Canada invests $4.1M in The Arbour

The federal government has announced a $4.1 million investment in The Arbour – George Brown College’s ten-storey mass-timber building. According to the institution, the $134-million project will be Ontario’s first mass-timber low-carbon building of its kind.

Construction at the college’s Waterfront Campus in Toronto will use an estimated 3,000 cubic metres of wood and will be a new, net-zero carbon emissions academic wood structure.

According to Natural Resources Canada, once complete, The Arbour will serve as a living laboratory where students and researchers will learn to design, construct, operate and monitor climate-friendly buildings. It will also house a new childcare facility.

“Mass timber engineering keeps getting better, creating new opportunities in the Canadian construction industry. We know how important innovative forest products are to meeting climate change targets, creating jobs, stimulating economic growth and building more resilient communities,” said Adam Vaughan, Member of Parliament, Spadina–Fort York in the NRC’s press release.

The $134-million project is the first project funded through the Canadian government’s Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) program.

“We couldn’t be happier about this announcement. The selection of The Arbour as an NRCan tall wood demonstration project is a significant achievement for George Brown College, the project team, and the City of Toronto. This versatile building will stand as a clear, inspiring demonstration of what can be achieved with modern wood construction. The example set by The Arbour will help drive advancement in sustainable wood construction and lead the way for additional tall wood projects in the Greater Toronto Area and across the country,” added Marianne Berube, Ontario Wood WORKS!

Construction of The Arbour is set to begin in 2021.

Rendering and Interactive Visualization

By definition, visualization technology is a technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message. But in essence, it’s so much more. Since the dawn of humanity, visual imagery has been used as an effective means for sharing complex thoughts and ideas—hence the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

From cave paintings to hieroglyphs, Greek geometry to painted renderings, year-by-year our imaging capabilities are advancing at a startling rate. Today, it’s hard to imagine a time when hand-drawn architectural sketches were the industry’s utmost tool.

“Visualization technology has given designers the ability to produce higher quality renderings far more quickly,” says Chris Febbraro, BIM Leader at RJC Engineers. “When changes occur to a project, they can be communicated faster and with more accuracy, making it more representative of an ever-evolving design. With BIM (Building Information Modelling), we are seeing that the model is alive and changing from week to week. This fluidity of design just wasn’t possible when we were putting drawings together by hand.”

Less risks, more rewards

While visualization technology plays a huge role in early-stage communication, according to Febbraro, it goes well beyond that—even helping to shape the outcome of the physical structure itself. “Just look at the development of the Toronto skyline today versus 40 years ago when buildings were more orthogonal,” he says. “Today we have complex organic façade systems stretching 90 storeys into the sky. This is a direct result of being able to design in a 3D workflow.”

Seeing the future in 3D detail minimizes the risk for stakeholders while potentially opening up some unexpected doors. “Renderings put the client at ease,” he says. “Interactive visualization takes it one step further and puts them inside the building.”

Although 2D drawings for construction and legal purposes are still required by the industry, visualization technology makes design collaboration much more immersive. Moving to a 3D workflow improves the process of finding and documenting design issues and clashes, thereby improving overall efficiencies. And beyond that, they’re highly satisfying.

“I sometimes think that because we’re working with 3D models every day, we’re a little bit jaded on how cool this technology is,” says Febbraro. “When an owner sees a photo-real rendering or animation, or jumps into an interactive visualization, they get incredibly excited by it. That being said, there’s also money and time saved if an owner sees something they don’t like. It is far more costly when issues are caught after the building is finished.”

3D Image Provided by RJC Engineers

Accuracy of renderings

Given that no two projects or schedules are alike, Febbraro says the accuracy of renderings essentially comes down to individual project requirements and software choices. In other words, they can be highly accurate or they can be more rudimentary.

“It’s driven primarily by how quickly the renderings need to be produced and how much an owner is willing to spend,” he says. “As much as I would love to produce renderings to the highest quality and accuracy every time, it’s usually not practical and follows the law of diminishing returns.”

That said, Febbraro points out that visualization integration with Revit (BIM software) is making the point of dimensional accuracy moot. “As we’re putting together our construction documentation, we can take a kind of snap-shot of the work we’ve done so far,” he says. “Theoretically after we finish the Revit model, we should be able see the building dimensionally accurate to how it will be built.”

Where will the technology take us next?

As for what the future holds, Febbraro predicts Virtual Reality is the next evolution of visualization technology. “VR is developing and becoming more in-line with the value it’s providing,” he says. “The quality of this technology will continue to improve, with better hardware, higher resolution displays and further miniaturization of the devices. On the software side, we’ll see better integration with Revit and other BIM software packages.”

And we shouldn’t ignore other related technologies, like AR (Augmented Reality). “I see AR as just as valuable, albeit less immersive than VR,” he says. “The barriers to using the technology will diminish as it becomes easier to use.”

