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NetworkingHow do we move from stand-alone transportation projects to integrated systems? Connecting all transit modes means first connecting industry leaders. So, in partnership with Arup and Thales Canada, we invited those leaders for a candid roundtable discussion. In the space of 90 minutes, Gordon Chong said a lot of things that can’t be printed. These sessions are always in camera and, as such, participants have the opportunity to speak off the record. One thing he would say openly: “Sometimes it’s good to have things stirred up.” Chong was arguably [...] |
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Flying Solo?Local airport owners rally for federal funding. Since the mid 1990s, many owners of small and regional Canadian airports have been struggling to maintain the viability of their airport’s finances and physical infrastructure. Although local airports are a valuable link in Canada’s transportation network, many community leaders say the federal government [...] |
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Seed MoneyCanadian cities are aiming to increase their tree canopies by planting thousands of trees, but without maintaining them, is it worth the investment? Sylvia Cordt works for the City of Toronto’s Department of Parks, Forestry & Recreation. She spent the morning of July 14 planting a tree downtown on Adelaide Street. This tree was being planted for pure aesthetic value, but Cordt says the city’s tree canopy is as important as other public works [...] |
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Built to LastAt this spring’s Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) conference, Andrew Lemer said new technologies mean that large-scale networks may be a thing of the past. Energy is the obvious example, but Lemer says the trend is the same for transportation. “People can travel by one mode and switch to [...] |
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Brave New WorldUtilities are on the front lines of a smart grid revolution. Meters and sensors are already generating unprecedented volumes of data. But is the industry ready? Can regulation catch up in time? In partnership with IBM, we invited a variety of players to the table to discuss the challenges and realities of our changing electricity system. With the capacity to put computers, meters, and sensors virtually anywhere, there’s no limit technically to the data that can be generated. Some would call this the foundation of a new smart grid. With the capacity to put computers, meters, and sensors virtually anywhere, there’s no limit technically [...] |
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Rounding ErrorThe weaknesses in PSAB 3150 requirements. During his keynote address at the Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) conference this May, Matrix Group’s Andrew C. Lemer said 98 per cent of the U.S. municipalities took the “easy way out” when complying with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s (GASB’s) Statement 34. When accounting [...] |
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Good Bill HuntingThe continuing campaign for a national transit strategy is about more than just funding. Shortly before the 2011 federal election was called, the Toronto Board of Trade (TBOT) issued its annual Scorecard on Prosperity, a snapshot of how Canada’s largest cities stack up internationally in terms of both livability and economic performance. Of 24 countries, Toronto ranked eighth overall [...] |
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Fission for a ComplimentNuclear energy is taking some hard knocks after a disaster in Japan displaced hundreds of thousands of people. But a bad rep may be the least of Canada’s nuclear woes. Jim and Patti Hutton sit at their picnic table outside of their home near Kincardine, Ontario squinting in the May sun, talking about nuclear power. It’s two months since an earthquake and tsunami devastated the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. Less than a minute’s drive down the road [...] |
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The Fourth RDurham Region is moving forward with its energy-from-waste facility after six years of controversy. Is recovering energy from waste putting recycling programs and our environment at risk? We partnered with law firm BLG to organize a discussion about whether Canadians should start saying reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. Across Canada, at least a dozen municipalities and regional councils are considering energy-from-waste (EFW) incineration for their residual wastes. Metro Vancouver is now formally on the path to building one or more EFW incinerators by 2015. Ottawa and Edmonton have deals with Plasco Energy Group and [...] |
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The Economics of Energy-from-WasteThe Regional Municipality of Durham undertook a business case analysis which included an economic analysis and a full consideration of alternatives before deciding to proceed with its EFW facility pursuant to a long-term design-build-operate-maintain contract with the private sector. The economic analysis [...] |
