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renewcanada.net $9 00 ALSO: Energy Innovations, Waste Management and Mayor Feedback January/February 2007 The Top 10 Stéphane Dion talks infrastructure Our annual list of Canada’s top infrastructure projects page 5 #3 – Canada Line in B.C.

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Page 1: January/February 2007 infrastructure · To participate, please contact Todd Latham before the deadline of February 23, 2007. Todd Latham, Publisher e-mail: todd@renewcanada.net phone:

renewcanada.net $900

ALSO: Energy Innovations, Waste Management and Mayor Feedback

January/February 2007

The Top 10

Stéphane Dion

talks infrastructure

Our annual list of Canada’s top infrastructure projects

page 5

#3 – Canada Line in B.C.

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Contents

27 24

29

14

This architectural rendering of The Canada Line, number three on our Top-10 list (starting on page 14), is a 19.5-kilometre rapid transit system linking downtown Vancouver, the Vancouver International Airport and Richmond City Centre.

ABout the Cover

32

J A N U A RY / F E B R U A RY 2 0 0 7

FeAtures

14 the top 10 Canadian Infrastructure Projects The largest projects in this billion-dollar industry, researched and ranked, with a sidebar-look at four big international projects. By John Leckie

24 Cross Country Checkup In the shadow of last fall’s municipal elections, it’s evident infrastructure is top-of-mind for the electorate at the municipal level. By Pamela Gramiak

32 how our trash is Managed Canadians toss out more than 30 million tonnes of waste into the system each year and it’s up to our governments to figure out where to put it. By Maria Kelleher

35 Municipalities and Public-Private Partnerships Downloading is leaving municipalities to manage more assets, but most have yet to turn to private companies for help. This may be the next wave in P3s. By Tim Murphy

40 It isn’t easy Being Green The rules need to change to better accommodate green building. By Anna Weier

eNerGY MANAGeMeNt

27 energy lessons from the uK The UK was one of the first to consistently use private funding for procurement – now other countries are following suit. There may be other lessons to learn from the Brits. By John Pooley

29 In the Mix: District energy Lake Ontario is proving to be good for more than a cool breeze – it’s cooling entire buildings in Toronto through a promising new approach to energy conservation. By Glenn Miller and James M. Small

DePArtMeNts

4 editor’s Note Get the word out to get the work done. By David Dehaas

5 Letters Stéphane Dion says sustainability is key.

7 reFinance Following the rules of public procurement won’t work when private funding is involved. By Stephen Bauld and Kevin McGuinness

10 opening shots

12 re: the Law The P3 Formula By Bradley N. McLellan and Daniel P. Ferguson

38 reevents Infra2006, CCPPP, the Infrastructure 2006 Trade Show and the ReNew Canada party.

41 the LeeD List By Pamela Gramiak

42 Closing shot ReUsed

Photo:InTransitB

C

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 3www.renewcanada.net

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January/February 2007 volume 3 Number 1

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ISSN 1715-6734

eDItor David Dehaas

MANAGING eDItor Pamela Gramiak

AssoCIAte eDItor Mira Shenker

PuBLIsher Todd Latham

vP PuBLIshING Ray Blumenfeld

CIrCuLAtIoN Allison [email protected]

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

Ray [email protected]. 204.985.9516

CoNtrIButors Stephen Bauld, Stéphane Dion, Daniel P. Ferguson, Maria Kelleher, John Leckie, Bradley N. McLellan, Kevin McGuinness, Glenn Miller, Tim Murphy, John Pooley, James M. Small, Anna Weier

reNew Canada is publishedsix times a year by We Communications Inc.

Proud members of:

Art DIreCtIoN& DesIGN Donna Endacott

editor’s Note

By David Dehaas

Get the Word out Sooner rather than Later

People in the infrastructure business are going to have to do a much better job selling themselves and their ideas to the public. And the first step in doing so is to understand that people in the media, in academic institutions, in government and to a large extent in society as a whole, need more and better information, need it sooner and need it presented in ways they can appreciate if they are ever to be on our side.

What typically happens is that a need for a particular infrastructure project – a road, a bridge, a dam, a water system – becomes evident over a period of years and is discussed by planners in the background. No mention in the media, no public awareness, no public debate as yet. We’re afraid to mention it, frankly, lest we generate opposition from the outset.

Some of these projects move forward as the need or the opportunity becomes clearer, and professionals, still deep in the background, start doing feasibility studies that take a preliminary look at both the engineering challenges and the financial picture. Still nothing makes it onto the public radar screen (and if word of, say, soil sampling or needs analysis makes it to a news desk somewhere, it’s considered too dry and too technical for coverage).

Next, those potential projects that stand up to this scrutiny and pass the feasibility studies may or may not make it onto a company’s or, more often, a government’s agenda. Still in the background, the project is examined from a “how will it fly with the public and/or voters” perspective. A few survive this test and that’s when the technical people hammer out actual plans and actual contracts. This can take months or years, with various proposals from different players being weighed, developed, altered, updated and refined along the way. And rarely so much as a word gets out.

Finally, after hundreds of professionals in a dozen or more specialties have worked on the project for months and years, when every aspect has been studied, analyzed and tested, when the engineering studies are finished, when the financing – and with it a whole other layer of intense scrutiny from investors and lenders – is in place, someone, politician or executive, announces it to the public.

So we have hundreds of people working for years on one side … and a harried news director at a big TV station with four hours

until deadline on the other. The result should not really come as a surprise.

If we are lucky, the station will lead the story with 15 seconds about the project before cutting away to the “other side of the story.”

That other side is very often manufactured on the spot: the reporter gets the press release, arranges to come down and do an interview and immediately looks up the most likely opponent to the project in his or her address book. Did you hear about the plans to build this project that were announced today? No? I’ll fax you the press release. And can I get your comments later? I’ll be down with my cameraman about 4:30.

The next day, the project people are scratching their heads and asking what happened. Why was the project presented in such a bad light? Where did all this opposition come from? Where did we go wrong? What are we going to do?

The answers to those questions are difficult, but not complicated. We have to communicate better, sooner and more clearly – and we need to do it from the very start.

did you hear about the

plans to build this project

that were announced

today? no? I’ll fax you

the press release.

www.renewcanada.net

FINANCe Jane Addie

Visit renewcanada.net to view archived issues, industry resources

and news updates.

4 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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FeAture CoNtrIButors

Letters

Thank you for supporting ReNew Canada.

Call 1.800.344.7055 ext.1 to be part of the

March/April issue. The deadline is February 23, 2007.

Sustainability is key to Canada’s future prosperity. And Canada’s cities and communities can and must play a leadership role in transforming Canadian

society into a sustainable society.Cities such as Toronto, Montreal,

Calgary and Vancouver are the engines that drive our national and regional economies. Communities also have a central role to play in ensuring the long-term sustainability of our environment through their production and management of goods and services, and how they handle waste. In addition, as the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, Canadian communities will need to develop strategies to “harden” their infrastructure against severe weather events to ensure that the very foundations of our communities are able to support us in the decades to come.

The federal government has an important role to play in helping our cities and communities undergo this critical transformation.

The need for this transformative change was the impetus behind the former Liberal government’s New Deal for Cities and Communities, an important step forward in the way the federal government must collaborate with both provincial and municipal governments. Key to the New Deal was the sharing with municipalities of the federal gas tax for new investments in environmentally-sustainable municipal infrastructure.

Improving Canada’s infrastructure is about improving both our quality of life and our standard of living. At the same time, by investing in environmentally-sustainable infrastructure, we will also be dealing with climate change and other environmental issues.

Traditionally, the federal government has favoured short-term, ad-hoc programs to deal with issues affecting cities and communities, infrastructure in particular. However, as our municipal infrastructure ages – sped up and made all the worse by the impact of climate change – Canada must develop long-term framework solutions to this pressing problem.

As prime minister, I will put forward

a 20-year plan to improve the nation’s infrastructure and address the existing $60-billion national infrastructure deficit. I will maintain and continue the gas tax transfer, as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the country’s mayors have requested, so that they can depend on that flow of funds.

I will put federal infrastructure investment on a long-term, dependable track through renewal of all the government’s current infrastructure programs, and the introduction of new programs that could co-fund with our provincial and municipal partners new projects such as community sports and recreation facilities.

I will also introduce a Climate Adaptation Fund, developed with the provinces and territories, targeted at critical infrastructure across the country that is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. This fund would be targeted at Canadian municipalities, working in concert with other levels of government to undertake assessments of our existing infrastructure. Those assessments would determine which components of our infrastructure are particularly at risk, and provide funding to begin to harden this infrastructure against future weather events.

This initiative would also provide funding for the development of municipal climate adaptation strategies in order to identify critical areas of vulnerability within municipal infrastructures and develop plans to address these challenges in a timely manner.

It’s clear that we need to implement a 20-year plan, to not only deal with the $60-billion infrastructure deficit, but

Stephen BauldStephen is purchasing manager at the City of Hamilton. pg. 7

delivering five cents of the gas tax to green municipal infrastructure … and achieving measurable results for the investment was a tremendous achievement.

Stéphane DionLeader of the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada

www.renewcanada.net

(continued on page 6)

ADvertIser INDex

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP 19

Borden Ladner Gervais 25

Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP 28

Canadian District Energy Association 30

Corpfinance International Ltd. 16

CH2M Hill 18

CPCI 23

Corrugated Steel Pipe Institute 33

Cherokee Canada 30

Davis & Company 20

ECO Canada 32

Earth Tech 13

Federation of Canadian Municipalities 44

Gartner Lee 20

Giffels 8

Goodmans LLP 28

Gowlings 11

Green Roof Workshops 37

IBI Group 36

Jacques Whitford 31

Macquarie 39

Marshall, Macklin, Monaghan 38

Miller Thompson LLP 2

Multiview 26

PriceWaterhouseCoopers 43

RCCAO 17

ReNew Canada Magazine 6

Riva Online 26

Sonic Solutions 34

Structal 21

Sustainable Development Technology Canada 31

TEDCO 36

TSH 8

Turtle Island Recycling 34

University of Toronto Centre for Environment 40

XCG 32

Maria KelleherMaria, P. Eng, is principal of Kelleher Environmental.pg. 32

Tim MurphyTim is a partner at McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP in its Infrastructure and P3 practice. pg. 35

BuIldInG SuStainabLe cItIes

James SmallJames, LLB, is a senior associate with the Canadian Urban Institute and director of policy, Canadian District Energy Association. pg. 29

Glenn MillerGlenn, FCIP, RPP, is director, Education and Research, Canadian Urban Institute. pg. 29

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 5www.renewcanada.net

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Dear editor:

In the November/December issue of ReNew Canada Magazine there was an error that I would like to draw to your attention. Rob Bradford is with the Ontario Road Builders Association, and not with the Ontario Good Roads Association.

We would appreciate a correction in the next edition.

Regards,

J. W. Tiernay, Executive Director Ontario Good Roads Association [email protected]

Letters

www.renewcanada.net

to also invest above and beyond that amount in order to be both economically competitive and to build the best communities possible.

Part of what will make better communities in the years ahead is increased support for mass transit. Unlike the Conservative government’s inefficient program to provide tax breaks for transit riders, the previous Liberal government provided real support for mass transit and urban renewal in communities.

I understand that making mass transit attractive to a lot more people will take a partnership between all levels of government. There is simply no way any one government could fund the massive investment that is required to keep our communities healthy. Delivering five cents of the gas tax to green municipal infrastructure in complete harmony and partnership with every province and territory – and achieving measurable results for the investment – was a tremendous achievement for the previous government. This achievement, however, should only be the start. The New Deal is a model of cooperation, from national to regional to local, which

should serve as a model. Instead of building on the New Deal, Stephen Harper is simply paying out the deal and moving on.