Meanwhile, clients looking for rendering and interactive visualization services today won’t be disappointed. “ It’s not a very common thing to see a structural engineering company embrace visualization like RJC has. We hear time and time again from both the architects and owners we work with, that the level of service we offer is beyond what they’re used to seeing from other firms,” he says. “Overall, it’s well worth it.”

To find out how RJC’s visualization technology can benefit you, or to contact Chris Febbraro directly, visit: www.RJC.ca.

Nova Scotia to dim focus on lighting incentives

Diminishing additional savings from energy-efficient lighting are both a happy milestone and a future challenge for Nova Scotia conservation strategists. To date, a significant proportion of achieved energy savings are attributable to relatively inexpensive lighting upgrades. However, with the largest share of these easy fixes completed, the next steps get more complicated and costly.

In keeping with the provincial electricity efficiency plan and associated legislation, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB) will be considering a proposed three-year demand-side management (DSM) plan at a public hearing, beginning June 10. If approved, Nova Scotia Power will shift spending away from lighting incentives and into new program areas.

Following this year’s $1-million pilot project, approximately $10 million of the envisioned $129 million budget would be earmarked for demand reduction. Other new programs would offer added support for the small business and affordable multifamily housing sectors. An expanded range of products and technologies, including electric thermal storage and drain water heat recovery, would garner more funding or be newly eligible for rebates.

“Our plan is consistent with our mandate from successive governments to help Nova Scotia residents and businesses reduce their energy consumption and costs,” says Stephen MacDonald, chief executive officer of EfficiencyOne, the not-for-profit agency licensed as the delivery agent for energy conservation programs. “For every dollar customers invest in energy efficiency, they get back almost $5 in savings.”

This third three-year plan since the enabling legislation was enacted in 2014 sets out a strategy aimed at achieving approximately 422 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity savings and 20.7 megawatts (MW) of demand reduction in the 2020-2022 period. As proposed, it will place more emphasis on water and space heating, building envelope and program support to guide homeowners and commercial building owners/managers to deeper savings. It would also adopt a new performance metric to gauge energy savings over the complete lifecycle of the investment.

“While measures may have identical annual energy savings, they may have significantly different lifetime energy savings. Ratepayers should be aware of these differences,” EfficiencyOne reasons in its submission to the UARB.

Projected lifetime energy savings figure in the rationale for an increase in upfront program costs, particularly in tandem with fewer saving opportunities related to lighting. Envisioned measures are projected to equate to $0.31 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), up from an average of $0.23/kWh in 2016 to 2018. Although lighting incentives will continue to be available, primarily via retail-level product rebates and the small business program, non-lighting measures are targeted to deliver 55 per cent more than their historical contribution to savings.

“Implementing lighting measures is relatively inexpensive. Accordingly, as lighting measures decrease as a percentage of the DSM portfolio, a higher investment is required to achieve the same level of savings,” the plan states. “Further, the non-lighting measures are more complex and in order to stimulate the market for these measures, it is expected that higher levels of customer engagement and information sharing will be required.”

Significant paybacks are expected. For example, demand reduction presents commercial customers with a fairly immediate opportunity to reduce the peak demand charge the utility applies to their monthly bill. However, the even greater anticipated benefit is the longer-term opportunity to avoid flow-through rate impacts of investments in more generating capacity.

EfficiencyOne projects the three-year costs of implementing the plan will represent about 3 per cent of revenue from customers for the period, but should ultimately deliver $622.7 million in customer savings over the lifespan of adopted measures. When viewed from a lifetime savings perspective, 2020-22 program costs drop to $0.022/kWh.

“While DSM investment is one factor among many that impact NS Power’s costs and rates, DSM investment is the only expenditure by NS Power that directly allows customers to reduce their power bills,” the plan asserts. “DSM is an investment, not a cost.”

Ottawa emerges as luxury real estate hot spot: report

According to Engel & Völkers’ 2019 Spring Market Report, Ottawa is predicted to join Montreal as the next luxury real estate hot spot in Canada.

Engel & Völkers first ever Canadian spring market report provides an outlook for major Canadian luxury markets such as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, and Muskoka & Collingwood.

Key findings indicate that as a result of more condo projects flooding the market, population growth, and the local economy’s steady growth, Ottawa will likely continue to be an emerging hot housing market in Canada.

“The average sales price of a condominium-class property is $307,659, up 14.3 per cent from April last year,” the report says.

“The average sales price of a residential-class property is $488,729, up 7.4 per cent over April 2018. Year-to-date numbers show average price increases of 6.6 per cent and 8.7 per cent for residential and condominiums respectively.”

