Summary

An abandoned, century-old industrial facility in midtown Toronto is transformed into a vibrant, sustainable community hub that includes 26 units of affordable housing. Artscape Wychwood Barns is the first designated heritage site in Canada to achieve LEED^® Gold certification.

Context

Built as a streetcar-maintenance facility a century ago, Wychwood Car Barns are a series of five buildings decommissioned in the 1980s and subsequently designated a heritage site. In response to community demand, the City of Toronto called for proposals to redevelop the four-acre (1.6 hectare) site while preserving some of its heritage. Artscape, a successful not-for-profit real-estate development organization led the project and operates the buildings under a 50-year lease.

Energy efficiency and financial sustainability are central to the project, which houses arts organizations, working artists and urban agriculture. Affordable housing accounts for about one-third of the project’s $22 million capital cost; rents for the 26 live-work spaces (studio, and one- and two-bedroom apartments) are geared to tenant incomes of tenants. The City of Toronto converted the remainder of the site into a park with a dog run, playground and skating rink.

Approach

Redevelopment was a difficult and expensive proposition for several reasons. The site was contaminated with creosote, asbestos and lead, for instance, while the heritage designation precluded demolition of the buildings. And residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods held starkly different opinions about redevelopment.

In 2001, Artscape established a Community Advisory Council. After more than five years of contentious and often bitter consultations, a compelling vision emerged: a beautifully restored property blending heritage preservation, arts and culture, environmental leadership, parkland, urban agriculture and affordable housing. The diverse uses attracted financial contributions from many sources and construction began.

Contaminated soil was removed; energy- and water-saving amenities were installed, including a geothermal system to heat and cool the buildings, energy-efficient lighting and appliances, low-flow water fixtures and a rainwater-collection system for toilets and irrigation. The project aimed to emit approximately 40% fewer greenhouse gases, and consume 60% less drinking water and 40% less energy than conventional buildings.

"By incorporating affordable housing, community development, heritage preservation and environmental sustainability, Artscape Wychwood Barns delivers social, environmental, financial and cultural benefits – the quadruple bottom line."
– Tim Jones, Chief Executive Officer, Artscape

Environmental Measures

• First designated heritage site in Canada to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification
• Geothermal system provides heating and cooling; reflective roof panels limit heat absorption in summer
• Rainwater flows into on-site cistern for use in toilets and irrigation; low-flow plumbing fixtures installed throughout
• No on-site parking encourages use of adjacent public-transit system
• Windows feature spectrally selective low-e glazing to reduce solar gains and enhances use of day lighting

Results

To date, Artscape Wychwood Barns has experienced challenges with the first generation geothermal system. The company that supplied and installed the system is no longer in business.

During the project, 7,400 cubic metres of contaminated soil were removed and treated. In addition, 71% of construction waste was diverted from landfill and 30% of building materials were sourced locally.

Artscape operates the facility on a cost-recovery basis without ongoing financial support from the City of Toronto. The property generates property tax revenues, and supports economic, social and cultural activities.

Lessons Learned

A consultative design process improves results.
The Community Advisory Council, along with Artscape, hosted a series of open houses and design charrettes to explore design ideas for the site with local residents. Friends of the New Park, an independent group of neighbourhood residents, supported these efforts and played a key role in the shared vision that eventually emerged.

Redeveloping former industrial sites often involves managing unforeseen difficulties and expenses.
Two factors complicated the remediation process: unexpected contaminants and changing standards for the removal and disposal of toxic waste. The decision to pursue LEED Gold certification also added to the complexity and cost of the project.

New technologies don’t always perform as anticipated.
The geothermal system, which featured a vertical underground network – most are horizontal – was challenged by first generation geothermal technology. Subsequent geothermal technologies are more reliable.

Contact

Tim Jones
Chief Executive Officer
Artscape
(416) 392-1038
tjones@artscape.ca

In Pointe-Fortune, a municipality with a population of 570 located in western Quebec, it was the mayor who took it upon himself to start managing municipal assets. In summer 2019, after completing a workshop on asset management given by the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, in collaboration with the Centre d'expertise et de recherche en infrastructures urbaines, as part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP), the mayor realized what was at stake and pulled on his work boots and gloves to go do an inventory of the assets.

