December 1, 2017 - Newsletter

CBN Newsletter: December 2017

By: CBN

Welcome

Hello Fellow CBNers,

Just on the heels of our November newsletter an end of the year update for December.

Construction is on- going at a significant pace in our inner cities across the country. We know that as a group we are achieving success and collectively we should be proud of what is being achieved. A healthy economy and real estate market do help, but removing the shackles of past subsurface abuse has been through contributions of many of us at the CBN. This was again evident at the 2017 Brownie Awards. Continued celebration and sharing of achievements in this space is important. It is an impressive list of achievements. Congratulations to all who made it on the Brownie Awards short list and the winners. Many thanks to our friends on the Brownie event organizing committee who made this possible.

All the best for the Holiday Season and we will reconnect in the New Year! Happy reading.

Berend Jan Velderman,

Communications and Membership Committee Chair

 

Membership Renewal

CBN's 2017-2018 renewals are now past due - have you renewed yet? If you have, thank you! If you haven't, it isn't too late, and your support is still vital to allow us to continue providing the events and information you need to stay current on all things brownfields. Thank you for keeping CBN strong and for supporting the network!

 

Be a part of the future!

 

2017 Brownie Awards

The 2017 CBN/Actual Media Brownie Awards were presented November 22, 2017 at an Awards Gala held at the Delta Hotel Toronto. The keynote address was given by David Kusturin, chief project officer at Waterfront Toronto.

CBN and Actual Media (publishers of ReNew Canada Magazine) are pleased to acknowledge the winners and short-listed programs/projects for the 2017 Brownies.

The Brownie Awards are given in seven categories: six for projects or programs, and one for individuals. In addition, all programs/projects are eligible for Best Overall Project, Best Small Project and Best Large Project:

REPROGRAM: Legislation, Policy & Program Initiatives

• Winner: Contaminated Sites Approved Professionals Society, British Columbia
• Excess Soils Bylaw Tool, Ontario (short-listed)
• Toronto Portlands Due Diligence, Ontario (short-listed)

REMEDIATE: Sustainable Remediation & Technological Innovation

• Winner: BC Hydro Rock Bay Project, Victoria, British Columbia
• New Calumet Mine, Ile-du-Grand-Calumet, Québec (short-listed)
• Triovest Block M, Hamilton, Ontario (short-listed)

REINVEST: Financing, Risk Management & Partnerships

• Winner: Port Credit West, Mississauga, Ontario
• SunMine, Kimberley, British Columbia (short-listed)

REBUILD: Project Development: Building Scale

• Winner: New Eva's Phoenix, Toronto, Ontario
• Broadview Hotel, Toronto, Ontario (short-listed)

RENEW: Project Development: Neighbourhood Scale

• Winner: East Bayfront/Bayside Development, Toronto, Ontario
• 4th Avenue Flyover, Calgary, Alberta (short-listed)
• The askîy project, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (short-listed)
• East Village Junction, Calgary, Alberta (short-listed)

REACH OUT: Communications, Marketing & Public Engagement

• Winner: Inspiration Port Credit, Mississauga, Ontario
• North Pacific Cannery Conservation Master Plan, Municipality of Port Edward, British Columbia (short-listed)

Best Small Project: The askîy project, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Best Large Project: SunMine, Kimberley, British Columbia

Best Overall Project: Toronto Portlands Due Diligence

BROWNFIELDER OF THE YEAR: Presented to Lisa Fairweather, Alberta Environment and Parks, Edmonton, Alberta.

Congratulations to all nominated, short-listed and winning projects/programs and people - your past and ongoing efforts are making brownfield property re-use the preferred alternative for redevelopment.

We also express our deepest appreciation to our 2017 judges and sponsors, and thanks to everyone who attended:

• Judges: Grant Walsom (XCG Consulting), Eric K. Pringle (Milestone Environmental Contracting), Chris De Sousa (Ryerson University), Pamela Kraft (Toronto Transit Commission), Krista Barfoot (CH2M), Stéphanie Bohdanow (FCM), Glenn Miller (CUI), John Stephenson (OAA) and Todd Latham (Actual Media)
• Sponsors: Ontario Association of Architects, Milestone Environmental Contracting, Canada Lands Company, XCG Consulting, CH2M, Kilmer Brownfields Equity Fund, Englobe, Terrapex

 

CBN Partner Events

Federation of Canadian Municipalities Sustainable Communities Conference 2018

Join the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) in Ottawa February 6-8, 2018, for their Sustainable Communities Conference - where innovation meets action. This revamped 2018 edition offers three days of must-attend workshops, study tours and plenary sessions that showcase the latest in municipal green innovation and best practices. Connect and network with sustainability leaders from across the country. Be inspired by local green successes and celebrate them with the presentation of the 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards.