Other highlights in the report include:

Toronto & Montreal
Engel & Völkers anticipates prices will climb, especially in the condo market. The average sales price in Toronto has increased by 2.6 per cent year-over-year to $788,335 in March, and housing inventory was down 1.78 per cent this April compared to last year. Montreal’s total sales in March were up 30.66 per cent month-over-month and one per cent year-over-year, with single-family dwellings having the largest increase at 31.49 per cent month-over-month.

Both Toronto and Montreal have very low rental vacancy rates with increasing rents, creating additional buyer traffic in those markets.

Muskoka & Collingwood
Prime cottage country regions, like Muskoka, Collingwood and the surrounding areas, are showing signs of being a balanced seller’s market. These areas are transforming into destinations for long-term residential living catering to retirees and families while maintaining summer getaway status.

Housing inventories remain near historical lows, though a 25.8 per cent increase in active residential listings from the end of April 2018.

Vancouver
Vancouver transitioned into a buyer’s market as sales in March dipped 46.3 per cent below the ten-year sales average for the month – the lowest total since 1986.

Victoria
Victoria’s luxury market is also transitioning to a buyer’s market with its active listing inventory increasing 37.4 per cent in April compared to last year and properties remaining on the market for longer periods of time. Major factors like the non-resident tax, lower inflation and strict mortgage rules will likely continue to affect the market through 2019.

RAIC International Prize shortlist revealed

Three projects have been shortlisted for the 2019 RAIC International Prize for socially transformative architecture.

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) received submissions from 12 countries across six continents. 2019 marks the third edition of the biennial prize, which was founded in 2013 and is open to architects from anywhere in the world.

One Canadian firm – Hariri Pontarini Architects, of Toronto, ON – was selected for the Baha’i Temple of South America in Santiago, Chile. The Edificio E, Lecture Building in Peru by Barcaly & Crousse (Lima, Peru) and the Thread: Artists’ Residence and Cultural Center by Toshiko Mori Architect (New York, USA) are the two other shortlisted projects.

“We see in these exceptional buildings how architecture can strengthen community, bring together diverse peoples, lift the spirit, and exist in harmony with the environment,” said RAIC president Michael Cox, FRAIC. “Each of these projects offers lessons that can be applied elsewhere, and we hope they will inspire architects around the world as they design for human well-being.”

The RAIC, the RAIC Foundation, and distinguished Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama created the RAIC International Prize (formerly called the Moriyama RAIC International Prize) in 2013. Their goal was to share Canadian architectural values with an international audience and celebrate architecture that is socially transformative. One of the most generous architecture prizes in the world, it includes a monetary award of CAD $100,000 and a sculpture designed by Canadian designer Wei Yew.

In addition to the main prize, three scholarships of CAD $5,000 each will be awarded to three students of Canadian schools of architecture on the basis of a written essay.

The prize winner will be unveiled at a gala in Toronto, Canada on October 25, 2019.

Health PEI seeks more tick samples

Health PEI is asking Prince Edward Island residents to submit samples of biting ticks for a study tracking the human risk of tick-borne illness on Prince Edward Island.

Dr. Greg German, Health PEI medical microbiologist, said the laboratory he works at receives about 80 ticks a year from family and emergency room doctors but he wants to get more, especially the smaller sized ticks which can be the size of a poppy seed.

Ticks carry the potential for spreading Lyme disease, a serious bacterial infection that can have severe symptoms if not caught early.

“Studies from diagnostic laboratories can help us better understand our risk and improve prevention information to the public about checking for ticks. We are currently considered low risk for Lyme disease in P.E.I, but we want more confidence in that rating,” German said in the press release.

Islanders can bring ticks to any Health PEI laboratory for analysis if they were directly attached to a human. Tick collection kits are also available in laboratory locations.

Health PEI reassures the public that this “analysis will not replace testing of those patients who show symptoms of a tick-borne illness or those who have health concerns due to a tick bite.”

Construction labour force recruitment critical

Between 2019 and 2021, a significant amount of competing large-scale, multi-billion dollar projects are expected to commence in British Columbia. Construction demand is growing faster than the labour force as peak activity approaches.

In the Lower Mainland, demand is being driven by high levels of both residential and non-residential construction. Key projects include the Pattullo Bridge replacement, the Vancouver airport expansion, the Millennium Line and Surrey light rail transit systems, St. Paul’s Hospital, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority container expansion, and a range of pipeline projects. The ongoing growth in demand for residential and commercial buildings will only add to these strong labour market pressures.

In northern B.C., the start of construction on the LNG Canada facility along with ongoing work at BC Hydro’s Site C project, the development of the TC Energy Coastal GasLink pipeline, Phase 4 of the Highway 1 project, and other major public infrastructure projects are stretching the available labour force beyond its limits.

Hundreds of smaller projects across the province are also combining to add strain to labour markets.

Based on current known demands, BuildForce Canada estimates that the labour force will need to grow by at least 14,600 workers – 1,700 residential and 12,900 non-residential – by 2021. At the same time, the industry is expected to lose approximately 13,000 workers due to retirement, while only adding a possible 11,300 new entrant workers during this period. Combined, this could create a potential recruitment gap of 16,300 workers by 2021.

