this manual can address the concerns of all those public and private sector stakeholders so that streets can be designed and maintained more quickly and efficiently.

The manual offers detailed guidance on geometric, material, lighting and

street furniture treatments, providing descriptions, benefits and constraints of particular applications, ranging from more varied uses for concrete and asphalt to the layout of bus lanes, raised speed reducers, greening, medians and sidewalks. Written in straightforward language, the manual even provides a glossary for many of the technical terms for community groups and the general public.

The Department of Transportation will begin reviewing development plans to see whether they align with the 232-page manual’s guidelines, and promises that projects with these features will win approval quickly.

Details at nyc.gov

BrOad VISIOn; NARRoW RoADs

NYC is proposing the type of roads ReNew Canada’s editor Mira Shenker enjoyed so much while touring smaller municipalities like Niewland, Netherlands: places where pedestrians, cars and bikes all share the common space.

Cred

it: John Jung

VP of smart growth and partnerships with the Niagara Economic Development Corporation, says the best defense is a comprehensive approach. “Nothing guarantees that those who are in opposition to an infrastructure proposal will change their position, especially those affected most directly and most negatively, but proposals can still succeed when their focus is on a much larger initiative—comprehensive plans are defensible.”

Communities also support projects that incorporate principles like safety, architectural quality, smart growth, environmental preservation, and opportunities for community interaction. Taking these principles into account as early as possible will allow for more time to address other concerns that come up with infrastructure projects. “And when issues arise,” says Brickell, “almost everything can be fixed by design.”

Gord Perks, a councillor for the City of Toronto, underlines the importance of pleasing not just community members, but also council members. “Sometimes people treat elected officials differently, but both community members and council members want to achieve things,” says Perks.

Brickell has served on council at both the

A new transit line, bridge, or skyscraper could be coming soon to a city near you. The new multi-

million dollar federal funding program to get “shovel-ready” projects going is the industry’s favourite topic this year.

Of course, having enough capital is just one step in the larger process of getting municipal infrastructure projects designed, funded, supported and built.

Which projects succeed? Which fail? One hiccup can be enough to stall an infrastructure initiative, and wading through the conceptual planning, design, and public consultation processes can frustrate even the most seasoned development professionals.

NIMBYism is a common scapegoat when local projects fail, but Ken Greenberg, principal of Greenberg Consultants and a 20-year veteran of urban planning, doesn’t see community consultations as a major stumbling block. “The general public is ahead of government in its vision of sustainability. People respond well to projects which provide clear benefits to their community, and meaningful opportunities to participate in the public process.”

It’s impossible to argue that communities don’t sometimes stall projects. Mark Brickell,

local and regional level. He says building support for an infrastructure proposal depends on the composition of your council. Not all local governments have the same systems and structures. Smaller towns and larger cities can vary greatly, particularly where ward politics come into play.

“Depending on the circumstances, individual councils may base their decisions on ward considerations, or on the particular issue at hand,” says Brickell.

Developers, planners and designers need to learn how to work within that system, to engage local politicians by asking them directly and by learning from others with local experience.

Perks encourages proponents of infrastructure proposals to approach their local politicians as early in the process as possible. “Write down your idea in a note to your councillor. Present the big picture idea in an outline, and then take the time to meet. Start building a relationship, and building trust.”

As a councillor, Perks has championed a number of infrastructure projects, many of them in Toronto’s Western Waterfront Master Plan. Before breaking ground, extensive consultation with community groups, businesses, residents’ associations,

and civic departments took place. At that stage, councillors can act as project champions in a few different ways.

“First, they can recruit community support, by knowing the community leaders, and knowing how to reach out to their constituents to get them talking,” says Perks. “Secondly, they can serve a project management function, catching problems

that arise during the design, consultation and construction stages. Thirdly, they can help build the level of trust between civic or project staff, and the community.”

“Projects need to relate to people,” he stresses. “Cities are not a collection of buildings. They are a collection of people, and what works is walking around to get to know the affected citizens and their needs.” Perks recommends that proponents of municipal infrastructure approach their local council member with ideas that are possible,

achievable, and open to change. This gives councillors the time to review ideas, consider them with the needs of the community, and help to develop improvements before the ideas become formal proposals.

Engaging councils and communities at the right time, and with the right information, is critical to making municipal infrastructure happen. Unfortunately, says Brickell, too

often council and community members are asked for their support on the basis of two-dimensional, black-and-white, architectural line drawings.

Emerging technologies, such as those developed by the Centre for Advanced Visualization (CFAV), can help. CFAV uses software to model projects three-dimensionally from architectural drawings to represent them in their natural environment; in doing so, they create the potential for more easily understandable proposals and

potentially even faster approvals. “Some early resisters have become believers through the use of advanced visualization,” says Brickell. “Some need to see results.”

Autodesk is working with a similar concept on a city planning level with its pilot project, Digital Cities, featured in a past issue of ReNew Canada [Mira Shenker’s “The Real Sim City,” May/June 2009].

Brickell has seen the results of programs like this: incentives to create positive cycles of redevelopment. Last year, Niagara Region, in conjunction with multiple levels of government, mayors, private property owners, Niagara College, economic development officers, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, assembled, ranked and mapped a list of key properties that could be redeveloped in the region. Their report, Identification and Characterization of Niagara’s Top Redevelopment Opportunities (available at smarterniagara.com), was produced to guide development toward particular sites believed to have the most catalytic effect from a revitalization perspective.

The report ranked 78 properties on the basis of location, size and configuration, property availability, servicing, land

engaging councils and communities at the right time,

and with the right information, is critical to making

municipal infrastructure happen.


Ajax Convention Centre, October 1, 2009 • 550 Beck Crescent, Ajax, ON

Join us as we deconstruct the sustainable community to reveal the technologies and partnerships needed to envision, design and build the future.

Conference attendees will learn about new community initiatives, emerging solutions, technologies and the role of policy in influencing technology adoption through panel discussions and informative sessions.

Attendees will meet influential persons in the realm of sustainable community design and participate in discussions on planning and implementation. They will gain insights into government programs, provide input into the design and building of a sustainable community, identify the cost benefits and available resources, and get ideas about how existing products and skills could be used in parallel industries as the economy shifts.

Audience Profile:Private and public sectors, investors, engineers, planners, utilities, business leaders, researchers, students and governments.

Expected Attendance:330+ Attendees

For more information:Kathleen [email protected]

Registration Opens:June 26, 2009

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

SPEAKERS INCLUDE

Michael AngemeerPresident and CEOVeridian Corporation

Bill WongManager of Renewable Energy & Climate ChangeSAIC Canada

Andrew BowerbankExecutive DirectorWorld Green Building Council

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Visitwww.forum.dsea.ca

use compatibility, market interest, reuse/redevelopment potential, smart growth, expression of municipal interest, and catalytic effect. Brickell says it showcases the potential of third-party organizations to conduct research, bring together stakeholders’ interests, get buy-in from developers and investors, and ultimately, promote positive change in the form of revitalized infrastructure.

Of course, some projects will be pushed through the system over the next two years, thanks to the federal government’s message to the public that construction equals economic stimulus. Now, projects that may have been tied up for years could be done by March 2011.

That doesn’t mean proponents should stop striving to understand what it takes to get infrastructure designed, funded, supported and built. It seems simple, but getting projects approved starts with proposing the right projects.

“There is a worldwide conclusion that we need to make a [global] transformation in the way we design our urban environments,” says Greenberg. “In particular, we have seen a consistent and ongoing commitment of European governments toward their infrastructure, which is even older than ours.”

Around the world, the most successful infrastructure proposals are increasingly favouring energy efficiency, alternatives to car travel, and sustainable waste management in their designs.

To have comparable success with Canada’s infrastructure, Greenberg suggests that our federal and provincial governments need to think more comprehensively, and to develop reliable funding programs with criteria to support a long-term sustainable vision; a strategic direction to move beyond Canada’s car-focused status quo, for which we will end up paying more to fix over the long-term. The general public is ready to make the transition to neighbourhood- and transit-oriented development. (See “Broad Vision; Narrow Roads,” page 15.)

City officials need to encourage and demand quality architecture by proposing comprehensive designs, communicated to council and community members in ways

that clearly capture the benefits of the project, mitigate the impacts, and display the project in picture form. Funding requirements need to be clearly laid out. Funding sources need to be consistent, significant, and accessible,

so that members of both the public and private sectors can anticipate, direct and plan for the ensuing projects.

“This is a great opportunity for engineers, architects, and designers to work together collaboratively and strategically,” says Greenberg. Many success stories are available within and beyond our borders to give us best practices, so let’s not waste it.