BC Environmental Industry Association's Bettering Environmental Stewardship and Technology (BEST) 2018

BCEIA's BEST Conference attracts Environmental Professionals every May for two days of technical sessions, networking opportunities, and a sponsor exhibition. Conference registration includes a welcoming reception, technical sessions, panel discussions, an off-site networking reception, and all meals and coffee breaks. For further information, please visit http://bceia.com/best/

CBN 2018 Conference

We've brought back our graffiti artist again with a temporary graphic for CBN's 2018 Conference. We're deep in the planning stages now and, along with some old favourites, we'll be presenting the results of a study we're undertaking - definitely an exciting event! Please watch the newsletter, member updates and the website for more details!

Real Property Institute of Canada's 2018 Federal Contaminated Sites Workshop

The RPIC Federal Contaminated Sites National Workshop is the leading professional development workshop for federal and industry environmental professionals involved in the management and remediation of federal contaminated sites. It will be held in Toronto June 13-15, 2018.

 

CBN Updates

With the New Year just two short weeks away, it's time to reflect on what has happened in the past twelve months, what we've accomplished and what we have yet to do.

We have been fortunate enough, through the hard work of our Committee members, to have been able to make a contribution to some of the new regulatory regimes in Ontario and, to a lesser extent, BC. Ontario is building on its excess soils best practices document by developing new regulations and we, along with members of the Ontario Environmental Industry Association (ONEIA), met with the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to offer an industry perspective. This remains an area where we will need to do further work to ensure your voice is heard, but we have established communications.

As I noted in the last newsletter, we have been active in collaborating with partners such as the Environmental Services Association of Alberta (ESAA) and the BC Environmental Industry Association (BCEIA) to deliver updates on best practices and emerging remediation technology for their members. We're grateful to our partners for allowing us to participate in their events and communicate what's working now and what's yet to come in remediation.

We held our own very successful 7th annual Conference in Toronto in June. Although financial results are often a way of measuring success (and, by that standard, this was our best Conference yet), I would rather think of success in terms of the number people we reached and the quality and value of the information we communicated - using those yardsticks reinforces the fact that this was, indeed, our best Conference.

2017 marks the second year for CBN Awards - both the HUB (Heroes Underpinning Brownfields) and the Brownies. I hope you'll agree that this year's crop of HUB winners - Al Durand (Foundation Award), Bruno Thielmann (Pillar Award) and Todd Latham (Vision Award) - richly deserve the honour. The Brownies demonstrated, once again, the vibrancy of the brownfield community - you can find the names of those winning projects/programs elsewhere in this issue. In particular, I'd like to congratulate the 2017 Brownfielder of the Year, Lisa Fairweather, Alberta's new brownfield coordinator who has definitely hit the ground running in her role. It's also worth noting that the Brownie nominations showed more geographic diversity in 2017, with one third of them coming from the west. Even more importantly, four of the ten winning projects/programs were from BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

In the coming year, of course we'd like to see the continued success of our Awards programs and, for the Brownies, would like to attract nominations from the Atlantic Provinces and Quebec - there is plenty happening that's not being recognized.

For our 2018 resolutions, we want to build new relationships with regulators and strengthen our existing ones so we can be even more effective in our role as the voice of brownfields and a thought leader in this area. In particular, Ontario and Alberta are provinces where I believe we can serve both the industry and the regulators by providing insight and advice.

I also think it's time we revisited the National Round Table on the Economy and the Environment (NRTEE) report, to see what has been accomplished, what's no longer relevant, and what new action is required. It's been fifteen years since the process was initiated, and it's time to take stock. This will help us to shape the brownfield agenda for the next fifteen years.

In CBN Committees, we have had somewhat of a changing of the guard - Eric Bristow (Government Relations) has retired after having been a major contributor to CBN's success for many years, Andrew Himel (Finance and Insurance) has returned to university to pursue a graduate degree, and Regan Dahmer has left the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). I'm sure you join me in wishing all three of them the best in their future endeavours and in thanking them for all they've done for CBN and Canada's brownfield community.

At the same time, we welcome their successors: Rob Hofmann has stepped up as Chair of Government Relations and Monisha Nandi has agreed to assume responsibility for TAC. On behalf of all of us on the Board and in the membership, we wish them success in their new roles.