The needs of Canada’s municipalities are diverse and complex. For example, in our larger cities, I recognize the need for new investments in public transit. In rural Canada, municipalities need new investments in different sorts of infrastructure, such as sewage and water systems, or roads and bridges. Through the New Deal for Cities and Communities, the government had the road map for working with all our partners in municipalities, and municipal associations, toward building a more sustainable Canada. Ultimately it is about ensuring even more sustainable and prosperous places for Canadians to live and work, by showing how all three orders of government can work well together in improving both the quality of life and standard of living of all Canadians.

stéphane Dion is Leader of the official opposition in the Parliament of Canada. [email protected]

(continued from page 5)

renewcanada.net

Canada’s Business Improvement areas (bias)

a national supplement to ReNew Canada — april 2007

ReNew Canada leads the national discussion on infrastructure renewal – engaging people, companies and ideas that are changing our economy. A rising force in economic development across Canada is the Business Improvement Area (BIA). BIAs are community groups and associations that bring together business, property owners and citizens in local areas for advocacy and action on common interests such as streetscape lighting, security, parking, landscaping and other public amenities and infrastructure in their neighbourhoods.

ReNew Canada is producing this special editorial supplement, in cooperation with TABIA, that will

We welcome letters to the editor. Please submit your comments, ideas (or corrections) to [email protected]. We will consider all letters for publication.

be included in the March/April 2007 edition and will be distributed nationally. This BIA publication will also be made available to all delegates and supporters at the National BIA Conference and Expo being held in Toronto April 1 - 3, 2007. A total of 15,000 copies will be printed.

John Kiru, the executive director of TABIA has encouraged anyone involved with BIAs, BIDs or BIZs to “get involved in this important, nationally-relevant project”. To participate, please contact Todd Latham before the deadline of February 23, 2007.Todd Latham, Publishere-mail: [email protected] phone: 1-800-344-7055, ext. 1

� reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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reFinance

Generally, in any discussion of the differences between government and private-sector management, there is an implicit assumption that some aspect of public management

is deficient. However, in our view, while government can gain much from a critical study of private-sector practice, the standard nostrum that the public sector should resemble the private is rarely justified. The reason is that the strategic imperatives of government and private commerce are radically different. This is particularly true with respect to procurement.

Let us first consider an area of similarity. In both the public and private sectors, purchasing is critical to the overall budgetary control process. The need for tight control of expenditure is clear. Small savings in purchasing costs can result in vastly-improved financial performance. For instance, the materials and services expenditures of a municipality generally fall within the range of 40-to-50 per cent of its overall expenditures. Even a slight improvement in the range of only three per cent of purchase costs can have a substantial impact on a municipality’s bottom line, allowing it to do more for its citizens with the same tax dollars or reduce the tax burden while offering the same service.

There is a growing understanding that government needs to focus attention on the importance of purchasing and make sure purchasing activity is properly resourced. In Ontario, the creation of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal is evidence of a clear concern with respect to making capital asset procurement more efficient.

Unfortunately, as one moves past this elementary level, the differences between public and private procurement emerge. Fundamentally, there is a broad consensus in Canadian public administration (evidenced in case law, statute and many public declarations by political leaders) that government contracting

must be conducted in a manner that is open, transparent and fair. There are two reasons for these requirements. First, for obvious reasons, a democratic government must command the public’s trust and confidence. Second, governments wield a collective economic clout that dwarfs any single private-sector player. Estimates place government spending at all levels at as much as 55 per cent of gross national product (GNP). In Canada, the federal and provincial governments expend at least 45 per cent of the GNP.

In addition, public procurement is often used to support a wide range of different public-policy objectives. A 1972 U.S. congressional study noted that public procurement has been used historically to support big business, small business, material suppliers, labourers, consumers, every race, colour, creed, origin and sex, the old, the young, apprentices, prisoners, the blind, the crippled, animals, safety, health, distressed areas, hard-core areas, disadvantaged enterprises, gold flow, the environment, the technological base, the production base, and geographical distribution. In Canada, concerns have also included promoting increased competition or full employment, encouraging foreign investment or economic sovereignty, assisting new entrants into immature markets, reducing the risk of fraud, and requiring suppliers to match union rates of pay.

Given these oft-conflicting mandates, it isn’t surprising that bureaucrats frequently get confused as to what it is precisely that they are expected to do.

In discussing these trends there is a tendency to assume that non-efficiency-related public policy considerations stem from the pressure of special interest groups. In fact, most of these measures have enjoyed support across the full spectrum of the electorate.

Environmental concerns also play an important role in the selection of government goods and services. In general, both environmental

hoW to FIx PuBlIc ProCurement

comparing the government to the private sector is apples and oranges.By Stephen Bauld and Kevin McGuinness

Attendees voted electronically on debate issues at a recent CCPPP conference in toronto – 45 per cent believed a shift in control (unrestricted liquidity) is not a necessary condition in P3s.

Photo:C

CPPP

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 7www.renewcanada.net

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reFinance

and disabled initiatives enjoy broad support. But populism has its price. Public policy often imposes restraints in public procurement that result in increased price. All too often, when decisions are made with respect to procurement, the cost implications of giving access are not appreciated. Even freedom of information laws have an impact. The disclosure of commercial information resulting from such legislation has discouraged some suppliers from bidding for public contracts.

Common sense tells us that, in a democratic society, government procurement must operate within clearly-defined and fairly-administered rules to maintain both internal integrity and public confidence. Equally, common sense tells us that public policy priorities will always influence the manner in which public money is spent.

Still, much can be done to improve the purchasing process, so that it furthers the elementary goal of efficiency and also the broader-policy goals of government.

Public procurement law must be cast in such a way so as not to put governments at undue risk. For instance, while we accept the general proposition that government contracting should be conducted fairly, in our view, the Canadian law of tender (a judge-made body of law that applies almost exclusively to the public sector) needs to be considerably cut back. Government procurement should be as fair as reasonably possible, but absolute fairness is an impractical ideal. Government must be allowed the latitude to make deals as efficiently as private sector players if it is to get even a reasonable deal.

The current law of tender is complex and unpredictable. This has led to an enormous growth in litigation relating to public procurement. Worst of all, the system doesn’t even generate reliable benefit to suppliers. Often, a supplier will invest considerable resources in preparing a bid or proposal, only to have its offer thrown out of a contract competition because it is a moment late, or due to some minor deviation from the requirements of a tender or request for proposals. This type of waste feeds into future bids for government work, which

pushes up price yet again. In our view, the courts have had the run of the roost in this area for too long. The time has come for a legislative solution: a comprehensive statute that defines exactly what can and cannot be done in public procurement.

Second, governments need to invest properly in the procurement process. One of the inherent paradoxes of public procurement today is that so much time and money is invested in awarding contracts that there is no money left to supervise the actual performance of the job. Without a sufficient and properly-trained staff, proper control is impossible. As we pointed out in our Municipal Procurement Handbook, public buyers must move away from being mere bureaucratic paper pushers toward becoming a proactive team of specialists possessing the necessary skills to secure the best overall value for government. We see

their task as being to develop and conduct procurement projects in accordance with clear policies and procedures.

Third, governments need to exercise great care when departing from standard procurement practices. Many of the most-scandalous examples of poor government procurement result from a rush to implement “innovative” procurement methods that are, at best, half-baked.

In our book, Leadership or the Lack Thereof, we explain the need for a rigorous critical review of new managerial initiatives, to ensure they support the strategic goals of the organization. In purchasing, this process includes setting clear objectives and then measuring each exercise in procurement to see whether it is serving those objectives.

Over time, there is no doubt many other measures that could be implemented successfully to enhance the public procurement process. However, if only these three steps were taken, the public would begin to notice an improvement. So far as possible, both public and private procurement aim at achieving best value for money. It’s time to give government purchasers the tools they need to do that job.

Government must be allowed the latitude to

make deals as efficiently as private sector

players if it is to get even a reasonable deal.

stephen Bauld is purchasing manager at the City of hamilton, and Kevin McGuinness is a lawyer with ontario’s Attorney General.

8 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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Earth tEch wins $30M dEsign contract for nova scotia clEanupEarth Tech’s Canadian operations has been contracted by the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency to design and oversee construction of a major contaminated waste cleanup at a former coke (a solid carbonaceous material) ovens plant and tidal estuary on Cape Breton Island. Earth Tech had prepared the preliminary engineering design for the $400-million cleanup, and helped draft the project’s environmental impact statement. They will partner with local subconsultant CBCL Ltd. on the project. While some preliminary work has already been finished, cleanup work will begin this spring with the entire project expected to take about eight years. Details at earthtech.com

ZEro wastE at thE MtccThe Professional Convention Managers Association (PCMA) chose the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) as the venue for a Zero Waste conference. Zero Waste focuses on waste prevention and even the total elimination of waste as part of sustainable economic growth. With help from Turtle Island Recycling, 26 metric tons of waste were recycled from a conference that, last year, created 23 metric tons of waste (see page 32). Details at mtccc.com

ontario’s growth plan wins u.s. awardThe American Planning Association (APA) chose the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe – the area surrounding Toronto –

Photo:M

TCC

(From left) Bill Allen, president and Ceo of tourism toronto, Jim Bradley, minister of tourism, Deborah sexton, president & Ceo of PCMA and Barry smith, president and Ceo of the MtCC, show off the Zero Waste t-shirt.

opening shots

Opening Shots is a regular section with infrastructure news from across Canada. If you have relevant and current news you’d like included, contact [email protected].

as one of two recipients of APA’s 2007 Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan. This is the first time the award, part of APA’s National Planning Excellence, Achievement and Leadership Awards, has been presented to a Canadian region. Ontario’s Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal, David Caplan, who believes long-term planning creates “certainty and stability,” led the five-year effort to develop the plan. Details at planning.org, ontario.ca/placestogrow

nEw poll shows support for p3sA nationwide survey conducted on behalf of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) found 87 per cent of Canadians believe present-day governments are having trouble providing new or improved public infrastructure and services. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians believe the private sector can help. “The results of our annual poll clearly tell us that a growing majority of Canadians believe that it is time to allow the private sector to deliver public services in partnership with government,” said Dale Richmond, president of the CCPPP. Details at pppcouncil.ca

toronto’s lEad dEsignErs hElp fight hungErCanstruction 2006, an annual competition for design, architectural and engineering firms, was held in Toronto this fall. Teams built prominent Toronto structures entirely out of cans and packaged food. In the end, the Daily Bread Food Bank collected the “building blocks” to help feed the almost-900,000 people in the greater-Toronto area who rely on food banks. Details and photos at canstructiontoronto.org

EMs and BiogEniE MakE $55M dEalEnvironmental Management Solutions Inc. (EMS) will acquire all the shares of privately-held Biogénie S.R.D.C Inc. for $55 million in cash and EMS shares. Biogénie is a Quebec-based international environmental firm which provides both on- and off-site remediation solutions for public and private clients. Tony Busseri, president and CEO of EMS, said the deal “captures the strengths of the two companies. Together, we will be the largest integrated environmental services company in Canada.” Details at emsolutions.com

tEgh MakEs $9.5M dEal with honEywEllToronto East General Hospital (TEGH) is teaming up with Honeywell to implement an award-winning energy retrofit and facility renewal program that will help the hospital upgrade its facilities, cut its utility bills and

decrease greenhouse gas emissions. The $9.5-million, 15-year program is expected to save the hospital more than $880,000 annually in operating costs. Honeywell guarantees the savings under an energy performance contract with the hospital so the work will not impact capital budgets. Peter Love, Ontario’s Chief Energy Conservation Officer, awarded a Certificate of Recognition to TEGH for reducing electricity use. Details at honeywell.com/buildingsolutions

QuEBEc’s first cultural p3In collaboration with Partenariat public-prive Québec (P3 Quebec), the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications has issued a Request for Qualifications for a 30-year, design-build-operate-maintain contract for the new Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM). “This is the first time P3 Quebec has dealt with cultural infrastructure,” says P3 Quebec’s Guy Choiniere. The agency will announce the preferred bidder in March 2008 and plans to have the OSM completed by late 2010 or early 2011. Details at ppp.gouv.qc.ca

MorE than $139M in funding for ontario MunicipalitiEsThe federal government and the Government of Ontario have announced a joint investment of $93 million in 72 communities under Intake Three, a five-year, $900-million Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund program. Doug Reycraft, president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, said “[COMRIF] demonstrates that investment in municipal infrastructure is a shared responsibility that creates tangible economic and environmental benefits locally, provincially and nationally.” The total Intake Three investment in local infrastructure improvements is more than $139 million. Details at comrif.ca

BlakEs ranks in this yEar’s chaMBErs gloBalBlakes' public-private partnership practice is ranked number one in Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business, a research-based guide prepared by Chambers & Partners of London, England. This is the first time this area of practice has been included in Chambers Global. According to Anne M. Stewart, Q.C. of Blakes Vancouver, "the B.C. premier has required all public projects greater than $20 million to consider PPP so the market will remain active in B.C." Blakes has been involved in large projects like the Sea-to-Sky Highway in B.C. and the Richmond Airport Vancouver (Canada Line) Rapid Transit project. Details at blakes.com

the old coke ovens site can be seen in the background, beyond the North and south ponds.