Myron Belej is an Edmonton-based urban planner who looks at urban issues with the big picture in mind.

Bureacracy

“Cities are not a collection of buildings. They are a collection

of people, and what works is walking around to get to know

the affected citizens and their needs.”—Gord Perks


Developers are ready to embrace new, advanced bioenergy technologies in Canada, but there’s one major

problem: red tape. For decades biomass projects have been stopped or delayed by regulatory barriers. That’s why the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO) asked me to author a new report. Entitled Addressing Barriers Restricting Bioenergy System Applications in Canada, the report hones in on the regulations that affect biomass boilers in Canada and the ways we can get around them.

huRDles

1. staffing regulations. Boiler plants above 1.5-megawatt (thermal) capacity in most provinces require around-the-clock staffing by boiler engineers. Regulations stipulate that any connected boilers must be added together, so the heating system, even for a municipal building like a high school, almost always exceeds 1.5 megawatts. The huge operating expense of 24/7 staffing means most small-scale bioenergy heating plants are too expensive to ever get off the ground.

The problem is even worse for small district heating systems. District heating makes economic sense only when load is accumulated, but as soon as you reach 1.5 megawatts, the labour costs become prohibitive. Cost isn’t an issue for larger plants because they already have 24-hour staff available for operations and maintenance.

Sweden’s latest boiler regulations are a good model for Canadian adoption. The

latest revision to Sweden’s boiler operating code (AFS 2002-1) allows both steam and hot water boilers above three megawatts to be operated during the week with only two operator inspections every 24 hours.

2. Boiler regulatory issues. Many of the most efficient, sexy designs come from colder European Union (EU) countries like Austria, Finland and Sweden. But boiler regulations, which are legislated provincially, only adopt American standards. Because Canada doesn’t recognize EU regulations, getting the latest technologies is a long, expensive process.

It’s almost impossible to use state-of-the-art European biomass pressure vessel appliances in most Canadian provinces. Instead, all provinces use the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) boiler design code.

But complying with the ASME is all but impossible except for the biggest boiler manufacturers. An Austrian biomass plant manufacturer had to import American steel to build an ASME standard boiler for the North American market; it took two years to approve just one of their boiler models for sale in Canada. If Canadian provinces recognize two key EU standards governing biomass appliances, this design code hurdle can also be easily overcome.

3. Approval process for automated residential biomass appliances. A small company wishing to sell state-of-the art biomass boilers must spend at least $20,000 and up to a

Steps to freeing bioenergy projects from bureaucracy.

BIo-CraCyBy Bruce McCallum

Bureacracy

These Danish Tarm 40-kilowatt (150,000

BTU) units have finally been approved for use

in Canadian homes. But regulatory barriers still

stops them from being used as pressurized boilers in

commercial buildings.

Cred

it: CA

NB

IO


m a x x a m a n a l y t i c s . c o m

e: [email protected] tf : 800•563•6266

Invest in

quality science and

be confident in

your results.

test. trust. act.™

too low a price on biomass projects resulted in few small biomass project developments. CANBIO hopes the government won’t make the same mistake twice.

For a copy of the full report, including more recommendations to address barriers to bioenergy projects, visit renewcanada.net/reports.

year just getting approvals to sell the product in Canada. Insurance companies defer to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to certify domestic wood-burning appliances like pellet boilers, giving them undue influence on appliance design and marketing. In the case of European pellet boilers, Canada requires manufacturers to re-certify appliances that have already gone through a rigorous EU certification process. Again, recognizing European standards is the answer; in this case, it’s the EU standard EN 303-5 for biomass boilers up to 300 kilowatts.

ReCIpe foR suCCessWhile new federal and provincial policies are slowly coming forward to support bioenergy, the equations are missing one key ingredient: heat.

“In Ontario, for example, the new feed-in tariff is a very good thing for electricity from renewable sources,” says Douglas Bradley, president of CANBIO. “European countries, like the Netherlands and Germany, have proven that a feed-in tariff, which essentially sets a fixed price on renewable energy sources for electricity generation, can really shift the energy market from fossil fuels to sustainable, green renewable sources.”

“But reserving incentives for only electricity, not heat, artificially promotes biomass cogeneration plants to be less efficient. Plants are the most efficient when they are able to use all of the heat produced, not just the electricity generated,” says Bradley.

Because the bottom line is always the great decision-maker in any renewable energy project, setting a competitive feed-in-tariff price for biomass in Ontario—and in any other province that might adopt similar mechanisms—is key.

The Canadian Bioenergy Association is recommending a price of $0.18 per kilowatt hour for any project size. While larger projects can benefit from certain economies of scale, recent experience has shown that the larger the project, the further afield the proponent must go to secure biomass—and consequently pay a much higher price that wipes out any advantage gained from a capital equipment economy of scale.

This price is similar to recommendations made by the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) during the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) consultations several years ago. OSEA’s Jane Story says those numbers are based on Germany’s pricing structure.

The price under RESOP was $0.11 per kilowatt hour for electricity. While RESOP supported $1.9 billion in new wind power projects and $2.5 billion in solar photovoltaic, only $235 million went to biomass. Putting

Bruce McCallum is a biomass consultant and director for Canadian Bioenergy Association Maritimes.

Bureacracy

visit renewcanada.net/topics/events/ for details.

Join ReNew Canada’s publisher Todd latham on a swedish study Tour (september 19-26) for a hands-on look at bioenergy and sustainable cities in sweden.


At the recent Urban Transportation Summit in Toronto, I sat next to Colin Gordon. He was there because his company, Comstock Canada, was bidding on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)

contracts that were released once Metrolinx’s regional transportation plan was approved. Hagay Marian with Aecon—one of Canada’s largest public construction and infrastructure development companies—was sitting at the same table hoping to bag the same contract.

In recent years, the amount of acquisitions

and mergers among engineering and

infrastructure services firms has increased.

are we building stronger businesses or

creating monopoly monsters?

MeRge ahead

By Mira Shenker

Bureacracy


exist to work the old way—parsing it out into a bunch of contracts. It will probably evolve into packaging the work out into larger turnkey projects.”

Alberta’s new schools project is exactly one of those larger, turnkey projects. In a unique P3, the government of Alberta bundled the design and construction of 18 new schools in Edmonton and Calgary, turning it into one massive contract.

Smith says smaller engineering firms are going to have to join a large consortium in order to win contracts on these larger projects.

That’s exactly what many Alberta firms have done. “If they don’t want to get grow beyond 50 or so employees, they’ll often form alliances to bid on larger projects,” says Cooper.

AECOM’s Sam Sidawi says amalgamation—whether it’s a merger, a consortium or an acquisition—is positive for engineers currently being commodified by customers. “Becoming part a larger company can change the way the industry responds to us.”

Sidawi leads AECOM’s sustainable asset management practice, and if anyone knows about acquisitions, it’s AECOM. In 2008

Comstock, a provider of electrical and mechanical services, might not have a chance on its own, but as part of the much larger EMCOR Group, which has offices all over North America and the United Kingdom, suddenly it’s a contender for a major contract.

When a major contract is awarded, it’s not to a small, 50-person operation. If there’s a 100-megawatt wind farm going up, the question isn’t, “Who’s supplying the turbines?” Rather, it’s, “Is Siemens or GE supplying the turbines?”

It’s especially difficult for small companies to compete in this credit-shy market. Are small, local operations going to be eclipsed—or swallowed up—by increasingly larger, global firms?

“This is certainly a trend that’s accelerated over the past few years,” says Shayne Smith, president of Wardrop Engineering, a Canadian firm that specializes in resource management, energy and infrastructure design. “The billion-dollar firms now represent 70 per cent of the industry. Going back a few years, it was only a third.”

Wardrop was recently acquired by larger environmental engineering and consulting firm, Tetra Tech. Smith says the firm sought out a strategic partner like Tetra Tech because it wanted to be part of an organization that could execute larger projects. “We were realistic about what we could achieve as a private, employee-funded firm. We wanted to extend our global reach.”

Wendy Cooper, executive director of Consulting Engineers of Alberta, says many firms are making a conscious decision to grow. “That’s exactly their strategic plan.”

Firms are growing to match the increased size of both the customers and the projects. “Customers are getting larger, they’re procuring globally and they need a firm that can serve that market,” says Smith.

Projects are getting larger, too. And more of them are being completed as EPCs (engineer, procure, construct) or P3s (public-private partnerships). Smith says, “The capacity within municipalities or provinces doesn’t

Bureacracy

“The capacity within

municipalities or provinces

doesn’t exist to work the old

way. It will probably evolve

into packaging the work out

into larger turnkey projects.”