Where will construction workers come from to satisfy peak demand?

Following the 2008-09 recession, unemployment rates in the construction sector dropped significantly from about 6.0 to only 3.7 per cent by 2018. Lower unemployment rates provide plenty of opportunities for workers, but significantly constrain the ability of employers to recruit inside the province.

Northern B.C. will likely require a set of skills significantly different from those in the Lower Mainland. Major industrial projects in the north will drive demand for industrial trades, such as boilermakers, steamfitters, pipefitters, millwrights, ironworkers, and welders. Lower Mainland skillsets will skew to civil construction. The simultaneous peaks of activity in both regions and somewhat mismatched skillsets will discourage labour mobility within the province.

Attracting workers from outside the province will also be a challenge. While construction workers from Atlantic Canada could once be counted on as a swing workforce, stronger demand in Ontario is creating significant competition for these workers. Projects such as the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, Toronto’s Eglinton LRT (light rail transit) project, and nuclear refurbishments for Ontario Power Generation and Bruce Power are all contributing to similar labour force demands that will compete directly with B.C. for the same skillsets.

While apprenticeship programs are essential to building the province’s long-term workforce, they are unlikely to produce short-term relief to meet B.C.’s current demand up-cycle. Since programs take three to four years to complete, apprenticeships alone are unlikely to fill the anticipated requirements. And with growing competition from other sectors for youth, ensuring the construction and maintenance industry continues to attract its historical share of young workers is far from guaranteed.

Moving forward, the path is clear — the industry must broaden its recruitment to attract the new workers it requires to keep pace with construction and maintenance industry demands.

Clearly, expanding recruitment to draw in more individuals from groups traditionally underrepresented in the current construction labour force, such as women, Indigenous people and new Canadians will be essential to avoid the formation of labour force gaps created by the growing number of retirements.

To that end, BuildForce has developed a number of tools to help employers with labour force development. Key among these is our Working in a Respectful and Inclusive Workplace online course and employer support tools. The tools are available on our website and were designed to assist employers, large and small, to implement policies and procedures that can create a more welcoming and inclusive workplace environment. Simply put, the industry needs to ensure that the investments made to recruit new workers to the industry are fully realized and not undermined by onsite behaviours that discourage new workers from remaining.

As the B.C. construction and maintenance industry addresses the challenges of peak labour demand in 2021, ongoing attention to labour force recruitment and retention will be invaluable and help set the stage for developing a sustainable and diverse labour force into the future.

Bill Ferreira is the executive director of BuildForce Canada. BuildForce Canada is a national industry-led organization committed to working with the construction industry to provide information and resources to assist with its management of workforce requirements.

How to make buildings truly “smart”

We all hear a lot about smart buildings – so much that you’d think they were everywhere. But when you look at the data, it seems that most buildings are as dull-witted as ever.

Energy efficiency is a core aspect of a smart building, and yet building energy use has risen over the past several years. The United Nations, noting that about 40 per cent of today’s global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings, is taking on the problem with its new Global Building Network. The network, with Penn State’s Institutes of Energy and the Environment as a lead institution, aims to create an international framework that will make buildings more sustainable, more efficient, and healthier to live and work in.

Standards are clearly important. Issues like ineffective controls and a mismatch between design assumptions and building occupant behaviors deserve plenty of scrutiny. Part of the problem, though, is the persistent issue of performance drift – buildings and building systems should be highly efficient, but performance deteriorates rapidly or never matches the model. To really solve that problem, we need to rethink the metrics we use to measure energy design for smart buildings.

Accountability drives efficiency
Singapore provides an excellent model. It has been rolling out a policy that builds in accountability for meeting carefully crafted performance targets, and the city is already seeing significant success. Singapore started with a standard for cooling systems based on metrics for efficiency rather than gross energy use. This puts the responsibility on the designers: a cooling system can meet an efficiency-based performance standard even if building operators overcool. If the building doesn’t meet that standard, you know the problem is the system, and if it does but still uses too much energy, you know the problem is operational.

As for drift, advanced high-performance systems require monitoring and support to function optimally over time. Singapore addresses this issue by requiring that the system’s design and construction include measurement and verification features. Initial results from Singapore’s shift in metrics are dramatic: cooling systems in existing buildings subject to the standard are demonstrating an average efficiency improvement of nearly 50 percent.

Now Singapore is moving on to overall energy use indices (EUIs) for various building types, along with a simple way to track energy performance. The idea is that with all these guidelines in place, it will be easy to see where performance problems are coming from – the system or its operation – and the route to a more efficient building will be clear.