Photo:S

ydneyTarP

ondsA

ssociation

10 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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Public-private collaborations for the renewal and development of infrastructure are becoming more necessary, more familiar and more accepted by Canadians all the time. Last November,

the federal Department of Finance announced that, as part of its Advantage Canada strategy, it intends to establish a federal public-private partnerships office that will facilitate a broader use of P3s in Canadian infrastructure projects. The Government also announced that it will encourage the development and use of P3 best practices.

There are different ways to structure the relationship between the public sector and the private sector. However, there is a common set of attributes in the most successful of these projects that everyone can learn from.

Every project needs a public-sector champion; one person to guide the project from its earliest planning stages through the implementation phase and into its operational phase. A strong public-sector champion can defend the project from pressure exerted by public and private interest groups and other governmental agencies, political pressure, and the economic interests of the private sector that can otherwise derail a project. More than providing enthusiasm and vision to the project, this champion acts as a liaison between the politicians and staff within the public body, and with the representatives of the private sector. New politicians may be elected and private-sector representatives may relocate or retire, but this “public-sector champion” follows the project through to the end. Without this continuity, the project can lose focus and support.

While vision is important, vision alone is not enough to ensure the success of projects. That’s why, when a project is successful, it’s important to learn the lessons from its successors, and establish a set of guiding principles for future projects based on these lessons.

The Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal (PIR), in May 2005, set out the ingredients it concluded were necessary for a successful project when it released a set of principles based on lessons learned from projects around the world. PIR concluded that the public interest is paramount, value for money must be

demonstrable, appropriate public control and ownership must be preserved, accountability must be maintained, and all processes must be fair, transparent and efficient.

Everyone needs to realize that a successful P3 project is one that satisfies these and other recognized guidelines – treating them as mere platitudes only impedes success. Creating specific and appropriate documentation is one of the most important things to do in meeting the unique challenges of a P3 project and satisfying the requirements of the guiding principles for success.

Disclosure of financial details of contracts with the private sector may be required in the name of accountability and transparency. This may go well beyond the requirement for other types of private contractual relationships. Participants in a successful project confront this reality early on. In the beginning stages of a project, analysis needs to be done to determine what must or should be disclosed to the public and what is confidential. Contracts can then be drafted to reflect this.

The principles of demonstrating value for money, ensuring fairness and efficiency and protecting the public interest also require a unique approach. For a public infrastructure project, one of the best ways for the public sector to satisfy these principles is by creating, proving and implementing the right business case.

Many public-sector entities have utilized a Public Sector Comparator in the name of ensuring and being able to demonstrate value for money. These studies compare the cost of implementing a project if done by the public sector in a traditional non-P3 manner to the cost of that same project if done as a P3. For this tool to make a strong case for private-sector involvement, more sophisticated methods of measuring cost and value are needed. Value-for-money is more than the cheapest tendered price. Among other things, the private sector in a successful public-private collaboration can add significant value through faster project delivery, flexibility and adaptability, innovation, a life cycle approach to evaluating and costing assets, and optimal risk allocation – the allocation of risk

re: the Law

By Bradley N. McLellan and Daniel P. Ferguson

a good-governance model is needed in order for public-private partnerships to be successful.

P3s need aChamPion

Illustration:How

ardScoffield

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to the party who is best able to anticipate, mitigate and manage the risk.

For a project to be successful, risks need to be allocated in an appropriate manner. It’s also important to recognize that if the private sector takes on a risk, it will need to control and manage that risk. To manage and address the risk, decision-making powers and other necessary tools need to be transferred to the private sector – a transfer that is often met with political or interest group opposition.

To bring all of these elements together, every project should have a good-governance model which establishes a structure to be adhered to from inception and throughout implementation and operational phases of the project (see sidebar).

Public-sector participants at every level of government in Canada (federal, provincial and municipal) are developing a better understanding of what makes public-private collaborations successful. Learning from, and building upon, what experience has shown are hallmarks of success in these types of projects will greatly assist the public sector in meeting the challenges of financing and providing required infrastructure development and renewal.

new politicians may

be elected and private-

sector representatives

may relocate or retire,

but this “public-sector

champion” follows

the project through

to the end.

the essential components of an effective P3 governance model

Bradley N. McLellan and Daniel P. Ferguson are the co-chairs of the Infrastructure and Public Projects Group at WeirFoulds LLP.

Governance moDeLS

• reporting and communication structures which enable and promote efficient communication and understanding between the public sector and the private sector and efficient decision making processes (where these decisions can be made and communicated) on the part of the public sector

• the development of contracts which achieve, among other things, appropriate risk allocation, compensation structures and a division of power and control appropriate to such risk allocations

• an understanding of the legal powers and capacities (and the

limitations thereon) of each of the participants, particularly those on the public sector side, and consideration of whether or not special legislation or the creation of special purpose entities need to be obtained so that each participant has the appropriate powers in its constating documents and its enabling statutory authorities to enable it to fulfill its obligations in the project and to the project’s other participants

• structures of authority which recognize necessary political and administrative input and oversight and satisfy the political pressures and the legitimate interests of all public interest groups and other stakeholders.

re: the Law

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 13www.renewcanada.net

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our second annual list of Canada's biggest builds.

By John Leckie

Bruce Power’s massive refurbishment of Units 1 and 2 of the Bruce A Nuclear Generating Station on the eastern shores of Lake Huron,

near Kincardine, Ont., is the largest infrastructure project currently under way in Canada. Last year, it didn’t even make the list because it had just been announced. During the upcoming year, it will likely hit its peak employment level.

While the Bruce project is just getting under way and construction will continue well into 2009, the number-two project is at the other end of the construction time line. Hydro-Québec’s Eastmain-1 Hydroelectric Development is almost complete, with only a bit of mechanical work and some mopping up left to be done during the year.

Hydro-Québec should be back near the top of the list again next year, however, because the Eastmain 1-A powerhouse and Rupert Diversion project will likely be under way. This project will involve building a second 768-megawatt powerhouse near the just-completed Eastmain-1 station and diverting a portion of the flow of the Rupert River into these two powerhouses. This project is likely to continue until 2011 or 2012.

The projects were ranked according to cost. While individual projects may treat costs differently and distort the listings as a result, cost is likely the most objective way to place projects on the list. In any

case, the number is not really all that important. It simply gives some indication of the relative size of the project.

Because cost is the main criteria for ranking the projects, energy and transportation projects will always dominate the list. Even so, this year’s top 10 represents a diverse lot, with nuclear, hydro and natural gas all represented along with highways, bridges and transit projects.

Some may be surprised at the relative size of the Baie-des-Sables Wind Farm on the Gaspé Peninsula, which will eventually cost more than $1 billion. This series of facilities is right up there with many of the more traditional electrical generation projects in terms of size and scope.

The projects are both public and private and sometimes a mixture of the two as various levels of government become more comfortable with the concept of public-private partnerships. Traditional project financing is far from overrun, however. Most of the education projects and even many of the highway projects are being carried out with traditional financing methods.

It should come as no surprise that many of the top projects are in the West where Alberta is riding the oil sands boom and British Columbia is busy gearing up for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Here is a closer look at the 10 largest projects.

Canada’s Biggest Infrastructure ProjectsThe Top 10

InFrastructure ProjectstoP

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Canada’s Biggest Infrastructure ProjectsThe Top 10

bruce a units 1 and 2 refurbishment, $4.25bBruce Power Limited, Ontario’s largest independent power generator, took over operation of the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant in 2001. The plant consists of eight CANDU reactors, four in the Bruce A plant, brought online in the late 1970s and four in Bruce B which came into service in the mid-1980s.

Between 1995 and 1998, Ontario Hydro, the previous owner of the stations, took the aging Bruce A generators out of service. After taking over the Bruce operations, Bruce Power spent $720 million bringing Units 3 and 4 of Bruce A back into service and has now embarked on the operation of bringing back Units 1 and 2.

The scope of the two projects is completely different, says Duncan Hawthorne, president and chief executive officer of Bruce Power. Units 1 and 2 require replacement of most of their major components, something that was not required with Units 3 and 4.

Despite the complexities, the project is currently on time and on budget but Hawthorne acknowledges in a project like this one, difficulties can arise at any time.

The weather has been kind to this point. An unusually balmy fall and winter for Bruce County has allowed the

1

10An overall shot of the Bruce Nuclear Power station in Kincardine, ontario. Bruce B is in the foreground.

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project to get the infrastructure in place so that, even if the winter warming is a one-year wonder, the weather will not be a factor from now on.

At present, workers on the site are removing the interferences to clear the way to remove the 300-tonne boiler from Unit 2 this spring. The boiler from Unit 1 will be removed next year and Hawthorne is confident the project will succeed in delivering the units in the allotted time.

“We have the top people on the job we can get,” he says. He also points out that the contracts have been structured to provide maximum motivation to perform well.

One of the key motivators, however, is something not under Bruce Power’s control. Nuclear power has been out of favour for some time and seems to be on the verge of a potential renaissance. A successful project at the Bruce plant will provide positive reinforcement to the renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power and the Canadian CANDU technology. A project that runs into complications with a budget that spirals out of control could put an end to the rebirth of nuclear power. For contractors working in the nuclear industry, the desire to make the contract a success is strong.

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Canada’s Biggest Infrastructure ProjectsThe Top 10

eastmain-1 hydroelectric Development, $2bThe heavy lifting is all done for the Eastmain-1 project. The three generating units have all been commissioned and are available to supply the installed capacity of 480 megawatts of power. Some mechanical and electrical work will continue until the summer and a thorough cleanup of the interior of the powerhouse is under way, Although the project is winding down, there are still about 500 workers on site.

The project had involved construction of the powerhouse, the main dam across the Eastmain River, the spillway on the right bank of the river and dikes to close off the reservoir. As well, a 315-kilovolt transmission line now links the powerhouse to the Nemiscau substation and an 80-kilometre access road was built to the project.

Looking ahead to future developments, the Eastmain-1-A and Rupert Diversion project, which appears to be starting to roll, calls for construction of a 768-megawatt generating station near the Eastmain-1 power house. It will also include a 120-megawat Sarcelle powerhouse, diversion of water from the Rupert River into the Eastmain River watershed and construction of a 315-kilovolt transmission line linking Eastmain-1 and Eastmain-1-A substations as well as the Sarcelle and Eastmain-1 substations.

The Rupert Diversion portion of the project will require four dams and a spillway on the Rupert River, 75 dikes, creation of two diversion bays totalling some 346 square kilometres, a 2.9-kilometre transfer tunnel between the two diversion bays, a network of canals with a total length of about 12 kilometres to allow flows between different parts of the diversion bays, and a series of hydraulic structures designed to maintain water levels along about 48 per cent of the river’s length. A new drinking water plant will also be built at Waskanganish.

2

the eastmain-1 Dam and spillway project is nearing completion.