—Shayne Smith


the mega-company has acquired Earth Tech, Gartner Lee, TSH and UMA. Most recently, it acquired Savant, a 600-employee construction-management consultancy services firm.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” says Sidawi. Larger firms that want to serve a broader market and capitalize on stimulus spending can’t just diversify; they have to acquire a firm that’s already got the resources and expertise needed. And smaller firms with limited global reach may choose to duck under a larger company’s umbrella to win more contracts.

It doesn’t hurt that becoming part of a larger, international firm gives engineers access to world-class professionals and experts in their field, plus access to the global market. “We need something to attract new engineers,” says Sidawi. In an industry made up of mostly retirement-aged professionals, anything that might attract young professionals is a good idea.

Even so, Sidawi says smaller firms don’t have anything to worry about. “There will always be a need for smaller firms. They’ll continue to be around.”

Bureacracy

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the country’s second-biggest public pension manager, has apparently been fishing for distressed infrastructure assets for years and recently hooked Macquarie’s Communications Infrastructure Group.

Aecon group Inc. acquired Lockerbie & Hole Inc. for about $220 million. “We believe this is a unique opportunity for Aecon to secure a leading position in the mechanical/electrical and water/wastewater markets in Western Canada,” said Scott Balfour, president and CFO of Aecon.

The gENIvAR Income Fund acquired ENTRA Consultants, an Ontario-based transportation planning firm; Sherbrooke-based Envirotel 3000, and Montreal-based WSATrenchless Consultants.

Mira shenker is the editor of this magazine.

reCently ACquIReDsNC-lavalin acquired the engineering and technical services firm Spectrol Energy Services, based in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Armtec Infrastructure Fund acquired precast concrete manufacturer Groupe Tremca in an effort to strengthen the Fund’s competitive position in the Quebec marketplace, which president and CEO Charles Phillips calls “one of the most active infrastructure markets in the country.”

British-based engineering giant AMEC is buying 70-person Ontario firm Philips Engineering Ltd. According to a release, “Philips will provide AMEC with infrastructure capabilities in Eastern Canada at a time when the Canadian Federal and Ontario governments have committed to substantial economic stimulus spending on infrastructure system upgrades, maintenance and asset management.”


KICK-START YOUR BROWNFIELD PROJECT WITH A GMF LOANWe beat the bank! GMF offers loans for brownfield remediation projects at rates far lower than any municipal government can get on the market. Our rates for municipalities are 1.5% lower than the Government of Canada bond rate and even further below market rates.

GMF also offers loans to private-sector companies or corporations wholly owned by a municipal government for brownfield site remediation at competitive rates, if they are partners in eligible municipal projects.

Low-cost financing when you need it most: RemediationGMF supports your brownfield project at the clean-up (remediation) stage, when risk is highest and funding is hardest to secure. GMF may be prepared to finance projects that have difficulty obtaining funds from conventional lenders and at much better rates. Our financing can support you through all the steps of remediation until the site is clean and the market can carry the project.

“�The�remediation�of�this�site�is�a�turning�point�for�our�town.��In�these�times�of�very�tight�municipal�budgets,��the�assistance�of�the�Green�Municipal�Fund�is�very�useful.”

—Mayor Céline Tremblay, Municipality of Saint-Damien, Québec

www.fcm.ca/gmf

MOnCtOn, new BrunSwICk

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

Awards:• Intel Community IT Hero Award, 2008

• Globe Environmental Excellence, 2004

• FCM-CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Award: Waste Diversion Wet/Dry Program, 2003

• CUI Brownie: Sustainable Development, 2002

Funding:FCM’s Green Municipal Fund provided $30,000 in 2006 for development of the downtown area and riverfront with less environmental impact. The plan included the reduction of urban sprawl and implementation of an effective transportation network, along with the construction of energy-efficient buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

settled: 1735

Population: Moncton, 64,128 (2006); Greater Moncton 124,055 (2006)

Capital Budget: $113.7 million

Major Industries: information technology, tourism

Community Profile

Brownfield redevelopment is no small feat. Sometimes it’s an appealing thought to pave over everything and turn it into a gigantic parking lot, which would have been in line with one

proposal for the former Canadian National Railway Shops property in the City of Moncton. But in 1996, Canada Lands Company (CLC) acquired the site and transformed the 249 acres of contaminated land.

As the site of a former marshalling yard for CN Rail, the property was left with high levels of contamination in the form of heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil, and degreasing solvent in the groundwater. Massive infrastructure debris including asphalt roadways and concrete foundations, along with large quantities of wood wastes, remained throughout the property. At the time, this was the largest brownfield re-conversion project in the country.

“This is the most challenging property that we have ever bought, from an environmental perspective,” says CLC’s Gordon McIvor.

The remediation process began early 1997 and took three years. Costs were initially projected at $50 million but CLC completed the process for $12 million—a savings of $38 million. “Remediation can be a positive cash flow in some instances,” says McIvor. “There was actually so much lead in the soil that they were able to sell it to a smelter.”

The success of this project is greatly attributed to a series of innovative remediation techniques that took place on site. In 2003, the United States Environmental Protection Agency presented CLC with a Phoenix Award for the outstanding remediation of the property. The site was later developed into three different land uses: the CN Sportsplex (121 acres), Emmerson Business and Technology Park (63 acres), and Franklin Yard (65 acres).

No matter how big or seemingly impossible an environmental remediation project may seem, here’s proof that it can happen and be successful. That’s what McIvor believes other communities can take away from this best practice. He attributes the success of the overall project to being creative and working alongside the different levels of government. “With a common goal and agreement, it’s possible to create a doable economic model.”

By Kathleen Brown

This former Canadian National Railway Shops property was 249 acres of contaminated land.

Cred

it: CLC

www.renewcanada.net

• Recognized by the Intelligent Community Forum as one of the world’s top seven intelligent communities of 2009

• Canadian Business Magazine listed Moncton among the best places in Canada to do business (2004-2008)

• Employment in Moncton reached a record of 75,800 people in December 2008

• Total value of building permits more than doubled over the past ten years to over $127 million in 2008

• The second municipality in Canada to launch the EcoAction Teams program, aimed at increasing awareness on energy conservation, water conservation, waste reduction, sustainable transportation and sustainable gardening

• In 2007, Moncton became the first city in Canada to deploy free public broadband Internet on public transit

• Moncton’s Codiac Transit Commission provides public transit for 1.8 million passengers annually

• Water from the Turtle Creek Reservoir in Albert County is treated at the Moncton Water Treatment Plant and pumped to 124,050 people in Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview

• In 2008, the City invested $29.5 million to provide better roads and improved water nd sewer distribution

Infrastats


leadership of Engineers Canada, moved the concept of the National Round Table forward over three years from a small working group of five to the participation and engagement of six provincial governments, Infrastructure Canada and over 50 national associations, industry and communities, representing both public and private sector interests in infrastructure.

This year the leadership of the transition team was transferred to the Canadian Public Works Association and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.

During the initial years, a number of working groups evolved and undertook tasks representing organization and finance, innovation, small communities and asset management. The work was published in 2006 in a compendium of completed activities and case studies. Simultaneously, the National Asset Management Working Group (NAMWG) chaired by the Canadian Public Works Association was created to progress issues relevant to asset management as identified in the TRM.

Over 150 years ago, Canada started to evolve wagon trails into networks of roads, communities developed

adjacent to these roads, then communal water and sewage systems were installed. With the age of the automobile, our road quality and network grew rapidly as did our need for new infrastructure. The population explosion after World War II put a 20-year demand on our communities for rapidly expanded infrastructure. Today, as many readers are aware, much of that infrastructure is nearing the end of its service life.

Billions of dollars are spent every year by governments and the private sector building, servicing, operating, rehabilitating and replacing this infrastructure. At the same time, our academic institutions are providing research on new and innovative solutions to many infrastructure issues and techniques.

A large industry, within an important sector of the economy, has evolved—yet we have no real way of communicating effectively with each other.

In 2004, a key recommendation of the report Civil Infrastructure Systems, Technology Road Map (TRM) was “to create a National Round Table on Sustainable Infrastructure (NRTSI) bringing together all the stakeholders to develop a National Infrastructure Action Plan with an expert Advisory Panel of NRTSI to advise on technology issues.”

The three founding partners, under the

This multi-stakeholder group worked for three years and recently published the Asset Management Governance Framework for Canada (available at nrtsi.ca).