More ways to inspire action
Another way to encourage accountability is to establish a metric for building efficiency that is relevant for all types of facilities – weather-adjusted BTUs per square foot, for example. That would allow easy benchmarking: publicly rating facilities within their category (data centers, hospitals, office buildings, and so on) would give designers and operators a target and a motivation for working to make them top performers.

Linking energy modeling to energy action would also lead to better performance. Architects now have tools that let them model energy usage in any number of scenarios to see where the greatest savings are. Similarly, building operators can visualize their energy use and the effects of various actions through dashboard tools, but they often don’t take action because doing so seems too complex or disruptive. These visualizations need to be tied to automated optimization software that takes the friction out of energy efficiency decisions.

Visualization and action are symbiotic. Unless dashboards drive actions, they will always be one-dimensional. Conversely, if all you’re doing is acting, you won’t be able to accurately assess the value of your actions or see when things go off track.

Designing for today’s needs, not yesterday’s
Real building efficiency also requires re-imagining building infrastructure with focus on sustainable use. Building components that use the most energy, such as lighting and HVAC systems, often are designed, configured, and used based on the habits of decades past. When that happens, even systems that incorporate the latest technology will use more energy than necessary.

The biggest challenge with HVAC systems – which account for nearly 50 percent of the typical commercial building’s energy use – is that they are more highly engineered and complex than they need to be. They’re also sized to meet maximum peak energy needs, not for efficiency. In the retrofit market, the best we can do is improve poorly designed systems. That’s well worth doing in terms of efficiency results, as the Singapore example shows.

But when designing new buildings, we can and should be asking: What would the perfect HVAC system look like? What would the perfect lighting system look like? How can all the building’s systems connect holistically to eliminate waste? That’s how we’ll get a technical answer to the performance drift problem, along with truly smart buildings.

Bert Valdman is a board member and former CEO of Optimum Energy. This article first appeared at www.facilitymanagement.com.

RFQ issued for Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital

The new St. Paul’s Hospital is one step closer to starting construction, with the issuing of a Request for Qualifications (RFQ).

The RFQ issued by Providence Health Care is the first stage in the competitive selection process and invites teams to express their interest in, and qualifications for, designing, building and partially financing the new hospital.

The provincial government announced the approval of the business plan for the new St. Paul’s on February 15, 2019. The new St. Paul’s – to be constructed at a new site at 1002 Station Street in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats – will have capacity for up to 548 beds, which includes 115 net new beds. The site will be the home of several leading provincial programs and referral centres, including for heart and lung care, renal, eating disorders and specialty surgeries and transplants.

“Patients, caregivers, physicians and researchers have waited patiently for a new St. Paul’s to continue the legacy of excellence for the next 125 years and beyond. Selecting the people who will eventually design and construct the new hospital is a key milestone to propel the project toward construction.” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health.

The RFQ process is expected to be finalized – with the three teams selected – by the fall of 2019. The subsequent RFP process will be initiated shortly after that and is expected to take up to one year to finalize, after which the construction stage can be initiated.

“The new St. Paul’s is a critical investment into B.C.’s health care system,” said Fiona Dalton, president and CEO, Providence Health Care. “With Providence contributing a major share of the capital costs through the sale of the current St. Paul’s site, the equally significant contribution from the provincial government and with substantial donations from the philanthropic community through the St. Paul’s Foundation, this is truly a unique partnership-based project in B.C. and Canada.”

Providence is planning to build other phases on the health campus, including a clinical and research centre connected to the hospital.

WSIB to undergo review

The Ontario government has appointed special advisers, Linda Regner Dykeman and Sean Speer to conduct a review of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

Dykeman has more than 25 years of commercial insurance experience and is currently Head of MidCorp Canada, a division of Allianz. Speer is a senior fellow in Public Policy at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

“Ensuring the long-term sustainability of the WSIB will provide workers and their families with peace of mind, knowing if they are injured on the job or have a work-related illness, they will receive the benefits and services they are entitled to,” said Laurie Scott, Minister of Labour in the press release.

“Reviewing and improving the WSIB is one of the ways our government is ensuring that Ontario can continue to attract investment and create good jobs,” Scott added.

Late last year, the Minister of Finance’s Fall Economic Statement 2018 noted the government’s intent to review the WSIB.

Specifically, the operational review will focus on:

Financial Oversight: sustainability of the WSIB insurance fund and controls over it
Administration: effectiveness of the current WSIB governance and executive management structure
Efficiency: the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of operations, including comparisons to competing jurisdictions and private sector insurers

The provincial government launched the review on May 23 and will be accepting public comment until July 26.

Buildings in mix for breakthrough energy fund

The buildings sector has been targeted in the Canadian government’s search for breakthrough energy solutions. A new fund bearing that name will provide clean technology developers with up to $3 million or 50 per cent of project costs toward the advancement of manufacturing, electricity, transportation or buildings related innovations with the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 0.5 gigatonnes annually.