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ydro-Q

uébec

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The Construction Industry Voice

RCCAO25 North Rivermede Road, Unit 13

Vaughan, Ontario L4K 5V4

T he Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario was formed in late 2005 by bringing together major contractor associations and construction unions. Collectively, we aim

to facilitate dialogue and ensure that the voice of the construction industry is clearly heard and understood by key decision-makers. RCCAO will work with all levels of government to seek out solutions to a variety of challenges facing our industry and the communities that we build in. Encouraging more strategic infrastructure investment and seeking ways to fast-track priority infrastructure projects are primary objectives of this labour-management construction alliance.

RCCAO has already released two major reports that are available at our web site: ‘The Infrastructure Funding Deficit: Time to Act’ concludes that alternate financing arrangements are appropriate for certain types of infrastructure.

An independent study funded by RCCAO, ‘Transportation Challenges in the Greater Toronto Area’ focuses on effective governance as a prerequisite to the development of a comprehensive transportation plan. RCCAO recognizes the enormous costs of gridlock and supports the efforts of the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority to develop a plan and garner long-term funding.

RCCAO will push for greater attention on infrastructure assets that are often neglected with an emphasis on underground water and sewer systems. In addition, we will provide commentary on a range of regulatory and policy matters that have a bearing on our ability to grow according to the province’s Places to Grow legislation.

The RCCAO is an alliance of:

• Greater Toronto Sewer and Watermain Contractors Association

• The Heavy Construction Association of Toronto

• Metropolitan Toronto Apartment Builders Association

• Toronto Residential Construction Labour Bureau

• The Residential Low Rise Forming Contractors Association of Metropolitan Toronto and Vicinty

• Residential Carpentry Contractors Association - RCCA

• L.I.U.N.A. Local 183

• Toronto and Area Road Builders Association

• Carpenters Union Central Ontario Regional Council

For more information, please go to www.rccao.com.

RCCAO’s Executive Director, Andy Manahan, can be contacted at 905-760-7777, Ext 104.

Canada’s Biggest Infrastructure ProjectsThe Top 10

Golden ears bridge, $1.1bThis one-kilometre crossing of the Fraser River, linking the communities of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge on the north with Surrey and Langley on the south, is a design-build-finance and operate project. The six-lane structure will have a 40-metre clearance of the river and the project will include 13 kilometres of controlled access roads linking the bridge to existing roads. The developer—Golden Crossing General Partnership (Bilfinger Berger BOT Inc., Bilfinger Berger Construction, CH2M Hill Companies Ltd., Buckland & Taylor Ltd., Capilano Highway Services Company and AMEC Americas Ltd.)—made a $50-million license fee payment to TransLink (The Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority) at financial closing and will not receive payments from TransLink until the project reaches substantial completion. TransLink will be responsible for toll collection once the project is operating and will use the revenues as well as a subsidy for the currently-operating ferry service to contribute to the payments to the developer.

Construction got under way in the summer of 2006 and is expected to be completed in 2009.

Canada Line, $1.8bThe $1.8-billion Canada Line is a 19.5-kilometre rapid transit system l inking downtown Vancouver, the Vancouver International Airport and Richmond City Centre.

The project is being constructed under a 35-year concession agreement with InTransit BC (SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., British Columbia Investment Management Corp; and Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec). InTransit BC is responsible

for building the line during the construction period, which is expected to last until November 2009, and then operate and maintain the line until 2040. The construction contract is a fixed price while payments for operations will be based on availability, quality of service and achieving ridership forecasts.

About 1,000 workers are on the project now and the number is expected to reach 1,500 in the first quarter of the year as construction on the cut-and-cover portion and the elevated guideway reach peak levels. The elevated section at Vancouver International Airport is the most advanced. It will be completed first to be used for testing the trains for the system.

3

4

Work on the cut-and- cover tunnel portion of the Canada Line project.

Photo:C

anadaLine

RapidTransitInc.

Architects rendering of the Golden ears Bridge project in vancouver, B.C

Photo:G

oldenC

rossingConstructorsJointV

enture

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Canada’s Biggest Infrastructure ProjectsThe Top 10

montreal metro expansion, $803mAs construction moves steadily towards the scheduled July completion of the project which involves 5.2 kilometres of track and three new stations in Laval, the issue of who is going to pay for them has come to the fore. The transit authority estimates service to Laval will add $13 million to $15 million to its annual operating costs while bringing in about $6 million in new revenues, leaving a $7 million to $9 million gap it wants to split with Laval. Laval would prefer to pay the $1.8 million that Longueuil pays for service to the Longueuil-Universite de Sherbrooke station. The transit authority has countered that it wants to raise Longueuil’s share of the cost as well. While the dispute goes back and forth, the transit authority has said it will not provide service until an agreement is reached. Meanwhile, construction is rolling along on schedule.

niagara tunnel Project, $985mBig Becky (pictured), the massive tunnel boring machine charged with the task of digging a 10.4-kilometre tunnel 140 metres below the City of Niagara Falls, Ont., was about 180 metres along the way in early January. The machine will be moving downwards at

about an eight per cent grade for about 1,500 metres before it levels off for the bulk of its journey. At full speed, the 14.4-metre-diameter machine (1½ times the diameter of the machine that dug the rail tunnel under the English channel) will move through about 12 to 15 metres of Queenston Shale a day. It will take about two years for the tunnel to be completely dug and then another year to finish lining it with 400,000 cubic metres of concrete. When completed, the tunnel will provide enough water to generate an additional 1.6 billion kilowatts at the Sir Adam Beck Complex, enough to power a city twice the size of Niagara Falls.

6

5

Niagara tunnel Boring Machine

began digging in september

200�.

Photo:O

ntarioPow

erGeneration

Construction at the de la Concorde station of the

expansion of the Montréal Métro.

Photo:S

ociétédetransp

ortdeM

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Portlands energy Centre, $730mThe Portlands Energy Centre, an equal partnership of Ontario Power Generation

Inc. and TransCanada Energy Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of TransCanada Corporation, is constructing a 550-megawatt, gas-fired power plant adjacent to the closed R.L. Hearn Generating Station in the industrial portion of Toronto’s eastern port lands (pictured). The project began in controversy because local residents, the city and Toronto Hydro favoured a plan that would utilize the existing Hearn plan rather than adding another building, That plan was rejected and construction is under way with site preparation and earth moving well under way. The project is expected to be completed in June 2008.

Canada’s Biggest Infrastructure ProjectsThe Top 10

7

8

Canaport LnG, $750mThe Canaport Liquid Natural Gas Terminal in Saint John, N.B. will become the first LNG receiving terminal in Canada when it is completed in December 2008. The project has benefited from the balmy weather during the fall and early winter and is currently ahead of schedule. About 12 per cent of the project has been completed to this point with site clearing and construction of the pads to support the storage tanks being the major focus since the project got under way. The peak period of construction will begin in the spring with construction of the three storage tanks and work on the 350-metre jetty getting under way.

The owner of the project, Canaport LNG is a joint venture involving Irving Oil and Repsol YPF. Work on the project is being carried out by SNC-CENMC G.P. Also involved in the project is Kiewit-Weeks-Sandwell Partnership.

After it is under way, the plant will be capable of processing one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day with the possibility of expanding to 2 billion cubic feet per day at a later date.

An artist rendering of the site of the Canaport LNG receiving terminal in saint John, N.B.

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nergyCentre

More information on the top 10, including project players, status and ownership details, are included in the top 100 Projects supplement that appears on page 22 (paid subscribers only). to get your copy call 1.800.344.7055 ext 1 or visit renewcanada.net.

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Sea-to-Sky highway improvement, $625mThe 2010 Winter Olympics provided the impetus for British Columbia to expand and improve the Sea-to-Sky Highway (S2S) running from Vancouver to Whistler. The highway had long been considered one of the most dangerous roads in the province. The S2S Transportation Group (Macquarie North America Ltd., Peter Kiewit Sons Co., JJM, Hatch Mott MacDonald (supported by sub-consultants ND Lea, McElhanney Engineering Services Ltd. and Urban Systems Ltd.), Miller Paving and Capilano Highway Services) is carrying out the design, build, finance and operate portion of the project. About one-third of the rehabilitation of the highway was done by traditional design-build contracts put out while the P3 portion of the project was being negotiated in order to ensure that the project was completed in time for the Olympics.

Selection of the Top 10 infrastructure projects in the country (and the Top 100 projects that can be found in the supplement to the magazine) is highly arbitrary. Project cost was the prime selection criteria but not everyone measures cost the same way. For the purposes of the list, the definition was expanded well beyond roads, bridges, water and sewer projects to include government buildings, and medical and educational facilities. Is that too much? Not enough? Let us know. One of the objectives of ReNew Canada is to help shape the definition of infrastructure. Has a project been overlooked? Let us know about that as well. Not every project is easily picked up. The list grew from the Top 10 to the Top 100 this year and we hope to refine it every year so it provides a clearer picture of the infrastructure under construction across Canada.

John Leckie is a freelance writer and editor who has written extensively about construction for a variety of newspapers and magazines.

The Top 10

red river Floodway expansion, $690mErnie Gilroy, chief executive officer of the Manitoba Floodway Authority, is delighted with the progress of the Red River Floodway Expansion Project. Excavation is currently under way on 31 kilometres of the floodway’s 48-kilometre length with contractors Erickson Construction, Hugh Munro Construction, Sigsusson Northern Ltd. and MLA Northern Ltd. working through the winter to ensure the target is met. When the project is complete, it will be capable of withstanding a 1-in-700-year flood. Gilroy says the scope of the project has changed somewhat in the past year in order to stay within the $665-million budget. Channel widening for the project is scheduled to be completed by spring 2009 and bridge work will go on until spring 2010.

9A CN train crosses the existing CN sprague railway Line as temporary detour structures were established prior to the operation of the red river Floodway in the spring of 200�.

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entProject

sea-to-sky is being carried out under a 25-year design, build, finance and operate agreement.

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If you are a paid subscriber of ReNew Canada, there will be a 24-page supplement containing the top 100

inserted into the center of this issue. If you are not a paid subscriber and are still enjoying your trial subscription, you can still get a copy by calling 1-800-344-7055, ext. 1. Call and ask for Allison - she’ll be pleased to take your credit card infomation to begin your subscription and send a copy of this special publication to you immediately.

the top 100 supplement contains our annual Top 10 infrastructure projects list that appears in the regular edition with additional details. It also profiles the other 90 projects in Canada. As could be expected, energy plants, highway and transit projects all figure prominently in the top 100 projects. Health care and educational facilities also have a major presence.

Hundreds of interviews went into compiling the most accurate information possible, and the most complete list possible. What our team of editors found was that the more research we did, the more projects we uncovered. This list of 100 is just a fraction of the work being done across Canada. If you are involved in, or know of a project you feel is top-100 worthy, give us a call - we’re working on the 2008 edition already. At ReNew Canada, our mission is to bring these projects to the foreground and encourage more infrastructure renewal in communities across the country. We are, after all, the infrastructure renewal magazine!

Subscribe today so you get this special Top 100 edition and the many “subscriber extras” we will offer in 2007. www.renewcanada.net

According to Nakheel Ceo Chris o’Donnel, the Palm is the first man-made landmark since the Great Wall of China to be visible from space.

Project: The Palm, Jumeirah

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Company: Developer Nakheel

Details: Island Global Yachting is providing design, development and management services for the date palm-shaped development. The mixed-use development includes the Palm Golden Mile, a joint venture between with IFA Hotels & Resorts and Istithmar. At the centre of the trunk there'll be a Trump International Hotel and Tower.

Status: Construction is underway and completion planned by June 2007.

Value: Not available. Certainly in the billions.

Photo:N

akheelKnown as the Water Cube, the sustainable design is in keeping with the green theme of the Beijing 2008 olympics.

Project: National Swimming Centre

Location: Beijing, China

Company: A consortium of Arup, architecture firm PTW, the CSCEC (China State Construction and Engineering Corporation) and the CSCEC Shenzhen Design Institute (CSCEC+DESIGN).