At the community level, British Columbia has developed a similar multi-stakeholder working group, chaired by a municipal CAO, Powell River’s Stan Westby. This is a model for the rest of Canada. Similar groups are under consideration in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario. The National Working Group provides the continuity and linkage for

information exchange and technology transfer that the infrastructure community has been missing; a strong national network to advance the concept of sustainable communities.

InfraGuide, which operated from 2001 to 2007 as a partnership between the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the National Research Council (NRC) and Infrastructure Canada, was an excellent example of communities coming together to successfully define and deliver best practices training and education. Its products and

Ric Robertshaw, Reg Andres and Wally Wells want industry to stop just building infrastructure and start building a round table on sustainable infrastructure.

BuIldIng a RouND

TABle

Infraguide was an excellent example of communities

coming together to successfully define and deliver

best practices training and education.

Cred

it: Roxanne B

rousseau-Félio


training are still heavily used today, not only in Canada, but by other world agencies.

Currently, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is working to produce new training modules and selected best practices. CSA’s ongoing work is linked to NRTSI through its NAMWG membership.

The infrastructure community is waiting to carry out a range of other relevant funded projects. One such project is a technical guide that, as a parallel document to Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) 3150, will provide a national uniform standard for sewer condition assessment.

This past year, NRTSI undertook contracted research funded by Infrastructure Canada and carried out by NRC. Two reports were produced: Framework for the Assessment of the State, Performance and Management of Canada’s CPI, and Indicators for the Assessment of the Performance of Core Public Infrastructure.

The vision of NRTSI is to become the glue for a national network of stakeholders and the voice of a multi-stakeholder infrastructure community, not a policymaking body. However, with the national interest of so many diverse groups represented through NRTSI, no better vehicle exists to assist governments, industry and community to help sort out the merits of policy alternatives, provide valid practical research and ensuring technology and innovation gains wide community acceptance.

The next step is to get a governing council in place and fund the NRTSI. The council would advance TRM objectives; review issues, projects and programs brought forward from government and the infrastructure community stakeholders; and determine NRTSI response in the form of recommendations, approval/endorsement and information. Any inquiries from Infrastructure Canada and other government agencies requesting infrastructure community input, opinions, advice and commentary with respect to specific policy and program proposals and recommendations would go through the council.

The council would also take on the role of communications process and protocols throughout the network of stakeholders and the public, harnessing the full network of each stakeholder for website updates, information news releases and communiqués to specified audiences and creating and managing work groups for specific tasks.

The short-term goal is to appoint the initial governing council of NRTSI and hold the inaugural meeting in Ottawa in May 2010. This will be our infrastructure Olympics.

The long-term goal is to become the voice of infrastructure on a national scale in order to harness the strength and diversity of the infrastructure community to address the major challenges of community sustainability.

To get there, industry has to work together to make NRTSI viable and relevant. At this time, funding to put the core into place is an issue we must continue to address. Many of our provincial and territorial governments, communities, academic institutions, industries and associations have already put in time and resources. You can challenge your association, your municipal government, your provincial government and your MP to support NRTSI. No better vehicle exists to ensure the billions of dollars we are committing to infrastructure are invested wisely for the future of communities and our economy.

Ric Robertshaw, P.Eng., Canadian Public Works Association, Reg Andres, P.Eng., Canadian society for Civil Engineering, Wally Wells, Wells Infrastructure group.


Engineering Engineering

Keith and his colleagues at University of Calgary are developing an idea to levitate nano-engineered sunlight-scattering particles into the mesosphere, 50 to 80 kilometres up. But developing an idea is far from developing the technology to potentially carry out a geo-engineering scheme. Keith says there’s very little funding for research of any kind and, of that funding, very little goes to this type of work.

Yet, ETC Group says powerful organizations such as the United Nations and its Clean Development Mechanism, are pushing for geo-engineering techniques like biochar to be recognized as eligible for carbon credits. Biochar, essentially charcoal from burning plant material under low oxygen conditions, could potentially be used to sequester carbon in soil.

Geo-engineering is still a marginal topic; it’s pie-in-the-sky, sci-fi rhetoric as far as most people are concerned. But ETC Group, an Ottawa-based research and analysis organization, says a dozen or so technologies are under active discussion internationally.

Not to be confused with geotechnical engineering, which involves the application of soil and rock mechanics as well as engineering geology to solve engineering problems, geo-engineering—the large-scale, intentional manipulation of the earth’s climate and related systems—is far from a mainstream career path. David Keith with the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy can count the number of scientists in Canada studying geo-engineering on one hand.

Recent climate negotiations in Copenhagen contained explicit reference to biochar, a technology that Bronson says has yet to be proven effective. “Proponents of biochar have convinced some very poor countries they should go ahead with it,” says Bronson.

Keith recently ran a meeting in Lisbon with foreign policy and environmental leaders, and there was significant concern over potential single-state action. But in the short term, Keith says it’s not an issue. “Almost no research has been done on actual technological development.”

Bronson says that real-world experiments have taken place and more are in the planning stages with no international rules and regulations to govern one country’s actions. Canada’s federal government is already pumping $400 million into carbon capture and storage (CCS) to keep the oil sands flowing.

Keith doesn’t classify CCS as geo-engineering. “CCS reduces emissions by limiting the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere, just like wind or solar,” says Keith. “Taking C02 out of the air—that’s geo-engineering.”

And in those areas, Keith says, “The risks are uncertain.”

Uncertain, according to scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock, is putting it mildly. Writing in the October 2008 edition of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions journal, Lovelock said today’s climate scientists are in a similar position to nineteenth-century doctors—they don’t know enough about how the planet works to be tinkering with its climate. It may be better to let nature take its course and try to adapt to the consequences.

But nature is not taking its course. Human activities already affect the Earth’s climate and that won’t change, even in a “green” age. During a debate this May between Keith and Greenpeace’s Paul Johnston, Keith pointed out that even if we cut emissions to zero next week, it wouldn’t change the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. Since atmospheric C02 has a longer half life than nuclear waste, changing the way we live may be too little, too late.

teChnOfIx

©A

rizona Board

of Regents, all rights reserved

. (Roger A

ngel/Tom C

onnors/Johanan L.Cod

ona, The University of A

rizona)

In the November 2006 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Roger Angel said about his solar shade: “The concept builds on existing technologies. It seems feasible that it could be developed and deployed in about 25 years, at a cost of a few trillion dollars.”

Synthetic trees, space mirrors, shooting sulfates

into the atmosphere to block out the sun.

“It may sound outlandish, but it’s being

seriously considered,” says ETC Group’s Diana Bronson.

By Mira Shenker


Mitigation by sequestrationThe removal from the atmosphere of a greenhouse gas (mainly CO2)—a technology Canada’s government is pumping $140 million into. Ocean fertilization is another scheme that falls under this category.

Radiative forcing/Albedo enhancement/ReflectionThis involves reflecting or blocking sunlight to increase the earth’s albedo (the extent to which the planet reflects sunlight). Examples: space mirrors to reflect heat and limit warming; adding sulfate particles to the stratosphere, cloud whitening; attempts to cool the planet by injecting particles into the upper atmosphere. Such “aerosol loading” would be similar to the effect of volcanic eruptions, which create particles that scatter sunlight to outer space and cool the Earth’s surface.

Weather ModificationA set of technologies that directly alters weather patterns to hedge against the worst impacts of climate change. Seeding clouds to avoid rainfall is a good example.

AdaptationChanges to make the effects resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases tolerable, including large physical engineering projects to maintain landscapes and ecosystems, redirecting rivers to prevent arctic ice melt, or changing the ocean’s acidity levels.

etC group’s diana Bronson says climate change tactics usually

involve mitigation or adaptation—but geo-engineering doesn’t always

fit into those categories. etC has identified four broad categories.

geO-en•gI•neer•Ing

wrote, “Just imagine a world where you could carry on as normal, but technology provides a way of cleaning up the mess so we don’t all have to live in teepees and ride bicycles.”

“There is no technofix for this problem,” says Bronson.

Keith agrees: “I don’t know anybody who believes this is a solution. It allows us to

reduce the C02 already in the air. It saves time while we change our habits.”

The snag, according to Bronson, is that for this to work there needs to be some real-world experimentation. “The problem with real experiments,” says Bronson, “is that they have to be done in the real world. And there’s only one real world.”

Considering the damage that’s been done, could geo-engineering technologies, once developed, become just one more in a long line of man-made machinations that make the Earth a more comfortable place to live? We are, after all, already affecting the Earth’s climate with technologies that emit greenhouse gases.