“The dawning global low-carbon economy is estimated to be worth $26 trillion,” says Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change. “Every day, Canada’s inventors and investors, engineers and entrepreneurs are coming up with smarter, cleaner ways of doing things. Their ideas are our best tools in the fight against climate change.”

Candidates who own or have licensing rights to an intellectual property and meet prescribed technology-readiness requirements have until September 11 to apply to the newly announced Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada (BESC) program, which is envisioned as a means to accelerate clean technology development and attract further investment. Natural Resources Canada will oversee the program, while the investor-led Breakthrough Energy Coalition will act as a consultant and offer successful proponents potential backing of its associated $1-billion+ global fund in support of climate change action.

“Collaboration across the public and private sectors is a powerful way to advance the energy innovations and companies needed for a carbon-free future,” maintains Bill Gates, the chair of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “We are hopeful that this Breakthrough Energy partnership with Canada will be a model for developing more collaborations.”

Potentially eligible innovations include those that: decrease the carbon intensity of a GHG-emitting product or system; increase the deployment and/or improve the performance of an existing low-GHG product or system; introduce a new low-GHG product or system into the market; or introduce a systems-level structural change that enables any of those advancements.

Within the buildings sector, BESC administrators foresee that occurring via low-carbon building systems and construction techniques, intelligent buildings and innovative, high-performance heating and cooling technologies. Qualifying electricity technologies include those to related low-carbon generation and grid management. Targeted manufacturing technologies would also have a impact in the built environment since they centre on low-carbon production of steel and cement among other materials.

Up to $30 million will be available to disperse in amounts of $300,000 to $3 million. Proponents will be required to begin work by April 1, 2020 and achieve tangible performance targets within two years. Preference will be given to companies that are already generating revenue, have previously secured at least $500,000 in investment or have signed on a significant co-funder prepared to adopt the technology.

When fentanyl hits home

What do Murder 8, Apache, China Girl, China White, Friend, Dance Fever, Goodfella, Jackpot, TNT, and Tango and Cash all have in common? They’re all street names for fentanyl or fentanyl-laced heroin.

Fentanyl is an incredibly powerful synthetic opioid analgesic used as an anesthetic and for the treatment of chronic pain. According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety, fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine, 50 times more toxic than heroin, and 20 to 40 times more potent than heroin, all of which means the risk of an overdose is extremely high. The RCMP states that two milligrams of pure fentanyl—about the size of four grains of salt—can kill the average adult.

So why is fentanyl a topic of discussion in a rental apartment magazine? Because given the prevalence of fentanyl in other street drugs today, the police and fire department aren’t always the first to arrive at the scene of an overdose. Regardless of the neighbourhood, it can just as easily be landlords, property managers, realtors or janitors.

Death toll rising

According to the Justice Institute of British Columbia, 62 per cent of the province’s known fatal drug overdoses in 2016 involved fentanyl compared to just four per cent in 2012. In March 2017, the province recorded 120 fatal overdoses all linked to fentanyl, which is about 3.9 deaths per day.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported that of the 9,000-plus deaths recorded throughout Canada between January 2016 and June 2018, 2,066 were opioid-related. 94 per cent were accidental and 72 per cent involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogues.

Labs and covert operations

Because fentanyl is synthetic, it can be easily and inexpensively made in a lab, and labs can pop up just about anywhere—including rental apartments. Tasteless, odourless and difficult to detect, exposure can occur unintentionally simply by touch or inhalation.

If a landlord detects an illegal drug operation is underway on his or her property (tip-offs may include boarded windows, scales, chemicals, baggies and discarded pill casings) immediate action is required. Landlords are advised to evacuate the building at once and call in the authorities. Fentanyl poses a huge risk to anyone not wearing the right safety equipment, so it is imperative no one enters a contaminated unit or area unless authorized to do so.

In fact, Christian Cadieux, president of Toronto-based Crime & Trauma Scene Cleaners Inc., believes it is possible that flies and other insects might carry fentanyl-laced bodily fluids from a newly discovered corpse to a first responder. Several RCMP cases have involved officers entering vapour-filled vehicles or rooms, only to become gravely ill and in need of immediate medical attention after only a few minutes of exposure to the fentanyl-laced heroin.

In other words, there are no safe steps a landlord can take to verify a drug lab suspicion aside from alerting the police.

Overdose signs and symptoms

Similar to morphine or heroin, fentanyl works to bind opioid receptors in the brain to quickly depress the central nervous system and respiratory function while boosting levels of the chemical dopamine, which controls the feelings of pleasure, euphoria, reward and relaxation.

Many overdoses and deaths have occurred because individuals weren’t even aware they were consuming fentanyl, which can be in the form of powder, liquid (injection), skin patch, or pill. As mentioned, fentanyl can be mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and counterfeit pills made to look like legal prescription opioids.