Details: The National Swimming Centre is made from panels of a lightweight form of Teflon that transforms the building into an energy-efficient greenhouse-like environment. Solar energy will also be used to heat the swimming pools, which are designed to reuse double-filtered, backwashed pool water that's usually dumped as waste. Excess rainwater will also be collected and stored in subterranean tanks and used to fill the pools.

Value: US$100 million

Photo:(c)C

SCEC+PTW

+Arup

International Projects

two tankers tied up in December, 200�, at LNG's elba Island re-gasification terminal near savannah. this is the first time a u.s. LNG import terminal has had two LNG tankers at the terminal simultaneously – maybe an indication that more terminals are needed.

Project: Sonora LNG Terminal and Pipeline

Location: Puerto Libertad, Sonora, Mexico

Company: A 50-50 partnership between DKRW Energy and El Paso Corporation.

Details: An on-shore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal plus nearly 670 kilometres of new pipeline will create access to natural gas markets in northwest Mexico and the southwest United States. The project has just been granted its federal environmental permits and UBS Securities has been appointed to arrange capacity use agreements with potential suppliers. If all goes according to plan, construction will start in 2008 and be completed by 2011.

Value: Approximately US$1.4 billion

Details at elpaso.com, dkrwenergy.com.

Photo:E

lpaso

Corp

oration

this plant will process 290,000 tons of waste annually and generate 100 million kilowatt-hours of power annually. the ash created can be collected for making bricks, fertilizer and roadbed material.

Project: Huizhou Waste to Energy Project

Location: Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, China

Company: Richway Investment Management Co., Ltd

Details: Huizhou City’s fast development was putting pressure on garbage disposal resources – the city produces 250,000 tons of waste annually. Canada Richway Group’s CAPS technology can decrease the volume of solid waste by 90-to-95 per cent and on top of that, the heat that’s produced in the process converts to electric energy through a waste heat boiler and steam turbine and generator. The plant is currently under commissioning and testing and is producing electricity from municipal solid waste.

Value: $60 million

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The Top 10

22 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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Infrastructure has become so popular that, as someone once said in this magazine, “Not only can people pronounce it (infrastructure), but they can also spell it.” In fact, it’s the

number-one issue for Manitobans at 27 per cent, according to the results of a Probe Research survey as reported in the Winnipeg Free Press last October. In British Columbia, 28 per cent cited transportation as the number-one issue for the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

So now that we understand what it means, so too, we need to understand each other. The definition is as broad and vast as this country and everybody has, and wants, different things for his or her community. As was evidenced last fall during municipal elections held in four provinces and one territory, infrastructure has become a priority for both voters and politicians.

Fred Eisenberger, rookie mayor of Hamilton, Ont., says infrastructure was top-of-mind for his constituents during the recent municipal election.

“It was already a priority (before the election) and it was certainly reinforced (during the campaign),” he said.

Before being elected mayor, Eisenberger served as a city councillor for nine years and says the current priority for infrastructure in his community is water. As a councillor, he supported a water and sewer plan to raise enough capital for upgrades to the sewage treatment plant and undergound pipe remediation. Hamilton is now under taking a $500-million upgrade. For the recently re-elected mayor of Toronto, public transit is the highest priority with issues such as climate change and water infrastructure not too far behind.

David Miller said the electorate made it the priority while he was out on the hustings this fall.

He said his city has recently invested $153 million in new buses, two-thirds of which are hybrids, addressing both the transit concern and the climate change policy. Equally important is the funds allocated for Toronto’s state-of-good repair budget.

“The philosophy of the state-of-good-repair budget is to invest continually in infrastructure renewal to make sure everything stays in good shape,” Miller said.

In Edmonton, Mayor Stephen Mandel, first elected in 2004, says as the oil industry continues to push at the seams of almost every municipality in the province, infrastructure and infrastructure renewal are even more important.

“Now that we’ve had all this growth it’s become more of an issue.”With an annual capital budget of $1.1 billion, Mandel estimates

$200 million goes toward repairing existing infrastructure.“We have a lot of older neighbourhoods that need a lot of work,”

he said. “It’s a priority for council. We haven’t paid enough attention to existing areas.”

Moving traffic is a major concern and Mandel said he and city council have approved a $125-million expenditure for an overpass at 23rd Avenue.

Back in Ontario, Carl Zehr, who was just elected to his fourth term as mayor in Kitchener, says infrastructure has been a significant part of what he’s been talking about for a number of years.

“The environment is a priority,” he said. “We’re trying to clean up brownfileds as we become aware of contaminated underground infrastructure.”

Kitchener also implemented an investment strategy in 2004 called the Economic Development Investment Fund (EDIF) that will create a capacity of $110-million over 10 years and is dedicated to infrastructure renewal in his city. The funds are raised through a special levy that will diminish over the years.

Zehr said priorities of the fund include “cleaning up brownfields, spurring downtown renewal, water and wastewater projects and encouraging

more inner-city development.”Winnipeg’s Sam Katz is currently serving his second term as

mayor and recently unveiled a six-year, $2-billion plan to fix roads and bridges in his community “before skyrocketing construction costs make the repairs impossible.” He says infrastructure was one of two top priorities for the citizens of Winnipeg while out on the hustings last year.

“During my first term in office, as well as during the election campaign, infrastructure was one of my top-three priorities,” said Katz.

In announcing his 2007 capital budget this month, Katz made infrastructure and infrastructure renewal a priority when he and city council release a budget they call the “biggest in the city’s history.”

Katz said the number-one infrastructure priority for his city is “fixing our roads and bridges” along with increased use of public-private partnerships and new walking and cycling paths, what he refers to as “environmental infrastructure.”

For another Sam, Vancouver’s Mayor Sullivan, environmental infrastructure is the priority.

“I would like to see senior government link infrastructure funding to responsible behaviour at the civic level,” said Sullivan, who was elected to his first term as mayor in 2005. “I believe

“I believe cities are to blame for greenhouse gases because

of irresponsible decisions such as urban sprawl.”

— sam sullivan, mayor of Vancouver

cross country CheCkuP

By Pamela Gramiak

Mayors across the country cite infrastructure renewal as their top priority.

24 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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cities are to blame for greenhouse gases because of irresponsible decisions such as urban sprawl.”

Sullivan says the biggest challenge his city faces is the “proliferation of industrial parks on the outkirts of the city.”

He’d like to see more of what he calls “ecostructure” – building industrial parks in areas with access to transit and labour pools – to promote people living in more-dense neighbourhoods.

“Why do we have unlimited budgets to build horizontally and zero-dollar budgets for vertical buildings?” “[Civic] behaviour should be tied to densification.”

Sullivan said during his campaign in 2005 social issues were more of a priority for his electorate than infrastructure. That said, he and his council have made replacement funding a priority and have a mandate to that effect.

“We’ve adopted a one per cent per year replacement strategy for our sewer system and a 0.8 per-cent-per-year … strategy for our water system.”

From Vancouver we move east to Calgary where David Bronconnier is serving in his third year of his second term as mayor of Canada’s Boomtown. He says when he was campaigning in 2004, infrastructure “came up as an issue on practically every doorstep.”

“Infrastructure was the number-one issue in the last campaign and continues to be,” he said.

When last out on the hustings, Bronconnier said he commited to “heavy investments” in transporation infrastructure with a focus on public transit.

“Since then we’ve extended two legs of our light rail transit system (LRT) and ordered 40 additional LRT cars which begin arriving this month.”

With an infrastructure budget of $2.2 billion for 2007/2008, Calgary’s two largest projects are the construction of the new Pine Creek Waste Treatment Plant ($340 million) and upgrades to the Glenmore Causeway with a total investment of $150 million. Bronconnier said some of the biggest challenges are labour resources and rising costs.

“But the single-biggest issue is a secure and permanent source of funding.”

In Montreal, Gerald Tremblay was re-elected last fall to his second term as mayor. He says the issue of infrastructure and infrastructure renewal is a “major concern” for the people he spoke with while campaigning and made the issue a “very high” priority in his campaign.

“We said very clearly that we would solve

undergound infrastructure – we committed $10 billion over the next 20 years,” he said. “We also made commitments for our roads, that we would invest $500 million over the next four years.”

With a 2007 budget of $293 million Trembley said the infrastructure priorities for his city are undergound infrastructure, roads and streets, and tunnels and bridges. His biggest challenge is the $7.2 billion he needs for public transit.

“It’s becoming more and more urgent,” he said. “If you want to prevent congestion and

potholes, public transit is a way to improve the quality of life of the citizens.

Clearly infrastructure has become, and continues to become, a hot topic among the electorate at every level and not just with lobby groups and government officials.

Pamela Gramiak is managing editor of ReNew Canada and Canadian Water Treatment magazines. [email protected].

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 25www.renewcanada.net

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When you WIsh uPon a StarIn an informal survey, renew canada recently asked the leaders of some of canada’s largest cities the following question:

“If Finance Minister jim Flaherty were to grant you one, sky’s-the-limit infrastructure wish, what would you wish for?”

In no particular order, here’s how they replied:

Gerald tremblay, mayor of Montreal “Money for public transit.”

sam sullivan, mayor of vancouver: “If municipal leaders are going to continue to make irresponsible decisions they shouldn’t receive infrastructure funding.”

sam Katz, mayor of Winnipeg: “A permanent, stable funding arrangement with the federal government which would allow the city to conduct long-range planning for infrastructure needs while having the confidence that the required funding will be in place to meet those needs as they arise.”

Carl Zehr, mayor of Kitchener: “We need to have sustainable and predictable funding that grows with the economy that can be used at the local level for local priorities as opposed to federal priorities.”

stephen Mandel, mayor of edmonton: “To further the extension of the light rail transit. If he gave us about $3 billion we could finish up the entire system.”

David Miller, mayor of toronto: “Funding for our transit program to build a network of street cars and subways and a network of bus routes.”

Fred eisenberger, mayor of hamilton: “Randall Reef is a toxic hot spot. We need money to remediate and to contain contaminates. If anything, I’d like to see the federal government kickstart the program. We’re ready to go. We just need the funding.”

Dave Bronconnier, mayor of Calgary: “Make the Strategic Infrastructure Fund and Federal Fuel Tax Sharing arrangements permanent, on-going funding and look at opportunities to share some revenues that grow with the economy and with municipalities.”

2� reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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With increased pressure to remain competitive in the face of rising energy costs, Canadians can learn valuable lessons from the United Kingdom’s experience of energy

management. There are many differences and some similarities between Canada and the UK, as well as proven strategies that Canadian companies can adopt, to control costs and increase profits.

One comparative advantage Canadian businesses currently enjoy is the relative lack of energy regulation. Energy conservation in the United Kingdom is driven, at a government level, by climate change and, as a result, various regulations are in place to ensure Kyoto commitments are met. Motivation to fulfill these commitments has impacted the energy supply mix in the UK.

A movement from coal to natural gas for electricity generation, the so-called “dash-for-gas,” has been the trend for new generation. Despite this progress, coal is still the largest component of the UK supply at 37 per cent of the total mix. Natural gas (33per cent), nuclear (21 per cent), and other fuels, imports & renewables (nine per cent, with renewables around four per cent) complete the typical breakdown. A recent government review has also opened up the possibility of new nuclear plants. The currently installed generating capacity in the UK is around 77,000 mega watts.

Compared with existing installed generation in Ontario, where the phasing-out period for coal was recently extended to 2014, the breakdown is quite different. Nuclear (36.1 per cent) and hydro (25.1 per cent) are Ontario’s largest components. Coal (21.4 per cent), oil and gas (16.1 per cent) and miscellaneous sources (0.2 per cent) round out Ontario’s total installed capacity of approximately 30,000 mega watts.

As part of the UK conservation strategy, the government is promoting combined heat and power (CHP) or co-generation at a site level for its carbon dioxide reduction benefit. There are tax breaks on the capital investment and an avoidance of energy taxation with certified plants. However, the economic payback for this type of plant has limited its uptake. A critical aspect in designing an economic CHP installation is to be sure that the basics of energy conservation have been implemented on site before the CHP plant is designed.