“Intention matters,” says Keith. “We added C02 to the atmosphere, but it was an accident; we were trying to make energy. A side effect versus a purposeful manipulation is an important moral distinction.”

Bronson worries people may come to see geo-engineering as an easy out to a problem we created. A blogger on TNTlog (cientifica.eu/blog)

Engineering Engineering

today’s climate scientists are in a similar position as

nineteenth-century doctors—they don’t know enough

about how the planet works to be tinkering with its climate.


The deadline for municipalities to prepare a government’s initial financial statement to meet the new Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) 3150 requirements

was set for the 2009 reporting year. It has meant bringing 100 to 150 years of historical spending on existing infrastructure to a current book value.

But the delivery of 2009 municipal financial statements is just the beginning. And while there has been general reluctance from the engineering community to get involved in PSAB 3150, they need to understand what PSAB means for the future.

Given the challenges of understanding and developing new asset management (AM) processes for municipal infrastructure, the technical/engineering staff might feel they have a valid excuse for not getting involved with PSAB 3150. After all, these new accounting requirements aren’t their responsibility, nor is it within their professional expertise.

The bad news is that they’re wrong.The good news, however, is that by continuing to focus on

AM, they’re on the right track The information their financial counterparts at the municipal level need to create PSAB-compliant reports is embedded in a functioning AM system (see illustrated framework on page 31).

The need for an ongoing understanding of PSAB 3150 becomes clear in the following examples of activities associated with infrastructure management processes.

ACCouNTINg 101what every engineer needs to know

about PSaB 3150. By Reg Andres

Engineering


Adding a new tangible asset

After 2009, every time new infrastructure is added or existing infrastructure is changed (exceeding a threshold amount), information will need to be collected and transferred to the financial system.

In the context of PSAB 3150, the asset registry (inventory) and the acquisition value of the new asset both require documentation along with the amortization period.

In the context of asset management, the new infrastructure needs to be added to the infrastructure database and documented to track its future condition and life-cycle investment profile (life expectancy and the value and timing of life-cycle investments—operations and maintenance, renewal and ultimate replacement).

In concept these are the same activities. The difference is in the terminology used—one is described in accounting terms and the other in AM terms—and in the level of detail to be documented. Generally the information required for the AM system is more than the information required for financial reporting. With that in mind, it’s most cost effective to set up the AM system to collect and share this information as one

Engineering

fIguRe 1: AsseT MANAgeMeNT fRAMeWoRk

Demand Management

Plans

Future Demands

DEMAND MANAGEMENT

corporate Vision Levels of service, business drivers (growth, regulation, sustainability)

Asset Management investment Plans Capacity upgrade plans,

renewal plans, O&M plans

lifecycle Analysis Capacity, remaining life,

risk assessment, cost/benefit

Asset Portfolio Inventory, condition/performance,

age, valuation

Monitoring Program State of the infrastructure reports/customer satisfaction surveys/

supplementary reports to financial statements (PSAB – SORP)

liFEcYclE MANAGEMENT

Financial reporting TCA – PSAB 3150

Financial Analysis Cash flow forecast/rates

Financial Plans Funding/revenue plans

FiNANciAl MANAGEMENT


process that serves both purposes. Ideally asset managers will set up a system and data hierarchy that allows for a roll-up of the more detailed information to generate the financial reporting information.

Data hierarchy becomes an important consideration and tender documents will be one of the primary sources of valuation information for capital projects.

The ability to get comparable information for assets that are donated or assumed from developers becomes another challenge. Changes to the price breakdown in tender documents are one of the key areas engineering staff may need to consider in collecting data for both AM and financial reporting purposes.

Annual replacement value updates: a key to revenue planning

The main issue engineers have with the PSAB initiative is ensuring enough capital to sustain municipal infrastructure. The general contention is that capitalizing amortization costs based on historical valuations results in significant shortfalls in the actual dollars needed to sustain these assets. Engineers worry that changes in

technology, regulation and economics over the long life of these types of assets aren’t represented in these costs; they aren’t linked closely enough to future investment costs to make it worthwhile to track them.

To avoid misrepresentation, and get finance and engineering on the same page, engineering and financial staff need to develop a method to update the replacement costs on a regular basis. This value can then be compared to the amortization account to recognize the increasing deficit. It’s also the basis on which AM initiatives are quantified and prioritized. Asset managers can use these values to have strategic decision-making discussions around revenues based on sustainable cost of service rather than “what we spent last year.” This should be a core asset management activity. Without it, asset managers will struggle to make the case for required funding.

supplementary report to financial statements (psAB - soRp)

The above discussion on regular updates to current asset replacement values links to a related PSAB initiative of the Canadian Chartered Accountants: the published

Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) for the Assessment of Tangible Capital Assets, approved in fall 2008. This SORP recommends financial statement supplementary reporting that discusses the condition of a municipality’s assets to broaden an understanding of the financial representation of these assets in the financial statements.

Both financial managers and asset managers need to be engaged to determine the form and content of this supplemental reporting. Once again, the process is of importance to both groups with respect to their daily responsibilities within a municipal organization.

PSAB is here and it’s not going anywhere. Engineers can choose to be reluctantly pulled along in these processes or take control and work with their financial counterparts, managing the implications of their important role and involvement. Ignoring it is not an option.

Engineering

Reg Andres, P.Eng, is vP of R.v. Anderson Associates limited.


The leeD® lIsT SPOnSOred By

5 NeW leeD® CeRTIfICATIoNs IN CANADA total leed® Projects: 153 9 Platinum, 57 gold, 52 Silver, 35 Certified

this column reports on new leed®-certified projects in Canada using information from the CagBC. leed® is administered by the Canada green Building Council. cagbc.ca.

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

Writing-on-stone provincial park visitor CentreCertified: March 30, 2009 leed®-nC Silver leeD® Consultant: Sahuri + Partners architecture

Milk River, AB: The single most important technical consideration was how to create an efficient building envelope that would help the Interpretive Centre adapt to the harsh environment of the site. Constant winds, gusting up to 100 kilometres per hour, and temperatures ranging from 40ºC in the summer to -40ºC and below in winter made this a challenge. Reducing energy usage has been addressed by increasing R-values in the building through the use of a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) system and substantial overhanging roof structures. Through achieving high insulation levels in the roof and exterior walls, energy use for both heating and cooling is reduced. The SIP system also greatly reduces the amount of lumber used in construction.

oxford County Administration BuildingCertified: february 26, 2009 leed®-nC Silver leeD® Consultant: McCallum Sather architects Inc.

Woodstock, ON: The new 81,000-square-foot building is one of Canada’s first design-build projects to include LEED principles. The building is built on a brownfield site and is designed to maximize water conservation onsite and within the building. Energy efficiency is estimated to be 48 per cent improvement over the MNECB.

Innovative technologies include rainwater harvesting for water use within the building, and collecting condensation from all heat pumps to be utilized as part of the water conservation strategy. Daylighting and occupancy sensors in conjunction with energy-efficient light fixtures combine to reduce the lighting load. Low VOC materials and construction waste management factor into the overall sustainable design strategy.

Condominium Corporation No. 101100609 - o/a Century plazaCertified: february 18, 2009 leed®-nC Silver leeD® Consultant: Stantec architecture ltd.

Regina, sK: Despite the inherent limitations of converting a department store layout to office space, the project was able to reuse 75 per cent of existing structural components and divert 80 per cent from landfill. Reuse of concrete components, namely piles, foundation walls, columns, composite floor systems and a roof slab collectively weighing over 1,600 tonnes, contributed to the reuse mark.

Cred

it: Rand

y Neufeld

Cred

it: James D

ow

home office Tenant Improvements - floors 17, 16 and 15 (BC housing)Certified: february 9, 2009 leed®-CI gold leeD® Consultant: MCM Interiors ltd.

Burnaby, BC: In this commercial interior upgrade, BC Housing features recycled furniture made from 100 per cent recyclable materials with no lead paints or other harmful, gas-emitting materials. The flooring is made from cork rubber, a natural material. Most interestingly, BC Housing is using lumber left behind from the mountain pine beetle infestation. The beetles leave a blue stain in the sapwood of affected trees, but comprehensive testing confirms the wood’s strength and its usefulness is preserved.

Cred

it: BC

Housing

grey Bruce public health unitCertified: april 21, 2009 leed®-nC leeD® Consultant: enermodal engineering

Owen sound, ON: The site selected for a new facility was a brownfield site contaminated with hydrocarbons and heavy metals. The Health Unit improved the environmental health of the

Cred

it: Enerm

odal E

ngineering

building from project inception by beginning construction with soil remediation measures. The building is designed to achieve a 39 per cent reduction in energy cost compared with a similar building built to conventional standards. Water conservation measures such as rainwater reuse and low-flow plumbing fixtures will help save over 1.8-million litres of treated water each year.