If an individual has overdosed, signs will include: difficulty walking, talking, or staying awake. He or she may have blue lips or fingernails, unusually small ‘pinpoint’ pupils, clammy and cold skin, dizziness and confusion, nausea, extreme drowsiness, gurgling, choking, or snoring sounds, slow, weak or no breathing and the inability to wake up, even when shouted at or shook.

Anyone exhibiting these symptoms should be encouraged to sit up, or if incapable, positioned sideways while 911 is called. According to www.fentanylsafety.com, a website for first responders developed by the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Naloxone is a temporary antidote for opioid overdoses that when properly administered in a timely fashion, can restore normal breathing and consciousness to individuals experiencing an overdose. A Naloxone kit is available free to qualified individuals such as landlords from most pharmacies today provided they have a valid Health Card.

Meanwhile, if it was necessary to make physical contact with the victim, http://www.drugabuse.com advises the handler to thoroughly clean skin with soap and water, but not to use a hand sanitizer or bleach, which contain alcohol and may increase the absorption of fentanyl.

Executing an emergency response involving fentanyl is not something most rental housing operators signed-on for, but like many of the hats we wear today, sadly, it’s become part of the job. Being prepared in case it happens is the best way to prevent a tragedy.

Chris Seepe is a published writer and author, ‘landlording’ course instructor, president of the Landlords Association of Durham, and a commercial real estate broker of record at Aztech Realty in Toronto, specializing in income-generating and multi-residential investment properties. (416) 525-1558 Email [email protected]; website: www.drlandlord.ca

Crombie announces $193.3M deal with Oak Street

Crombie REIT will sell an 89 per cent non-managing interest in 15 retail properties across Canada to Oak Street Real Estate Capital (Oak Street) for $193 million.

Crombie will retain an 11 per cent ownership interest and will continue to manage and operate the properties. The transaction includes approximately 720,698 square feet of primarily free-standing grocery-anchored properties.

“This partial disposition is another example of our team’s solid execution of our strategy,” said Don Clow, President and CEO in the trust’s press release.

The 15-property transaction is scheduled to close in the fall of 2019.

“Priced in line with IFRS fair values, it provides important funding to facilitate significant progress towards completion of our first five major development projects, which are expected to be nicely accretive to Net Asset Value and AFFO. This transaction strengthens our balance sheet through debt reduction and enables pre-funding of our major development activities well into 2020, aligning with our long-term funding strategy.”

“These properties are an excellent addition to our portfolio, which is designed to create stable long-term cash flow backed by investment-grade rated corporations,” said Marc Zahr, chief executive officer and managing partner of Oak Street. “Crombie’s industry leadership and long-term commitment to invest in these locations fits perfectly with our income-based strategy. We are very pleased to continue and grow our partnership with Crombie.”

The portfolio is 100 per cent occupied and is subject to long term leases with Sobeys.

Emil Anderson awarded Illecillewaet Highway 1

Emil Anderson Construction has been awarded the contract for a four-laning project on the Trans-Canada Highway. The project will improve safety, efficiency and capacity along this section of Highway 1.

The Illecillewaet four-laning project, approximately 42 kilometres east of Revelstoke, includes two kilometres of highway widening, expanding the existing brake-check area to accommodate up to 15 trucks and adding acceleration and deceleration lanes for commercial vehicles entering or leaving the brake check.

This is the first project on the Trans-Canada Highway between Kamloops and Alberta to be built using the Community Benefits Agreement.

Community benefits will include job and training opportunities for people in the local area and will increase the participation of apprentices and workers traditionally under-represented in the construction trades, such as Indigenous peoples, women and people with disabilities.

The $85.2-million project is cost shared. The Government of Canada is contributing up to $15.5 million through the Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component of the New Building Canada Fund and the Province is providing the remaining $69.7 million. The project budget has increased by $22.3 million due to escalating costs of materials, labour and the complexity of the work required.

Work is expected to get underway next month, with completion in spring 2022.

Emil Anderson Construction is based in Kelowna and has been operating in B.C. for more than 70 years. Their operations include all aspects of road construction, asphalt paving, bridge construction, industrial construction and site and residential land development.

Rick Hansen Foundation launches “Everyone Everywhere” campaign, expands facility certification

The Rick Hansen Foundation kicked off its Everyone Everywhere campaign to improve accessibility for Canadians of all abilities whenever they work, live, and play.

Designed in partnership with creative agency TAXI Canada, the initiative launched on May 22, 2019, with the goal of raising awareness for the critical need to improve physical accessibility in all built environments.

“Accessibility is a basic human right,” said Rick Hansen, Founder of the Rick Hansen Foundation. “Currently, one-in-five Canadians have a disability; and despite the growing number of seniors and people with both temporary and permanent disabilities, Canada is still not accessible for all. I hope this campaign sparks a national conversation on how we can work together to make Canada truly inclusive.”