Conservation has been on the UK radar screen since the 1960s despite the perception of an unlimited supply of energy from the North Sea. However, times have changed and increased energy costs and environmental issues have led to new energy taxes, such as the Climate Change Levy (CCL). CCL applies to coal, natural gas and electricity, and at full rate adds about five-to-10 per cent to the cost.

To cope with these increases, companies that take the initiative to save energy are rewarded. To begin with, in return for agreeing to 10-year energy targets, participating companies receive an 80 per cent discount on the CCL. However, this opportunity only exists for companies that are in defined “energy-intense” sectors while certain processes, such as the primary smelting of aluminum, are exempt from the tax.

Another factor in the UK is the ability to trade carbon dioxide emissions quotas through the European Emissions Trading Scheme. Companies that participate in this make financial savings on the energy they do not use and then make additional revenue by selling their “savings” through the emissions market.

Qualifying small businesses can also be eligible for interest-free loans for energy savings projects with a payback of five years or less. These and other support incentives are in addition to the major energy cost savings that proactive companies will receive for their efforts in adapting to changes.

This is where a commonality exists: resistance to change is widespread in both Canada and the UK. The excuses for inaction are consistent across the Atlantic Ocean. Companies frequently cite lack of time, lack of resources, bad timing, the belief that action is not worth the risk, and the fact that proposed changes are “not the way we’ve done things in the past” as the justifications for stagnant or non-existent energy management practices.

Many obstacles to energy management in Canada are also present in the United Kingdom. Far too often, energy pricing is not properly understood and opportunities to capitalize on favourable markets are missed. Energy information is often collected and not utilized. Finally, even companies with the best energy intentions can fail to implement programs if employees are not properly motivated.

enerGy LeSSonSFroM the uK

By John Pooley

energy management doesn’t have to be regulated in order to be successful.

energy Management

In the mix: the drive to conserve energy has affected the uK’s energy supply mix and will force Canada to make changes, too.

Photos:D

ebbieY

ea

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 27www.renewcanada.net

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Regulation tends to be expensive and not evenly beneficial to all participants. To avoid new regulations being implemented, it would be best for companies to become proactive in energy management. If government can see that changes are happening, the case for regulation and taxation lessens. Regardless of whether Canada adopts such policy, companies that are taking steps to control energy will benefit from major sustainable savings.

Where can you begin? Companies that are successful at managing energy are able to develop and execute a sustainable energy plan that covers three universal energy management tasks: procurement, conservation and demand management (CDM), and organizational integration.

First, successful companies develop an optimal purchasing strategy based on their budgets and risk management approaches.

Second, successful companies focus on minimizing energy usage and maximizing profitability through CDM programs such as energy reporting, demand response and efficiency studies.

Finally, successful companies raise employee awareness through education and training, ensuring the organizational integration of all energy initiatives.

These three tasks are not mutually exclusive; only through a company-specific balance of these interdependent tasks will companies be able to manage energy successfully, both domestically and abroad.

John Pooley is one of the uK’s leading practical energy consultants.

companies that are successful

at managing energy are

able to develop and execute

a sustainable energy plan

that covers three universal

energy management tasks:

procurement, conservation and

demand management (cdM),

and organizational integration.

energy Management

28 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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DiStriCt enerGy coMes oF aGe

By Glenn Miller and James M. Small

three milestones in 2006 signal new energy for an old idea.

When Thomas Edison wrote, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent persperation,” he could have been describing how hard-working district energy

executives feel about their accomplishments in 2006. How else to account for the sense of momentum in a previously-obscure sector of the energy industry that marked its commercial debut more than 125 years ago?

Three key markers are responsible for this renaissance. The first was a commitment by Infrastructure Canada to fund a major research project aimed at determining how local decision makers can best use district energy to further their goals for energy-efficient community development. The second was recognition from the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) that district energy can help Canada reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. The third event – and possibly the biggest breakthrough of all – was the decision by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to award three long-term power contracts to district energy projects.

The ball started rolling with an announcement at the Canadian District Energy Association’s (CDEA) annual conference in Vancouver last June that CDEA was partnering with the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) and the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) to benchmark the achievements of district energy projects and develop a better understanding of how leaders in the municipal and institutional sectors

can partner to meet their energy goals using district energy. Urban Energy Solutions is a multi-faceted initiative funded by Infrastructure Canada’s Knowledge-development, Outreach and Awareness (KOA) program with additional financial support from TAF.

The Urban Energy Solutions project is well under way. The response from system owners, operators and suppliers from across Canada and around the world has been very positive. And the timing couldn’t be better. The results of the research will be made public in Spring 2007 just as the profile of Canada’s district energy sector is gathering national prominence.

This past summer, the NRTEE included district energy in its advice to the federal government on a long-term strategy on energy and climate change. Supporters of district energy were delighted to see district energy acknowledged as a significant part of the solution. Simply put, the report argues that Canadians must use energy more efficiently and produce new energy while emitting less carbon. District energy offers a cost-effective way to meet both objectives. The NRTEE also cited the benefits of developing compact urban form to create higher quality environments while reducing the need for car travel. As is being discovered in greenfield communities across the country, focusing mixed-use development around the piped infrastructure of a district energy system is an excellent way to curb sprawl and save energy at the same time. District energy champions have always

energy Management

Cool toronto: Lake ontario helps to cool the 27 buildings already connected to enwave's Deep Lake Water Cooling project. Another 19 buildings are signed on to ride the energy conservation wave.

Photo:C

anadianU

rbanInstitute

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 29www.renewcanada.net

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Faubourg Boisbriand L.P. is a partner with Cherokee Investment Partners LLC in the redevelopment of the General Motors Assembly plant north of Laval in Quebec. Cherokee has invested in over 330 properties across North America and Western Europe and has over US$1 billion of assets under management.

We provide real solutions for sellers and the communities affected by contaminated sites. Cherokee typically acquires an asset for cash and indemnifies the seller from environmental liability. After acquisition, we remediate and reposition the property for reuse. Our experience and access to capital allow us to move quickly and respond decisively.

For more information, please contact:Faubourg Boisbriand L.P.

Suite 7181010 Sherbroooke Street West

Montreal, Quebec H3A 2R7T 514.843.3444F 514.843.9112

www.cherokeefund.com

We sPecIalIZe In the acQuIsItIon,reMedIatIon and sustaInaBle

redeveloPMent oF BroWnFIelds

highlighted the link between the energy-efficiency benefits of these systems and their contribution to promoting compact urban form. The NRTEE’s recognition of district energy shows that these same characteristics can also aid in the fight against climate change.

Research, recognition and, finally, rewards. Last October, the OPA awarded long-term power purchase contracts to three district energy systems – one greenfield project, and two system expansions. Oshawa PUC Energy Services Inc. will be developing a 2.3-megawatt project to provide combined heat and power to the newly-established Durham College, providing the university with a secure supply of energy and the opportunity to maximize energy efficiency in the development of its campus. The district energy system is designed to grow with the university’s needs. The second initiative is also a combined heat and power (CHP) project, this time in Markham, where Markham District Energy Inc. is building a five-megawatt expansion to the hugely-successful first phase that powers Markham Centre, a compact, mixed-use downtown that provides CHP to clients as diverse as IBM Canada and Tridel. The third – and largest – project is a 12 megawatt-contract awarded to Countryside London Cogeneration Corp. in London, Ont.

“The award by the OPA was the culmination of years of effort by the CDEA,” noted the association’s chair, Bruce Ander. “You need the right economic conditions so that high efficiency co-generation can thrive,” he said. The Minister of Energy also announced four other high-efficiency projects in October. The combined electrical capacity of the seven projects is 414 mega watts, representing an investment of more than $800 million. With three of the seven awards going to district energy projects, it is clear that district energy has the potential to make a significant contribution to meeting Ontario’s growing energy needs.

This year should mark a further evolution for the sector. One of the key attributes of modern district energy systems is their fuel-source flexibility. The primary fuel source for most current systems is natural gas. That’s about to change. Projects in the planning stage are looking to supplement reliance on natural gas with alternative and renewable energy sources. As the KOA research is finding, projects across the country are turning to energy sources as diverse as geothermal, biomass, and energy from waste. One such example is a project planned in British Columbia that

energy Management

30 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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will capture the waste heat emanating from sewage pipes to provide heat to its clients. The waste heat is transferred to coils around the pipes and distributed to the end user.

Building on the success of the OPA contracts, the CDEA and others in Ontario’s energy sector are pushing for the adoption of a Clean Energy Standard Offer Program (CESOP). If successful, this program will provide long-term power purchase contracts to new and existing district energy systems that provide clean power to the local grid and local customers. Knowing the price and the contractual terms in advance will provide much-needed planning certainty to a number of district energy projects being contemplated, especially in the municipal, university, school and hospital sector. The OPA is currently seeking input on the design of the CESOP and is expected to unveil the program by April 2007.

District energy has always been an alternative to the traditional way of supplying heat in buildings. But as demand for cooling continues to grow, district energy is seen as offering clear conservation- and energy-efficiency benefits as well. The best example is Enwave’s deep lake water cooling project which takes very cold water from the depths of Lake Ontario to provide cooling to a growing list of major office buildings in downtown Toronto. By supplying cooling from a renewable energy source, Enwave displaces individual electric chillers that rely exclusively on the local power system. And in a supply-constrained market like downtown Toronto, every megawatt displaced from the local grid helps, especially during the critical summer months when demand is the greatest. In Ontario, where summer peak power is supplied by dirty, coal-fired plants and dirty, coal-fired imports, district energy systems that supply cooling can have a year-round impact on achieving energy conservation goals, improve air quality and help fight climate change.

The 2006 successes - research, recognition and rewards – and the prospects for 2007 – fuel source flexibility, CESOP and conservation benefits – should confirm district energy’s advantages and strengths for communities across Canada. And by the beginning of 2008, district energy could very well be the 125-year old overnight energy success story many have always known it to be.

Glenn Miller, FCIP, rPP, is director, education and research, Canadian urban Institute and James M. small, LLB, is a senior associate with the Canadian urban Institute and director of Policy, Canadian District energy Association.

energy Management

the production of energy using one or a combination of:

• Cogeneration, the production of heat and power through thermodynamics.

• District heating, the distribution of heat from one or more sources to buildings.

• District Cooling, the distribution of cooling to, potentially, those same buildings.

• Storage of thermal or electric energy.

Source:CanadianDistrictEnergyAssociation

DiStriCtenerGydeFIned

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 31www.renewcanada.net

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Ever wonder what happens to that green bag of garbage, the container of recyclables

or the bags of leaf and yard waste after they are taken from your curbside or drop-off program?

Canadians produce more than 30 million tonnes of waste each year: 971 kilograms for each man, woman and child. About 39 per cent of the waste is from residential and household sources and the remaining 61 per cent is produced by businesses and construction activities.

Canada has more than 1,000 operating municipal and private sector landfills. In the past, some of these sites were poorly designed “dumps” that sometimes leaked harmful metals and chemicals into the ground water as leachate and did not control the migration of gas from the decomposition of garbage.

hoW our trash Is manaGeD

By Maria Kelleher

sorting and taking out the garbage is just the beginning.

this environmental specialist makes sure that the waste from a recent toronto conference gets recycled, not landfilled.

Photo:M

etroTorontoConventioncentre

32 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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New sanitary landfills include liners (made from plastic or clay) that protect the ground water from anything leaching out of the landfill. Garbage is placed in landfill cells and covered with soil on a daily basis. As each cell is filled up, additional cover material is placed on top of the garbage to limit the rainwater that seeps through the garbage pile.

In this anaerobic landfill environment (there is no oxygen in the cells) the garbage slowly decomposes and produces landfill gas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide. In modern landfills, this gas is collected through pipes. Some landfills have sufficient landfill gas to power engine generator sets and produce heat and/or electricity. Nine LFG (landfill gas) projects in Canada generate 80 megawatts of power, and an additional seven provide heating to adjacent industries, harnessing the gas produced by the decomposition of the waste in the landfills.