Cred

it: Donna M

acInnis Photograp

hy


Region by Numbers

In late March, New Brunswick and Maine agreed to jointly explore the development of a

northeast energy corridor. The bulk of the power would come from New Brunswick, flow through Maine and be fed into New York and Massachusetts, a market of around 50-million people.

While the project is still very much in its initial stages, analysts have pegged the cost in the billions of dollars. The corridor would deliver 1,200 to 1,500 megawatts of electricity, but would also supply a wide range of other power products, including renewables such as wind and tidal power. Alongside the corridor would be the construction of a natural-gas-fired co-generation plant working in tandem with a New Brunswick-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to supply energy during wind power downtimes.

Regional Focus

about 325 infrastructure projects worth an estimated $85-billion are underway in the four atlantic provinces.

Overall, the newfoundland government is investing $800-million in infrastructure this year as part of a $4-billion, multi-year strategy.

the construction industry is the seventh-largest employer in atlantic Canada, with over 63,000 people employed in 2005.

atlantICCanada

eNeRgyBarrels of EnergyIrving Oil has partnered with BP to propose a $7-billion refinery at New Brunswick’s Eider Rock. If approved, this refinery will become the largest private capital investment in Atlantic Canadian history. In Newfoundland, the White Rose offshore oil fields will be expanded, and development of the $5-billion Hebron oil field is expected to begin in 2012.

shower PowerNewfoundland’s 316-metre Lower Churchill Falls is already a source of 5,428 megawatts of electrical energy. But plans for a new $10-billion hydroelectric project would result in enough energy to power another 1.5 million homes annually. Newfoundland hopes the power will come onto the grid by 2015.

WindblownPEI has about $1 billion in wind energy projects underway or proposed, including a potential transmission line across the Confederation Bridge. Patrick Brannon, a research analyst with the Atlantic Provincial Economic Council (APEC), said the recession and financing challenges continue to impact projects, but won’t elaborate until research is finalized for APEC’s annual Capital Investment Outlook for Atlantic Canada.

gas and PetroleumNova Scotia has an array of smaller projects underway, including the Deep Panuke gas field, a $700-million project that should produce its first gas next

year. Still undergoing reviews is the Keltic Petrochemical plant, a $4.5-billion project financed by Calgary businessman Kevin Dunn.

fuNDINgstimulus splashoutNewfoundland and Labrador have received $300 million in joint federal-provincial money, while Nova Scotia nabbed some $136 million—mostly for road, sewer and bridge upgrades. While it’s currently unclear how much has been allocated to New Brunswick and PEI, both provinces have also received financing under the $4-billion economic stimulus fund. For instance, PEI is getting $9 million in funding to support a wind farm development near Summerside in the central part of the island.

Educational InfrastructureIn late May, Newfoundland and Labrador received $55 million in joint federal-provincial funding under the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, a two-year, $2-billion fund designed to help post-secondary institutions with retrofits and new construction. A month earlier, Nova Scotia got $113-million in funding under the program—a little short of the $118 million the province’s 11 institutions had hoped to receive. The Nova Scotia list of funded projects is broad and varies from funding for renovations, to new buildings and sites. Judy Streatch, Nova Scotia’s Education Minister, called the province’s post-secondary institutions “centres of innovation and vital economic engines.”

eNeRgy IndePendenCean effort to send power to two energy-hungry american states could lead to one of the largest infrastructure projects ever seen in atlantic Canada.

By Charles Mandel

Each issue, we round up recent news from a different region in Canada and devote even more space to a closer look at an issue or trend in that region. Our September/October issue will profile Ontario.


Regional Focus

Irving Oil announced its intention to become the first private-sector partner, a move that makes sense for the New Brunswick-based corporation. Irving already does a lot of business in Maine, including owning majority interest in a marine terminal. “It’s a major regional, as well as international, infrastructure project that’s designed to develop and deliver more clean, secure and reliable energy,” says Daniel Goodwin, an Irving spokesman, about the proposed energy corridor.

Both New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and Maine Governor John Baldacci have stressed the need for the region to achieve “energy independence” as a route to economic self-sufficiency for the area hard hit with downturns in the forestry pulp industry, among others. Goodwin says the proximity to the demand from the U.S. markets “creates the opportunities for Atlantic Canada to think about and develop these large-scale energy projects.”

For a couple of years now, the modest New Brunswick city of Saint John has aggressively touted itself as an energy hub. And there is some truth to that label. Irving Oil wants to build a second $5-billion to $7-billion oil refinery and has already partnered with Spain’s Repsol YPF SA to build a $750-million LNG plant. Also underway is a $1.4-billion refurbishment of Point Lepreau, an aging CANDU 6 nuclear plant.

Newfoundland and Labrador sealed a power corridor arrangement with Hydro Quebec to sell to Emera Energy Inc. While Premier Danny Williams made much of the announcement, the province is only sending over 250 megawatts of power to be sold into the American market.

The plan to create a regional power corridor is not without challenges. One sore point is that the Canadian federal and provincial governments have protested the passage of LNG tankers in Passamaquoddy Bay. According to John Kerry, director of the Maine state Office of Energy Independence and Security, Americans view the Canadian actions as protectionism. He says it causes a “chilling effect” among some project proponents, such as LNG producers. Bill Hastings, an energy executive in Maine, said the state is densely populated in the south and negotiations will have to take place to ensure a smooth passage of the corridor.

That’s assuming it gets built in the first place. Goodwin concedes that now is not the best time to finance large-scale projects and says the company is currently doing commercial and technical feasibility work on the corridor. “These are clearly very challenging times and by no means has any decision been taken to proceed with this project. The availability of capital is obviously a real challenge we would have to work through.”

Tim Curry, president of the Atlantica Centre for Energy in Saint John, agrees times are tough for securing project financing, but he says the long-term demand for energy is likely to make the corridor a reality—particularly if it’s able to deliver clean, green energy to the markets. “I could see that that investment case for a company with access to capital and the appetite to continue to grow the business might make sense.”

Goodwin notes that regionally this project is an imperative because it will create more jobs and a greater tax base. Other smaller companies will spring up to provide services around such a major undertaking. “Each successful project we’re able to do in Atlantic Canada helps make the next project even easier: we become an even brighter circle on the global energy map.”

Charles Mandel is a multiple award-winning freelance journalist based in Nova scotia and a former Atlantic correspondent with Canwest News service.


Regional Focus

four steel chambers like this were installed

underground at Cape Spear in 1941.

Cred

it: Parks C

anada, D

on Parsons

Arc h a e o l o g i s t s ex p l o r i n g Newfoundland and Labrador continue to find remnants of

civilizations that went before us; shelters where, 1,000 years ago, Vikings dug in and stayed over the long winter months. Infrastructure that was once utilitarian can become a tourist draw if it tells an interesting story.

This May, the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (CSCE) met in St. John’s and, as part of their conference, held a historic site dedication honouring engineers and constructors who have left a mark.

The lighthouse at Cape Spear, built in 1836, watches over the approaches to St. John’s harbour.

In order to protect the harbour and vital supply convoys during the Second World War, the Canadian Army installed two 10-inch guns on disappearing carriages at the tip of the Cape. Behind the guns, a network of underground bunkers, magazines and tunnels hid and protected the soldiers and the ammunition. An overhead rail was used to transfer the heavy shells to the guns. The underground arch chambers were built of structural plate corrugated steel pipe (SPCSP). All that was visible from the sea were four small corrugated steel pipe (CSP) ventilation shafts that protruded from the earth.

In 1941 American forces installed two eight-inch coastal defence guns at the summit of Signal Hill—the site of the present-day Cabot Tower parking lot. Ammunition was stored in two underground bunkers consisting of a round CSP entrance leading to a larger SPCSP underground arch chamber.

The underground infrastructure left behind has been studied by architects, but is also contributing to the local economy as a tourist draw.

newfOundland uNDeRgRouNDBy David J. Penny

David J. Penny, BEs, is with the Corrugated steel Pipe Institute.

Cred

it: Parks C

anada C

ollection, photograp

her unknown


stormWatch

quotient (IQ). The free RQ Quiz for citizens is online now (resolutionfund.com/RQ_Quiz) while the far more rigorous RQ Test for community leaders is being created in collaboration with a learning network of 20 communities worldwide. The first Canadian city agreed to enroll this June.