Elements include a hand-painted mural and “Poster for Everyone,” an interactive backlit poster in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square which features:

Messaging that adjusts to the viewer’s eye-line based on their height, including those using wheelchairs;
font size that adjusts for those with low vision;
audio speakers that played the message on the poster as well as a Braille pad for those with low vision or who are blind; and
language detection with text that changed to the native language of those speaking French, Mandarin, or Arabic.

Part of the launch includes a video of people of various abilities interacting with it for use on social media under the hashtag #EveryoneEverywhere. The campaign will include broadcast, print, digital, and social media elements as it expands throughout 2019.

The Everyone Everywhere campaign coincides with the national expansion of Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification (RHFAC), the first and only program in Canada to rate the accessibility of the built environment based on meaningful access for people with varying disabilities affecting their mobility, vision, and hearing. The government of Ontario has pledged to invest $1.3 million in the program over the next two years, which will assist the Foundation in rating over 250 facilities.

“Removing barriers in buildings will help make communities and businesses more accessible and open for jobs,” said Raymond Cho, Minister for Seniors and Accessibility. “We are working to ensure people with disabilities have the support and resources they need to participate more fully in their communities, as consumers and employees. Being accessible benefits businesses and communities and opens them up to qualified talent and more customers.”

Project team selected for BMO Centre expansion

Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) and Calgary Stampede has selected three architectural firms: Stantec, Populous, and S2 Architecture to lead the complex, $500-million expansion of the BMO Centre.

The BMO Centre project team has been carefully selected to provide expertise in four key areas: convention venue operations, project management, construction management and architectural design.

“The team at Stantec, Populous, and S2 Architecture offer un-paralleled expertise in not only the building’s design, but how it will interact and integrate with the surrounding community and Stampede Park. After years of planning, it is very exciting to bring this team on board to realize our vision,” says Dana Peers, president and chairman of the board of the Calgary Stampede.

Chosen for their involvement in convention centre design and global community projects, Stantec, an Edmonton-based design and consulting company, will act as the Calgary-based prime consultant and Architect of Record (AOR). Global architectural firm Populous will be the architectural design lead, and S2’s interior design and architectural firm will lead the construction administration team. PCL Construction will provide construction management.

“With our background in convention centre design, Populous will help expand not only a marquee events facility, but also expand and grow the whole guest experience in and around Stampede Park. Our design solutions for this complex urban convention centre expansion will help usher an exciting new future where residents and international event attendees co-exist daily in a dynamic and burgeoning Culture and Entertainment District,” says Michael Lockwood, senior principal at Populous.

To allow for the expansion, minimizing any disruption to BMO Centre operations, work began this spring to construct an additional space, known as Hall F. Local firms Gibbs Gage and Stuart Olson are managing the construction of the approximately 100,000 square foot Hall F immediately north of the existing centre. Construction on Hall F is expected to be complete in the spring of 2020.

The centre’s construction is scheduled to commence in April 2021, and the facility will open in June 2024. This expansion is part of a large-scale enhancement to the Stampede Park and will spark development of Calgary’s emerging Culture and Entertainment District.

“When the expansion is completed in 2024, BMO Centre will have more than doubled its current rentable space, with nearly one million square ft. of total floor space, making it the second-largest facility of its kind in the country,” says Peers.

Canada invests in deep energy retrofits at Edmonton residence

The Government of Canada announced it is investing $2.5 million towards deep energy retrofits at 59 Sundance Housing Co-operative in Edmonton. When complete, all 51 units of the wood frame townhouse complex will be net-zero ready.

The retrofit will focus on installing new, energy-efficient exterior wall panels, which will be designed and fabricated off-site by using digital imaging. The panels will be installed over the existing exterior walls, thus requiring no demolition and allowing the work to be done quickly and with less disruption to occupants.

“The transition to a clean energy economy requires collective action to make Canada’s buildings more energy-efficient,” said Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources. “This project is an example of how the Government of Canada is collaborating closely with partners to develop innovative solutions that will benefit all Canadians, putting more money in their pockets while reducing pollution.”

The project aims to accelerate the uptake of panelized prefabricated deep energy retrofits across North America — cutting costs and reducing pollution. Natural Resources Canada is funding the project through its Energy Innovation Program (EIP), which supports initiatives to accelerate clean technology development.

The project is also part of Canada’s $180-billion Investing in Canada infrastructure plan.
The global shift underway toward a cleaner, greener economy is a crucial moment for the Canadian economy. From May 27 to 29, 2019, Canada will welcome over 25 countries to this year’s Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation Ministerial to discuss a future that is cleaner, brighter and more prosperous for generations to come.

Canada will showcase its leadership in cleantech innovation, champion the issue of gender equality, youth and Indigenous peoples in clean energy and promote Canada as a global investment destination. Learn more at: http://cem-mi-vancouver2019.ca/.