Leachate, the concentrated wastewater that seeps out of landfills, is sometimes treated on-site and sometimes trucked to a location where it is treated before discharge to a sewer.

Landfills that have reached capacity are landscaped and are often turned into ski hills, golf courses or parks.

Bioreactor design causes quicker compaction of landfill contents and recovers the gas produced by decomposition of garbage more quickly. There are a number of bioreactor landfill designs in Canada, including Saint Sophie, Quebec, and Kelowna, B.C.

Many European countries and Asian countries such as Japan incinerate some or most of their garbage for power production in the form of heat, steam or electricity. This is not a popular approach in Canada, and we only have five incinerators for municipal garbage: Burns Bogg, Vancouver; Algonquin Power, Region of Peel, Ont.; Quebec City; Charlottetown, P.E.I. and Sydney, N.S. Incineration of garbage for power production is expensive, but takes up very little space compared to landfilling. However, for each 100 tonnes of waste that is incinerated, about 30 tonnes of ash is produced, so incineration does not eliminate the need for landfilling, it simply reduces dependence on landfills and makes existing landfills last longer. It’s also expensive: the Region of Halton is looking at a $250-million facility to take only regional garbage or a larger $700-million facility that would accept waste from neighbouring areas.

The Algonquin Power plant in Peel incinerates 174,000 tonnes of garbage each year, providing seven megawatts of power, sufficient to power 5,000 homes.

Heat from the Burns Bogg incinerator in Vancouver is used by an adjacent industry, thus displacing the need to burn fossil fuels or use electricity for the same purpose.

A number of cities and regions in Ontario (Hamilton, Niagara, Toronto, York, Durham) have recently embarked on new and emerging technologies processes to identify what is available in terms of technologies that can handle waste after good recycling and composting programs. Some of the most-promising technologies involve processing of garbage into pellets that can be burned in the place of coal in cement plants, or direct conversion of garbage

into steam and electricity through thermal processes such as gasification and pyrolysis.

Many Canadian municipalities have curbside or depot collection of a range of dry recyclables including papers, plastic, glass and metal containers. These materials are processed in MRFs (material recycling facilities or material recovery facilities) across Canada, owned by both the public and the private sector. Recyclables are typically collected in two streams – paper in one, and metal, glass and plastic in the other.

Single-stream recyclables are split into the two main categories by disc screen and other

January/February 2007 reNew Canada 33www.renewcanada.net

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technologies. Conveyor belts take the papers to a manual sort line where sorters divide the paper stream into different categories and remove contamination such as plastics. The cleaned-up paper streams are baled for shipment to a paper mill.

Cans, bottles and plastics are separated from each other through a series of mechanical steps that separate light and heavy materials. Aluminum is baled and sent to aluminum smelters where recycled

aluminum saves 95 per cent of the energy spent making aluminum from virgin stock. Ferrous metal is sent to steel works that are designed to operate on a scrap feedstock.

Recycled glass is used for a variety of purposes: some colour-sorted glass is made into new glass bottles and jars. Other glass is sold to the fiberglass industry, and in some locations, glass is crushed and used as an aggregate substitute.

MRFs produce a residue of about five per cent or less of the incoming feedstock. This material, which is made up mostly of bits of plastic and paper, is typically landfilled, although the Edmonton MRF has tested loads in a gasification plant at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec.

The most significant change in MRF and recycling system design in the last few years is the move from two-stream or multi-stream to single-stream collection and processing of recyclables.

The Region of Peel has recently constructed the largest single stream MRF in Canada, capable of processing 130,000 tonnes per year of recyclable materials.

About 40 per cent of our municipal waste stream is organic material: about half is food waste and kitchen organics and the other half is leaf and yard waste. Municipalities have collected leaf and yard waste for many years. This material is typically composted in open windrow composting sites that may be as simple as open fields where leaf and yard waste is piled in trapezoidal “windrows” about three metres high and turned every so often by a windrow turner. Some composting is more sophisticated, and is enclosed, located on a concrete pad with air blowers and diffuser pipes. It takes about eight months to produce finished compost.

The new trend in a number of municipalities is to collect source separated organics (SSO), which includes food waste and kitchen

papers. This material is composted to produce a compost material for use in gardens or in municipal landscaping, but the food waste requires composting in a more contained design to control odours. Enclosed channel or in-vessel composting facilities are required to process this waste. Two facilities have been in operation to handle SSO from Halifax Region Municipality (HRM) for a number of years. Each facility has capacity to compost 27,500 tonnes per year.

The City of Hamilton, Ont. has recently opened its in-vessel composting facility, which uses a Christaens composting design from Holland. It was constructed by Maple Reinders at a cost of $29 million. It has capacity to process 60,000 tonnes per year of organic materials. The Region of Peel is constructing a similar facility and Ottawa and Calgary are both exploring options to provide composting capacity through recent requests for proposals and other bidding processes.

Source-separated organics (SSO) can also be processed in anaerobic digesters. The Dufferin Digester is owned by the City of Toronto and processes SSO from the curbside organics program. The advantage of digesters compared to composters is the small footprint and the production of biogas as green energy.

Some cities locate all their processing, recycling and disposal facilities at one site. This has many advantages where it is workable. The City of Edmonton integrated site (which has probably the largest enclosed composting facility in Canada) contains a landfill, single-stream MRF, electronics collection depot, education centre and seminar rooms, composter, and depots and bins for a number of other materials.

In Halifax Region, the landfill also contains a front-end processor that takes additional recyclables out of the garbage, as well as composting the garbage before it is landfilled.

The Region of Peel’s 41-acre site contains a MRF as well as a composter and a Community Recycling Centre (CRC) where residents can drop off a wide range of materials for recycling.

And you thought it was simple (or didn’t think about it at all). Your waste enters a complicated and sophisticated system when you discard it.

Many european countries and asian countries such as

japan incinerate some or most of their garbage for

power production in the form of heat, steam or electricity.

this is not a popular approach in canada.

Maria Kelleher, P. eng, is principal of Kelleher environmental.

34 reNew Canada January/February 2007 www.renewcanada.net

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The evolution of public-private partnerships (P3s) in the

Canadian political environment has been nothing short of astounding. Just a few years ago, the P3 model was vilified and campaigned against. Now, it is fast becoming the default choice for procuring infrastructure projects in many jurisdictions.

That said, the battle hasn’t been won yet.The federal government’s recent fiscal update outlined its plan to

start applying a P3 screen to its infrastructure developments. Reports out of Ottawa suggest that it wisely intends to establish a P3 office inside the government to ensure that the policy gets implemented.

At the provincial level, B.C. has enthusiastically embraced P3s, with Partnerships BC having brought a number of projects to financial close in recent years. B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell recently announced that his government would ensure that every project over $20 million is assessed from the perspective of looking to the private sector as a potential partner. Significantly, the B.C. provincial auditor broke through the normal reticence on P3s to report that the Sea to Sky highway project saved taxpayers money by using the P3 model.

Ontario’s largely-successful experiment with Infrastructure Ontario has laid the groundwork for a major expansion of what Ontario calls Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP) after a rocky road through the last election. A set of principles has been established to guide AFPs, which state that public interest is paramount, projects must demonstrate value for money, appropriate public control and ownership must be preserved, accountability must be sustained, and all processes related to the project must be fair, transparent and efficient. Ontario is looking at infrastructure as a crucial tool for the province’s economic development and is eyeing with some interest the pools of pension money interested in helping.

Quebec has also ventured along this route, recently announcing P3 initiatives for hospitals and highways. While this may be unsurprising from a government lead by Premier Jean Charest, it builds on an act to both encourage and channel P3s passed by the previous Parti Quebecois government.

There is one level of government however, with few exceptions, that has not caught the P3 bug – municipalities. Looking at everything from public transit to waste water to roads to hockey rinks, Canada’s cities and towns are the last bastion of bureaucratic procurement.

This is in part because the experience of a number of municipalities has not been pleasant. The head of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Gloria Kovach, provides a sobering example. At a

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• City of Toronto’s designated redevelopment corporation;

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

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

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

• Acquires strategic brownfields and underutilized sites for employment revitalization;

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

7th Floor, Metro Hall, 55 John Street

Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

W: www.tedco.ca E: [email protected]

TORONTO ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

recent conference, she described how she couldn’t sell the P3 idea after a local disaster on a project.

Second, municipalities often lack the expertise or the depth to negotiate and deal with the private sector players across the table. While the city of Ottawa, for example, has very successfully established a P3 office and has a number of innovative projects under its belt, it is the exception. Toronto, for example, has largely eschewed this method of delivering public services.

Third, a number of unions that are opposed to the idea find their greatest source of power at the municipal level. As a result, many municipal politicians unsurprisingly do not want to stick their necks out to support a model that may have powerful local unions focus their energies on defeating them. (That said, there are some very supportive unions – including some that have their own pension funds – engaged in financing public-sector development.)

The challenge of building a municipal constituency for P3s is a crucial one. Bad municipal experiments could poison the well for the other levels of government. If cities and towns don’t get it right, public opinion could turn against this model of delivering public infrastructure. However, there is an opportunity to turn the experience around on the horizon.

All governments, municipal in particular, are looking at the new accounting standards that the Public Sector Accounting Board has instituted and which take effect on January 1, 2009. These new

standards will obligate municipalities to report on the full accrual cost accounting of their capital assets. As a result, we will get a good handle on the size and scope of the infrastructure deficit.

These rules also create opportunity. If councils view their capital assets through the lens of what generates a revenue stream, each asset – and its replacement over time – can be assessed from the perspective of how private sector money can be used to refurbish and rebuild it.

To make this work, city and town officials need help – the kind of experience that has been built up in Infrastructure Ontario and

Partnerships BC, for example. Most municipalities face a steep learning curve on things such as RFP procurement design, selecting among various P3 models (build/finance, design/build/finance, design/build/finance/operate) and developing optimal allocations of project risks between the public and private sector. However, municipalities should also be able to benefit from the experience acquired in their sector to date.

Experienced firms have seen benefits; transaction costs associated with P3s decrease as lawyers, technical advisors and other participants become experienced with the P3 model. Negotiations are more focused as project, construction and service agreements become standard.

Second, partners are now better able to allocate the risks and manage the timing associated with the projects.

Third, familiarity with the process and increasingly-standardized project documentation is reducing the time from project inception

canada’s cities and towns are the last bastion of bureaucratic procurement.

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to completion. Finally, Infrastructure Ontario, for example, has shown a willingness to discuss project risk allocation with private-sector participants, including members of the financial community, and has in a number of cases reflected this in project documentation. This has resulted in more readily-financeable projects and, with very large pools of capital available in the major pension funds in Canada and elsewhere interested in these projects, financing costs and hence the cost to government, should drop over time.

Action now through the leadership of the provincial government should create a new opportunity for the next wave of P3 development. There is much opportunity for municipalities to leverage the experience of entities such as Infrastructure Ontario and Partnerships BC and take advantage of the efficiencies so that municipal P3 projects can be brought to market sooner, and on terms that have already gained a level of market acceptability. The departments of finance, municipal affairs and infrastructure renewal, in cooperation with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) should build on the fall’s Infrastructure Forum and create a similar forum for city and town officials. Looking ahead, AMO could even act as a central purchasing agent for municipalities, greatly reducing both risks and costs.

With smart leadership now taking advantage of growing experience and large pools of eager capital, Ontario and Canada should see an infrastructure boom for the next decade. We fought and beat the federal government deficit and there is no reason to believe we cannot do the same for the infrastructure deficit.

tim Murphy is a partner at McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP in its Infrastructure and P3 practice.