This month the Resolution Fund is launching a community forecasting service called Places To Invest (PTI) to help investors tell which communities are likely to be on a revitalizing trajectory in the coming decade. Revitalizing trajectory refers to economic growth that increases quality of life and improves environmental health (many forms of economic growth do the opposite). In other words, rewealth: wealth-creation based

Boom or gloom: that’s what investors need to predict. Redevelopers have many tools for helping them select

the right property in a community and for designing the project. But they don’t have a tool to help them select the right community.

Put a restoration, remediation, or adaptive reuse project in a city that’s starting its socio-economic ebb, and the city’s declining fortunes will degrade its return on investment. Put a good project in a city that’s revitalizing—or perpetuating its renewal—and that project rides a rising tide.

March/April 2009’s StormWatch [“What’s Your Community’s RQ?”] showed that communities can have a renewal quotient (RQ) the way individuals have an intelligence

on renewing a community’s natural, built, and socioeconomic assets. This is as opposed to dewealth, which is wealth-creation based on developing raw land and depleting virgin resources. (See past StormWatch columns for details about “rewealth” and “dewealth.”)

PTI will be driven by the RQ scores communities achieve, and the test will be offered free as an educational service: communities test themselves while learning a reliable recipe for rapid, resilient renewal. Communities that want their scores certified for accuracy and published will pay a modest fee.

Scores will be available to PTI subscribers via an online database. An annual Top 10 Places To Invest list will be released to the news media.

PlaCeS tO INvesThow to avoid putting the right project in the wrong community.

By Storm Cunningham


forecasting their future seem an exercise in frustration. But PTI’s advantage is that it’s based on seven universal factors that a six-year global research effort revealed as reliable indicators of rapid, resilient renewal.

A community’s RQ is a numerical measure of its renewal capacity. Renewal capacity is the community’s ability to initiate

revitalization despite empty public coffers, and perpetuate it despite changing political administrations.

Communities with low renewal capacity are reactive, waiting for federal or provincial funds—or a private redeveloper—to arrive. They often indulge in outdated, zero-sum economic development games of wooing employers from neighbouring communities by giving away future tax revenues and calling it job creation.

A plethora of annual “green” or “livable” city rankings exist, but few have a sound basis—they’re more entertainment than tools for serious decision-making derived from data. They’re also snapshots of the present, yet families and businesses must think of the future, and investors care more about an asset’s future value than its current condition.

PTI is different because it’s a predictive community forecasting tool for private and public investors or relocators.

The word forecast is used with caution. No one expects weather forecasts to be completely accurate, but we check them daily because some indicator is better than none. Likewise, PTI’s top-scoring communities will likely revitalize. But external factors can render their efforts moot. Communities are complex adaptive systems which can make

The RQ Test is being devised by a growing global team of universities, non-profits, redevelopers, technology partners, and planners. Recruited throughout 2009, they will develop the RQ Test during 2010 and 2011.

This RQ Task Team will work in collaboration with the above-mentioned Advance Group of 20 communities. High-scorers will be in the inaugural 2012 Places To Invest report.

stormWatch

Communities with low renewal capacity often indulge in

outdated, zero-sum economic development games of

giving away future tax revenues and calling it job creation.

renewcanada.net/blog

learn more at placestoinvest.com and read the extended version of this article on our website.

storm Cunningham is the author of reWealth! (2008) and The Restoration Economy (2002). he is the founder of Revitalization Institute (toronto) and CEO of

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


ReFinance

professionals, complemented by external advisers, who understand not only the technical complexity of a major infrastructure project, but also the financing structure.

strong pipeline of future p3 projectsBid sponsors are attracted by the promised size and scope of upcoming P3 projects in the marketplace. Ontario alone is communicating to the private sector more upcoming, credible P3 projects than any U.S. state. British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick all have credible P3 projects in the market or under serious development. The larger provinces are expected to grow and expand the breadth and scope of P3 projects into relatively new areas, such as transit and water/wastewater.

Canada has slowly but steadily emerged to establish itself as a leader in the global public-private partnership

(P3) market, a position earned by a series of forward-looking initiatives spearheaded by the provincial governments; steps taken at the same time as a series of misfirings, missteps and misgivings in the American P3 market. While the United States will always be a key attraction for the world’s largest P3 players, major P3 players are now looking at U.S./Canada strategies, versus the U.S.-only strategies they had until recently been pursuing.

For opponents of this financing model, this isn’t good news. Local companies may see international proponents as competition, not investors in Canada’s economy. But mid-sized and niche constructors and professional services firms can work within this model. It’s up to bid sponsors to learn how to more effectively access the significant expertise that already exists across Canada.

The keys to success can be gleaned simply by listening to feedback from leading bid sponsors and other P3 professionals entering the Canadian P3 market.

successful p3 track recordNothing breeds success like success. Over the past several years, Canada has come to market with more major P3 projects than any other jurisdiction. While some lament the inevitable start-up pains of launching the P3 program, the collective track record of successful P3 projects for a new market is impressive. The process was far more controversial in the United Kingdom and elsewhere than it has been in Canada. There have certainly been failed, or derailed, P3 projects, but the success/failure rate has not been much different from other major infrastructure projects procured on a conventional basis.

Dedicated p3 agenciesBid sponsors overwhelmingly prefer dealing with a dedicated P3 agency, versus line departments (such as departments of transportation) which is by far the common practice in the U.S. Symbolically, the establishment of a P3 agency signals a higher level of seriousness and political commitment to a P3 program that extends beyond the success of a single project. Substantively, a P3 agency brings with it a team of experienced

and light rail. Even if they can, they must then meet the financial requirements, such as bonding, needed to successfully pursue and deliver a number of sizeable projects at the same time.

Relative to more established P3 markets, the human capital pool of P3 professionals in Canada is also limited. To meet this challenge, bid sponsors have had to hire talent from the outside or relocate professionals from head office. It’s this scenario that causes some domestic companies to strongly oppose the P3 model.

The Canadian P3 market is still relatively new, and while it represents a significant long-term opportunity for both Canadian and international bid sponsors, it does impose short-term demands to adapt to the current realities of the Canadian market.

To facilitate a smooth entry into the Canadian market and more effectively access the significant expertise that exists in Canada’s mid-sized and niche, constructor and professional services firms, bid sponsors can’t be heavy-handed in pursuing P3 projects. They need to appreciate the fact that the long-established internal economics of Canada’s larger and more established constructors and professional firms can’t be changed overnight. Some of the approaches that work in other markets need to be tailored to the realities of the Canadian market.

To be successful in Canada, leading bid sponsors need to be far more proactive in assembling their bid teams and business and professional partners than is typical in many markets. For any sizeable P3 project in Canada, by the time a formal RFQ is issued, the bid teams, including constructors and professionals, are already locked in.

Canadian P3s will continue to selectively expand into new areas of infrastructure, both hard and soft, as has been the case in the most successful P3 markets globally. We can expect to see the federal government and local government being increasingly engaged in P3 projects going forward and, with this steady progress, Canada should continue to find itself at the forefront as one of the world’s leading P3 markets.

In the race for finite investment dollars, Canada and its provinces—especially Ontario—have now surpassed all but a few major american states.

PrIVate DollARs; PuBlIC AsseTs

By Anthony Ferrari

the long-established internal

economics of Canada’s

larger and more established

constructors and professional

firms can’t be changed overnight.

Anthony Ferrari is president of Bridgepoint group ltd.

favourable political-business environmentCanada’s jurisdictions have some of the most professional, transparent and ethically administered governments in the world, which is hugely favourable to establishing Canada as a P3 market. Canada’s legal system, with its recognition of contracts and rule of law is also very positive. And, despite the current recession, the state of public finances in Canada still remains amongst the strongest in the world.

ChallengesIn the face of all these positives, there is one significant challenge for bidders: assembling a successful bid team and establishing a professional presence in Canada.