Our volunteers have served us well over the years, but there is still much to do. In that spirit, I'd like to invite you to consider volunteering for a CBN Committee. While the work of the Committees contributes to the success of the industry - something which, I hope, all our volunteers are pleased with - there are personal benefits as well, and I'd like to mention some of those:

• Participation in CBN widens your personal network in the industry. You'll build relationships with others on your Committee, giving you additional people you can reach out to for advice and ideas
• Contribution also builds your profile in the industry. Making an impact through your Committee work shows what you can do and helps you get noticed. However, this isn't just traditional resume building through listing multiple affiliations - for this to work for you, it does require active involvement
• Volunteer roles expand your skills. I know from personal experience that I've learned and grown through my volunteer participation - and much of that has been transferrable to other areas
• Finally, making a meaningful contribution also gives you a sense of personal satisfaction

Please consider volunteering your time to CBN - it's rewarding on so many levels, and there are many Committee opportunities - Technical Advisory, Government Relations, Communications and Membership, and Finance and Insurance. If you'd like to help out, please contact me (grant.walsom@xcg.com), our Operations Manager David Petrie (davidp@canadianbrownfieldsnetwork.ca) or the appropriate Committee Chair.

On behalf of everyone at CBN, I'm happy to take this opportunity to thank you for helping us advance our agenda of making brownfield reuse the preferred solution, and to wish you a very happy holidays.

D. Grant Walsom - President, CBN

 

CBN Committee Updates

CBN Government Relations Committee Report:

Eric Bristow, long-time Chair of the Government Relations Committee, retired in June 2017. We deeply appreciate his years of hard work and dedication, and wish him well in retirement. Rob Hoffman, Director of Government & Stakeholder Relations for the Canadian Fuels Association, has succeeded Eric as Committee Chair. The Committee last met October 30, at which time it reviewed its mandate, recent regulatory developments and the priority matrix.

Members of the Committee met with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) and the Ontario Environmental Industry Association (ONEIA) on possible joint involvement on development of Ontario brownfield policy development. At that time, MOECC declined the offer, but the Committee regards this as an open file and will continue working with MOECC.

The Committee is looking to schedule meetings with the BC Ministry of Environment and Alberta Environment and Parks. At these meetings, the Committee will review the:

• CBN Purpose, Vision, Mission and Goal
• CBN Government Relations Committee Mandate and Responsibilities.
• CBN Guiding Principles in support of Brownfield Redevelopment, and listening to feedback.
• Outlining what CBN's understands to be key barriers to brownfield redevelopment.

CBN is seeking to understand:

• Process / organizational structure for how government agencies / ministries work together internally and work externally with stakeholders.
• Process for identifying barriers, developing solutions, implementing processes.
• The engagement with municipalities to promote sustainable urban development and combat climate change.
• Involvement/role of industry, private stakeholders.
• Potential support / direct involvement for CBN.
• Understand the top barriers to Brownfield redevelopment, and the plans to address, remove, or reduce these barriers.
• Understand the uptake of programs/tools that encourage brownfield redevelopment.

2017 - 18 Membership:

• Chris De Sousa, Ryerson University
• Ellen Greenwood, Greenwood & Associates
• Harm Gross, Next Environmental Inc.
• John Georgakopoulos, Willms & Shier
• Rob Hoffman, Canadian Fuels Association
• Imshun Je, Groundwater Environmental Management Services Inc. (GEMS)
• Bonnie Prior, Royal LePage

Rob Hoffman - Chairperson, CBN Government Relations Committee

 

CBN Finance & Insurance Committee Report:

The Committee continues to track emerging areas of potential concern to brownfield proponents and prospective brownfield lenders in finance and insurance. As part of this effort, the Committee is monitoring new and ongoing actions by regulators to expand the parties that will be required to contribute to the management and remediation of contaminated sites. Recent cases have found that responsible parties can include current and former directors and officers of entities associated with such sites, as well as lenders and real estate brokers. We expect to see the regulators pursue other parties, including receivers.

Ontario's proposed excess soil regulatory regime is of interest to many brownfield stakeholders, including lenders and insurers. While other CBN Committees are also following this issue, we are monitoring the direct and indirect impacts on both lenders and insurers.

Andrew Himel has left Kilmer Brownfields Equity Fund to pursue a Masters program at the University of Toronto. The Committee wishes him all the best and looks forward to his continued participation in a reduced role.

2016-17 Membership

• George Boire, Marsh Canada (Past Chair)
• James Evans, RBC
• Andrew Himel, Kilmer Brownfields Equity Fund
• Joanna Vince, Willms & Shier (Chair)
• Carl Spensieri, Berkley Canada
• Angus Ross, L and A Concepts
• James Cullen, Golder Associates

Joanna Vince - Chair, CBN Finance & Insurance Committee

 

CBN Technical Advisory Committee Report:

The CBN Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) last met October 6, 2017. As is typical of the meetings, we discussed the changes in regulatory regime in the various provincial jurisdictions. The most significant changes and topical initiatives have occurred in BC and Ontario. The purpose of the meetings is to look for opportunities to participate in regulatory reviews when changes are proposed and comments requested.