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Building sciEncE insight sEMinar – toronto, on, novEMBEr 28, 2006.Presented by NRC-CNRC’s team of researchers who spoke about Sustainable Infrastructure: Techniques, Tools and Guidelines. Researchers presented various new technologies in asset management including computer modeling programs that projected the life cycle of assets. sylvain Boudreau of InfraGuide explained the importance of road maintenance in extending service life and lowering long term costs. Dana vanier, NRC-IRC’s Senior Research Officer, explained Municipal Infrastructure Investment Planning (MIIP) and the Sustainable Built Environment Initiative (SBE). He also introduced the Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure Research (CSIR) – a new initiative in Regina, SK managed by David hubble. Details at http://bsi.gc.ca

ReNew Canada’s Mira Shenker talks with CUI’s Shah Hosein as the room fills up with guests.

Photo:JasonG

eorge

ReNew CaNada’s 1st annivErsary party – toronto, on, novEMBEr 23, 2006.Over 200 clients and supporters – plus the entire We Communications team from both Toronto and Winnipeg offices – attended our annual bash at the Flatiron building in downtown Toronto. We’d like to thank Gilberts LLP for use of their fantastic space and everyone who came to enjoy some pre-holiday cheer with us. Hope to see you next year! To view a fun slide show of the evening, visit www.renewcanada.net

reevents

Canada. Anne Messenger from the State of Victoria, Australia, and Derek Burney from Partnerships UK, discussed what works and what doesn’t from the perspective of two countries where P3 schemes are common. In an interview with ReNew Canada Publisher Todd Latham, Dr. stone praised the Tony Blair government’s advocacy of process and outcome, saying they “overcame dogma” to make P3s work. For a more detailed summary of the conference and further information on P3s in Canada, visit pppcouncil.ca

infra2006 – QuEBEc city, Qc, novEMBEr 20-22, 2006.Centre for Expertise and Research on Infrastructures in Urban Areas (CERIU) invited ReNew Canada’s Mira Shenker to participate in their 12th Annual Urban Infrastructure Week conference and trade show titled “Quebec Under Construction: Optimizing Infrastructure Resources”. Jean-Paul Beaulieu, Quebec’s deputy minister of Municipal Affairs and Regions, said that Quebec will match every Federal dollar invested towards renewing infrastructure. When asked if one per cent renewal per year is enough in Quebec, he said no and stressed the importance of prioritizing and finding new solutions. Guy McKenzie, Associate Deputy Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, said renewal should be a priority, not just in big cities, but also in small villages. Gerry Davis outlined the City of Hamilton, Ontario’s, investment plan and CERIU’s Charlerick Bergeron and Jean-Francois Dubuc, City if Montreal, lead a session on underground infrastructure. Details at ceriu.qc.ca

thE 14th annual confErEncE on puBlic-privatE partnErships – toronto, on, nov 20-21, 2006.From DBFMO to RFP to a new acronym – GOS (generic output specifications) – there was plenty of lively debate to join in on. This year’s theme as articulated by Dale richmond was “developing public-private partnership (P3) models that deliver.” The City of Sandy Springs – a U.S. town managed completely by CH2M OMI – was presented as a showcase for the ability of partnerships to deliver better services at a lower cost. Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Lawrence Cannon, acknowledged infrastructure as a legitimate area for federal funding and many, including Dr. timothy stone, pushed for the creation of a national P3 organization for

Dr. Timothy Stone summed it up when he said, “What matters is what works.”

Photo:C

CPPP

More than 100 years old, toronto's Flatiron building was the perfect spot for our party.

Denis Gagnon, City of Quebec, addresses the audience at the opening ceremony.

Photo:C

ERIU

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action niagara – niagara falls, on, dEcEMBEr 13, 2006.Action Niagara: Designing the Future provided a forum for experts and leading edge innovators to share their thoughts and insights into how municipalities and the development industry, working together, build thriving, livable, vibrant and productive communities. Sponsored by Niagara Economic Development Corporation and many other public and private sector organizations, including Renew Canada, the well-attended conference included keynote presentations from Bill hudnut of the Urban Land Institute and Brad Graham, ADM, Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal. Jay valgora of Studio V Architecture spoke about how the City of Niagara Falls is leveraging $20 million to secure $100 million in private sector investment to support an exciting downtown renewal and revitalization plan. Details at niagaracanada.com

Photo:IntegralC

ommunications

Visitors schmooze near ReNew Canada’s booth.

infrastructurE 2006 tradE show – toronto, on, novEMBEr 29-30, 2006.This first annual conference and expo was held in conjunction with Construct Canada and it’s associated pavillions – one of the largest construction, real estate and property management gatherings in North America. This year we noticed a growing interest in everything environmental and the increased ‘green’ marketing that went with it. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was the keynote at a ‘power breakfast’ where he addressed a standing room only crowd of over 500 and took many questions from the floor. He said “Infrastructure is not sexy and won’t garner a lot of votes but the Ontario government understands the needs for infrastructure to build the economy we need.” Among the other many interesting presentations were Guy “Dr. Infrastructure” Felio’s update on InfraGuide’s best practices; IDx Director Leo Gohier’s lecture on the importance of defining a Level of Service, and a panel on Alternative Finance and Procurement (AFP) that was moderated by ReNew Canada publisher todd Latham. RV Anderson’s reg Andres spoke on a panel discussing Ontario’s perspective on asset management during which Andrew Lemer, The Matrix Group, said: “The goal of infrastructure asset management is to achieve the greatest economic, environmental and social benefits from the public’s investment.” Details at infrastructureshow.ca

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It Isn’t easy BeInG Green

By Anna Weier

everyone – municipal governments, educators and tradespeople – needs to get on board to change the idea of sustainable homes from models to mainstream.

While there are many experimental sustainable homes in Canada, the mainstream housing industry continues to use vinyl siding, greywater is rarely recycled and there are

few incentives to reduce construction waste. It was for this reason that I embarked upon a master’s degree project at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg to investigate barriers to sustainable design and construction.

The project, undertaken through the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Earth, Environment and Resources, involved renovating a 100-year-old home to make it as environmentally sustainable as possible.

The house we used for the project was falling off the market. It had original knob and tube electrical, the water had not been hooked up for years and the plaster was stained and cracking. After a year of renovations, it is now a beautiful, 1,160 square-foot house with environmental features such as a composting toilet, radiant floor heating, reclaimed lumber and doors, a steel roof, high performance windows, rainwater collection, infrastructure to allow for future installation of solar power and greywater re-use, many different kinds of insulation, carpet tiles made of post-consumer recycled plastic, low-VOC paints, cement board siding incorporated into a design using the old siding, cork flooring, straw board cabinets and trim, and re-used lighting and plumbing fixtures.

Although I consider the house a success, it took more time and energy than should be necessary to source reclaimed materials, find qualified

this house in Winnipeg's inner city was the site for Weier's investigation into green building renovations at the municipal level.

Photo:A

nnaWeier

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hillside CentreKamloops, British columbia leed Gold

Hillside is a highly-specialized adult psychiatric care facility within the Interior region of the province and provides a home-like environment for up to 44 people; a stark contrast to the wardlike setting of most large psychiatric hospitals.

Features of Hillside Centre include 90 per cent efficient condensing boilers, heat recovery from exhaust, high-performance double-glazed windows, high thermal resistance roof assemblies, high efficiency electrical motors (as a standard) on all mechanical equipment, and lighting controlled with occupancy sensors. Indoor potable water is reduced by more than 40 per cent through the use of dual-flush toilets, waterless urinals and low flow faucets. As well, outdoor spaces were planted with plants native to the arid climate of Kamloops, reducing reliance on water. More than 20 per cent of the materials used in the project were manufactured locally.

trades people and research information that promoted sustainability. Installing a greywater treatment system and green roofs could not be done due to a variety of reasons including building code issues. While many projects overcome these issues with more time, money, and expertise, it’s increasingly important to ensure that green building become easier and more accessible to a wider range of people. These issues need to be addressed if we hope to make green residential building more widespread.

Municipal zoning and permit departments need to be aware of the systems that are commonly used in green building. The difficulty in trying to implement grey water re-use, a composting toilet and living roof systems does not indicate that the city will not allow these kinds of initiatives, but without proper regulations, acquiring permits remains a time consuming and frustrating process. Efforts need to be made toward education if a city wants to promote green building, especially in the residential sector. Zoning and permit departments need to develop pamphlets and seminars for green building and implement programs to hire green builders or architects to oversee those departments in an attempt to add green features to buildings when in the planning stages.

Trades people with practical, or even theoretical, experience with green systems were difficult to find. Homeowners can’t be expected to install greywater re-use systems or composting toilets if they can’t find skilled plumbers with knowledge of these types of systems. Trades people need opportunities for training through schools and unions about new technology used in green buildings.

Sourcing reclaimed materials, and finding trades people who are willing to work with them, is also difficult. Finding information and appropriate building materials often takes more time than a regular homeowner or contractor has to finish the job. My project was made possible largely because of a large network of friends, family, volunteers and interested professionals who donated their time and expertise, but not everyone is so lucky. As long as it’s necessary to have an entire village raise a house, this kind of construction will not pass over from the realm of model houses to the mainstream.

These problems are not insurmountable, but they are compounded for projects lacking money and support. Mobilization on the part of governments, industry and trades people is necessary and can only be facilitated through increased communication. It’s my hope that we can work toward making green construction and renovation easier to implement so that 10 years down the road instead of being an anomaly, my house is just one of many houses to include a concern for the environment as the driving force behind all decisions made.

efforts need to be made toward education

if a city wants to promote green building,

especially in the residential sector.

Anna Weier is currently finishing her Master’s at the university of Manitoba and is interested in consulting with government, trades people and prospective green builders to promote green building. modelhouse.org

theLeeDLiStnew LeeD CertiFiCationS

in CanaDa

If you have a leed- or green building-related story idea e-mail [email protected].

the kamloops Centre For water QualityKamloops, British columbia leed Gold

The Kamloops Centre for Water Quality is one of the largest membrane-filtration plants in North America and is home to the Centre for Safe Water Excellence, a research and training partnership with Thompson Rivers University and Zenon Environmental Inc.

The building was designed to conserve energy, and to the largest extent possible, was built using non-toxic, recycled, and energy efficient architectural and mechanical materials. The equipment is CFC and HCFC free, contains high efficiency boilers, cooling from a river heat pump system, and demand-controlled ventilation. Built on a previously-vacant industrial site, 76 per cent of the site has been restored to native or adaptive vegetation.

Other features include pervious pavers in the parking lot, a green roof and man-made wetland ponds.

Photo:InteriorH

ealth.

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this shipwrecked hull, photographed this past May at st. Kilda's Pier in Australia, was reinforced with steel and declared a cultural asset.

reused The green, blue and grey boxes we put out across Canada tell us to “reduce, reuse, recycle” and by

depositing our milk cartons and tuna cans we feel that we are. But these concepts can go far beyond the bamboo stir-sticks being recycled by your local cafe.

“Reuse” has so much more potential than this when applied on a grand scale. Take Weber’s restaurant, a favourite pit-stop of Muskoka-bound Ontarians. Owners bought a portion of a steel pedestrian bridge from the CN Tower and used it as an overhead bridge so Southbound customers could safely walk across the highway. Sections of the Trans Canada Trail (see Nov./Dec. 2006) were also repurposed, this time from abandoned railway lines. Developers looking for LEED points are even reusing construction materials in their new builds. The concept goes beyond just reusing materials. Developments like B.C.’s Southeast False Creek are reusing the heat generated by air conditioning systems;

homeowners are collecting rainwater in cisterns for reuse; methane gas released from landfills can turn biosolids into energy.

Ideas can also be reused. Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal David Caplan has said that while his government looks for additional ways to get infrastructure built, they will not abandon existing public works models that have been successful. In our October 2005 issue, Sheryl Boyle wrote: “Many aging buildings provide examples of how basic design principles are lacking in the contemporary practice of architecture. By recognizing what we have forgotten, we can begin to revive their critical participation in new designs.” This wooden ship, now an historical monument, is a reminder that sometimes the oldest and simplest ideas are the best. And like this ship, a solid structure should be appreciated, understood and, whenever possible, reused.

—Staff

Closing shot

Photo:Tod

dLatham

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