The number of domestic constructors for major infrastructure projects is limited and, by international standards, those that do exist are small. Relatively few domestic constructors can qualify and successfully meet the challenge of delivering the largest P3 infrastructure projects, especially heavy civil projects such as the highways, bridges


eNeRgy MATTeRs ApRIl 20-21 – MIssIssAugAThe Region of Peel’s annual conference included sessions on energy management, asset planning and the emerging carbon market. Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey simpson gave a keynote address examining climate change issues from a policy perspective. Details at energymatterssummit.ca

CNAM MAy 3-6 – CAlgARyUnder the theme Building Foundations, the third annual Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) workshop covered topics on bettering front-line service, building long-term strategies and balancing sustainable futures. Keynote speaker Dean taylor of New Zealand-based Opus International Consultants offered the idea of an international rating standard: “a system where communities and things can be compared by creating a framework from which sustainability can be assessed.” Other

INfRAsTRuCTuRe 2009: pIvoT poINTMAy 7 – ToRoNToEvery year since 2006, the Urban Land Institute has held a meeting to coincide with the release of a ULI/Ernst & Young report on infrastructure in the United States. This year the keynote speaker for the event was William hudnut, ULI’s senior resident fellow for public policy. He gave an overview of the report and spoke of the diversity of people that rely on city infrastructure, what he called the “singles, mingles and jingles” or young singles, childless couples and retired empty nesters who are the primary residents of cities. Later, a presentation from george stewart of Infrastructure Ontario provided a unique look at how value for money is calculated in the Alternative Financing and Procurement process. Details at www.toronto.uli.org

ReEvents

George Stewart of Infrastructure Ontario speaks at the ULI event.

Cred

it: ULI

presenters included the director of the Public Sector Accounting Board tim Beauchamp, and John Woodhouse of the UK-based Woodhouse Partnership. In keeping with the theme, CNAM donated $3,000 to Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Presentations are available at cnam.ca

Delegates whoop it up at the CNAM Gala Dinner sponsored by CH2M HILL.

Cred

it: Kathleen B

rown

Cred

it: cnam

A few members of the CNAM 2009 workshop committee. Left to right: Monique Chenier, Kate Cheney, Cameron Matwie, Rebecca Miller, Steve Wyton, and Jennifer Enns.


www.opwa.ca

$99

Please visit opwa.ca or cpwa.net for a list of association benefits

and the application form.

This offer expires Dec. 31, 2009

Those who are actively involved with public works in Canada should be

members of the Canadian Public Works Association and your provincial chapter

(included with membership).

Never been a CPWA/APWA member before?

Then that’s all it will cost you to join today.

Almost 200 exhibitors showed up with all manner of technologies and services related to maintaining core public works civil infrastructure.

Cred

it: Graham

Zeisner

DIsCoveRy09MAy 11-12 – ToRoNToThis year’s Ontario Centres of Excellence conference and tradeshow was divided into zones (green, digital, health)—we spent most of our time browsing the green zone. Zerofootprint occupied an entire wall of the first aisle, set up to announce the winners of its building re-skinning competition with special judge Margaret Atwood (confused? We were, too). Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson said Ontario’s $250-million Emerging Technologies Fund (announced in March 2009) will be up and running by July 2009. Jason Myers with Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters reminded the crowd that “innovation” is about more than just technology—it’s about business models. Details at ocediscovery.com

NATIoNAl eNgINeeRINg suMMITMAy 19-21 – MoNTReAlIn the summit hallways, attendees were talking about the need to encourage students to take an interest in fields of power engineering that are lacking workers, like nuclear energy. The most interesting presentation centred on the evolving Canadian energy system. Clem Bowman with the Canadian Academy of Engineering talked about new energy pathways that rely on hydricity (the dual use of hydrogen and electricity as energy conversion currencies that link energy sources with energy-consuming services). David s. scott with the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems said, “Newfoundland is thinking about shipping liquid hydrogen to Germany—we ship liquefied natural gas, why not hydrogen?” Details at engineeringsummit.ca

ReEvents

this Strategy Institute event. As Keesmaat said, “When we all plan, we all own the plan” and with consensus, change begins to occur. Event details at strategyinstitute.com

opWA spRINg WoRkshopJuNe 2 – MIssIssAugAThis year’s workshop had a timely theme: the municipal governments’ experience with federal funding applications. Most attendees were reacting to the May 1, 2009 deadline for municipalities to submit projects for stimulus funding. Chair of Ontario Small Urban Municipalities Norm sandberg, who gave tips for municipalities looking to apply to funding programs, said, “Most of us have stretched the truth on timelines in our applications for stimulus funding.” The midday break was an awards luncheon to celebrate linda Petelka’s American Public Works Association Top Ten Award. Presentations available at opwa.ca

as a waste of taxpayer money. He said a lot of good comes out of these meetings and the media should report the positive things. Presentations available at fcm.ca

Joe Berridge at the podium for the Revitalizing Downtown conference.

Cred

it: Todd

Latham

RevITAlIzINg DoWNToWNJuNe 2-3 – ToRoNToJoe Berridge, Jennifer Keesmaat and Robert Freedman formed an engaging panel on urban design and place-making that kicked off the event. Their frank and colourful discussions on the necessary elements required to make our downtowns world-class destinations was a highlight of

AssoCIATIoN of oNTARIo RoAD supeRvIsoRsJuNe 3-4 – leAMINgToN, oNReNew Canada was proud to be involved with this main event for road construction and operations in the province. Thousands of road managers convened to network and meet about road building and maintenance methods and equipment. Thanks to graham Zeisner and Bryan Clarke for involving us. Details at aors.on.ca

fCM’s ANNuAl CoNfeReNCe AND MuNICIpAl expoJuNe 5-8 – WhIsTleRThe Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM’s) Annual Conference kept hundreds of delegates engaged—even on a sunny Whistler day. Minister of Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities John Baird’s remarks about Toronto’s infrastructure funding got him into some trouble, while Michael Ignatieff toured the tradeshow. Municipal leaders from across the country met for informed exchanges and dialogue on how to best serve the public good. At one session, a councillor from Halifax stood up and said that sometimes the media unfairly portrays these events

Cred

it: CH

2M H

ill

From left to right – Former FCM President, Jean Perrault, Mayor of Sherbrooke, Quebec; Whislter Mayor Ken Melamed; Heritage Minister James Moore; and, CH2M HILL Sustainability Solutions Manager, John Muller on stage for the Environmental Management System Residential Development Award given to theResort Municipality of Whistler, B.C as part of the2009 FCM-CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Awards Ceremony.

Cred

it: Todd

Latham

CUTA’s Michael Roschlau and TTC chair Adam Giambrone are all smiles in Whistler for the many transit funding announcements made recently in Toronto.


“Can’t we all just get along?” I was having a few drinks with

some work colleagues when a fight broke out at the bar. As it got heated, I wasn’t about to let a fight ruin my night, so I stood up on the table and yelled that question at the top of my lungs. It never occurred to me that it would work, but the mood shifted, the fight stopped and a room of sixty-odd people went silent. After a few nervous laughs, normal bar noise resumed and the evening continued as if nothing ever happened.

Just like that bar fight two decades ago, I hope this boxing match that Canada and the United States are having over protectionist measures will end quickly and not ruin both countries’ plans for economic recovery.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that became U.S. policy in February 2009 is being taken literally by individual state authorities. Despite the Obama administration’s insistence that its "buy american" practice will not harm trade, the fight has already broken out.

Canadian groups like Canadian

Manufacturers and Exporters and the Canadian Manufacturers Against Protectionism have their backs up. On June 6, the Halton Hills fair trade resolution calling for retaliation against U.S. Buy American policies was floated and approved by municipalities. The goal: “to send a strong message that rights to market access are reciprocal.” That same month, the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association sent a letter to its American counterpart urging it to issue a public statement discouraging members from excluding the purchase of Canadian-and Mexican-made products.

Canadians reacting to American actions should keep in mind that our provinces have had barriers up to protect business in their jurisdiction for years. Only now is everyone calling for reciprocity.

About $130 billion of Canada’s GDP comes across the Windsor-Detroit border crossing alone. During his remarks at the recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities John Baird

called the more than $2-billion Detroit River International Crossing “the most important infrastructure project in Canada.”

Trade Minister Stockwell Day knows how important cross-border trade is for Canada’s economy. On June 10, he said he’s working on an agreement between the provinces and federal government that they could present to the United States in an effort to extend free trade to provincial, state and municipal levels.

Instead of limiting trading in the myopic and false belief we are protecting our jobs, let’s increase trading and stimulate new cross-border business and partnerships. Instead of barking at each other from across the bar, let’s shake hands and build a stronger, freer trading North America for the equal benefit of us all.

todd is the founder and publisher of this magazine and has many good friends in the united states.

Closing shot

By Todd LathamOVer-pRoTeCTIoNIsT

“Expanding free and open trade is one of our most important tools for fighting the global recession, encouraging economic growth and creating jobs.” —Prime Minister Stephen Harper


+ Energy Megaproject · 34 News from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Newfoundland and P.E.I. 34 Energy...

Documents

Transcript of + Energy Megaproject · 34 News from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Newfoundland and P.E.I. 34 Energy...