The significant changes that have occurred in BC (omnibus amendments) and Alberta (site remediation certificate) remain under discussion by the Committee. Regan Dahmer has resigned from the Committee and will be replaced by Monisha Nandi of Kilmer. We appreciate Regan's commitment to TAC over the years and wish her the best in the future.

TAC will be reviewing its mandate in the next few months and will also be looking to restructure its membership to ensure all regions are covered; this will better enable us to prepare responses to regulators. Our success will be measured on the participation and engagement of the Committee in these opportunities.

TAC 2017-18 Membership:

• Monisha Nandi (ON) - Chair
• Chris Brown (AB) - Vice Chair and Secretary
• Al Durand (ON) - Past TAC Chairman
• Members at large: Peter Reid (BC), Alan McCammon (BC), Vijay Kallur (BC), David Flynn (ON), Rene DeVries (ON), Mike Grinnell (ON), Monique Punt (ON), John Georgakopoulos (ON), Martin Beaudoin (QC), John Henderson (NS).

Chris Brown - Vice Chair and Secretary, CBN Technical Advisory Committee

 

CBN Communications & Membership Committee Report

The Committee has been focused on ensuring the quarterly newsletter is informative and on building a social media following, especially on Twitter and LinkedIn. For the first time, we live tweeted from an event - the Brownie Awards - in November. Tweets/retweets average about one a day and we are building an audience - our engagement rate (which reflects the number of times a tweet is retweeted, replied to, liked or results in a click on our profile or a click on a link in a tweet)is 1.1%; this compares with an average engagement rate for the top 25 brands on Twitter of 0.07% - in other words, our engagement rate is about 15 times the top brands. Our activity on LinkedIn has also picked up in the last three months.

The Committee will be reviewing the CBN website to update existing content and identify opportunities to add new pages/content - if there is anything you would like to see on the website, please contact David Petrie (davidp@canadianbrownfieldsnetwork.ca). We're also looking at ways of engaging with university students interested in brownfields.

Work in Progress

• Building a Twitter following
• Further strengthening our LinkedIn group
• Identifying additional opportunities to improve our "members only" benefits, particularly through enhanced relationships with similar organizations
• Reaching out to university students with a view to having them assist managing our social media presence and newsletter
• Ongoing updates of the CBN website
• Identifying opportunities to educate stakeholders, including the broader public, about brownfield redevelopment

2017 - 18 Membership

• Berend Jan Velderman, Golder Associates Ltd., Chair
• Isaél Poirier, FCM
• Guillaume Couillard, FCM
• Erin Fehr, Rice Group
• Brennah McKirdy, Golder Associates Ltd.
• Grant Walsom, XCG Consulting (ex-officio)
• David Petrie, CBN Staff

Finally, if you know someone who might be interested in receiving CBN communications but may not yet be ready for membership, please send them to our "Contact" page, where they can sign up to our mailing list.

Berend Jan Velderman - Chairperson, Communications Committee

 

Industry News

If you haven't been following us on Twitter (@CdnBrownfields) or aren't a member of our LinkedIn Group, you've missed a lot. Here are some highlights:

• Twitter: Who's responsible for leading Thunder Bay ON clean-up? There aren't any volunteers so far: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-harbour-lead-1.4426135
• Twitter: I'll have my Timmy's coffee with a brownfield, please - Buffalo @TimHortons opens on 24 acre brownfield: http://buffalonews.com/2017/12/01/tim-hortons-first-in-commercial-spaceacross-from-tesla-plant/
• Twitter: Peterborough ON considering whether soon-to-be abandoned GE site qualifies for city brownfield program: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2017/11/30/city-boosting-rentsupplements-in-peterborough-by-15-next-year (scroll down in the article to read)
• Twitter: An economical cure for upside down sites - at least if they've been contaminated by fertilizer. USask researcher receives NSERC grant to develop cost-efficient ways of remediating old fertilizer plant sites: https://globalnews.ca/news/3884017/university-of-saskatchewan-soilresearcher-steven-siciliano-fertilizer-site-remediation-training/
• Twitter: Coming soon to Toronto's east waterfront - 2 new condo towers with 2,000 residential units, located near the Google Alphabet/@sidewalklabs site says DCN: https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/projects/2017/11/torontos-east-waterfrontgrow-greenland-towers
• Twitter: Smart Cities Challenge - An example "challenge" statement the feds suggest is "After years of decline, our community will transform a former industrial neighbourhood into one of the top locations in Canada for economic growth." Sounds like a brownfield project to us! http://www.renewcanada.net/government-of-canada-launches-smart-cities-challenge/
• Twitter: Missed the Brownies Gala and didn't follow our live tweeting? Check out the winners at https://www.canadianbrownfieldsnetwork.ca/brownfield-awards/brownies
• Twitter: Congratulations @GolderAssociate for your award-winning project! https://www.acec.ca/events_awards/cce_awards/2017/awards_excellence/a13.html
• Twitter: In Brantford ON, the brownfield remediation projects just keep on coming - soon-to-be remediated Penman site could host affordable housing development: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2017/11/20/projects-subject-of-ward-2-town-hall-meeting
• Twitter: Sudbury ON looking at turning derelict brewery into $23M condo development - developer asking $9.5M under the city's community improvement plan and brownfields program. https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/yes-95m-is-a-ton-of-money-but-northern-breweriesbuilding-worth-the-investment-developer-says-769322
• LinkedIn - Brownfield liability transfer: Here's what some Ontario lawyers are saying about transfer of liability, the role of the RSC and the importance of environmental assessments: http://www.lawtimesnews.com/author/dale-smith/pay-close-attention-to-assessments-saylawyers-14968/
• LinkedIn - Stats Can posts article on 2015 sales of environmental products/services: Stats Can posted articles today on the sales of environmental products and services for 2015. Comparing today's commentary (here) with the previous release (which covered 2012 - here) shows that sale of products has about doubled while sales of services was up about 50%.
• LinkedIn - HazMat article on "pump and treat" systems: HazMat Magazine posted an article on the performance of "Pump and Treat" systems: http://hazmatmag.com/2017/10/performanceassessment-of-pump-and-treat-systems/
• LinkedIn - McKinsey Australian study on increasing urban housing stock - but where are the brownfields? McKinsey Global Institute conducted a study in Australia about increasing housing stocks in urban areas without ever dealing directly with brownfields - they talked about converting existing industrial sites (but cautioned about lost jobs), using under-utilized land (but defined "under-utilized" in terms of density), and "going greenfield", but never cast the discussion in terms of using brownfield sites. Interesting approach! Read the full article here

Want to see these items "as they happen"? Follow us on Twitter (@CdnBrownfields) or join our LinkedIn Group

 

Do You Have Industry News to Share?

Has your organization been involved in a notable project? Do you have a new product or service offering that might be of interest to our members? If so, our Industry News section, Twitter feed and LinkedIn Group are good places to share. Our quarterly newsletter publishing schedule is:

• mid-March
• mid-June
• mid-September
• mid-December

Twitter and LinkedIn items are posted the day they're received. If you have news for us, please submit it to davidp@canadianbrownfieldsnetwork.ca. Thanks for your support of CBN!

 

Member Profile - Vertex Environmental

The team at Vertex Environmental Inc. enjoys a challenge. As environmental contractors, we help Brownfield owners, consultants and civil contractors define and solve their environmental challenges.

Founded in 2003, the team has run on pure Canadian adrenalin while working coast to coast defining and remediating contamination using a variety of standard and innovative approaches.

Where detailed site understanding is required, Vertex makes use of the coolest High-Resolution Site Characterization (HRSC) tools including our membrane interface probe (MIP), low-level membrane interface probe (LL MIP), laser induced fluorescence (LIF) probe, and hydraulic profiling tool (HPT). The subsurface results are obtained in real time and can be interpreted and viewed using 3D models.

Where remediation is needed, Vertex jumps in with in-situ and ex-situ remediation solutions, including in-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO), in-situ chemical reduction (ISCR), enhanced biological, adsorptive carbon-based solutions, in addition to a variety of treatment systems, such as pump and treat (P&T), soil vapour extraction (SVE) and multi-phase extraction (MPE).

The nerdiest of those at Vertex work in our treatment laboratory, conducting detailed studies of soil and groundwater treatment methods. The combinations and permutations for treatment are inexpensively considered at the bench-scale to determine the correct design prior to pilot-scale or full-scale implementation.

What can we treat? Vertex is actively involved with remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs), chlorinated solvents and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs), in addition to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, and emerging contaminants such as the perfluorinated chemicals (PFOS, PFOA).

If you have contamination … if no one else can help … if you can find us … maybe you can work with … Vertex. We're the A-Team of environmental remediation.

For more information, please visit the Vertex website.

 

 

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