François Bélanger took his job seriously. After working in finance for 28 years, the mayor understood the value of having a municipal asset management plan that makes it possible to better plan actions, respond at the right place and time, and save money.

As is the case for many small municipalities, Pointe-Fortune has limited human resources. The city has two full-time employees—a city manager and an executive assistant—as well as a part-time inspector. In this case, the mayor was not required to engage his staff as much as he would in a bigger city, where it is crucial to rally a greater number of resources behind the objective and where interdisciplinary teamwork is key to making asset management a sustainable practice.

The mayor started by reviewing the city’s assets with the city inspector. He then began collecting data in the field, conducting an inventory of culverts, then roads, and carefully noting the condition of each asset. Afterwards, he did the rounds of all city properties, where he made some surprising discoveries.

This work helped Mr. Bélanger uncover the poor state of some municipal assets, including a culvert that required immediate action. He also discovered that his municipality had walking trails in an ecologically significant area near a neglected community building.

With sound knowledge of its assets and improved planning, Pointe-Fortune is now prepared to repair its roadway network within the next few years. It also plans on developing the potential of the community building as well as the trails leading to a marsh valued by ecologists.

Now that the asset management process is well underway, the mayor of Pointe-Fortune does not intend to just sit idly by. He plans to carry on by completing the inventory of municipal assets and refining the baseline data for each asset. To do so, he believes he will need additional resources, including a new application to replace the Excel spreadsheet currently used to catalogue inventory. He also plans on developing his skills with training and tools offered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Fédération québécoise des municipalités.

Information on the organization

Municipality: Pointe-Fortune
Region: Montérégie
Population: 570
Mayor: François Bélanger, elected in 2017 (city councillor since 2008)
Website: https://pointefortune.ca

Contact

Jean-Charles Filion, City Manager
Municipality of Pointe-Fortune
450-451-5178, ext. 2
directeur@pointefortune.ca

Additional resources

Learn about the asset management training available in your area.

Read the guide entitled Questions to ask before your municipality considers asset management software.

Pointe-Fortune mayor François Bélanger and city inspector Andréa Chouinard

Asset management involves making coordinated decisions about maintaining, replacing and repairing municipal infrastructure. This practice allows municipalities to handle their assets in a sustainable way and provide reliable services to their citizens.

A key challenge for many municipalities, whether they are just getting started in asset management or further along the path, is to ensure that staff have the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours (or “competencies”) to develop and implement asset management policies and programs.

About the Asset Management Competency Framework

The Asset Management Competency Framework for Canadian Communities (AMCF) is a tool that can help. The framework explains the different skills and knowledge needed for effective asset management, the job types where those competencies are relevant, and how all the pieces fit together across your municipality. It shows you how to assess and grow staff skills and knowledge in a systematic way. 

To complement the AMCF tool, CNAM is excited to offer a new Implementing the AMCF Framework E-Learning course. Learn how to take the recommended steps for implementing a competency framework and apply them to your organization with self-guided lessons by top industry leaders. You’ll learn about building a competency management program to enhance AM capacity with the flexibility to learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.

Ultimately, you will be able to create a map of the strengths and weaknesses of individuals, teams and departments. This provides a foundation for planning how to fill the gaps—through learning activities, recruitment and succession planning.

"Well-developed competencies that are aligned with an organization’s strategic priorities provide…a very clear description of the culture that you want to have as an organization."
– Iain Cranston

The Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) created this tool with assistance from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Municipal Asset Management Program.

In a truly collaborative effort, CNAM developed the AMCF in partnership with eight other national associations with expertise in various aspects of asset management, community management and associated industries. To ensure that it would be useful on a very practical level to a broad range of communities, two groups of communities piloted the framework.

Who is it for?

The AMCF was designed to be relevant to a broad spectrum of communities.

"Users of the AMCF can be confident that it will serve as a useful tool for all communities, regardless of their size or where they may be in their asset management journey. Using a standardized framework that aligns with industry best practices, significantly improves our ability to build asset management capacity within the organization."
– Chris Klos, City of Winnipeg, MB

What can the AMCF do for you?

The Asset Management Competency Framework can help you…

• Develop a shared understanding across your municipality of the asset management roles and responsibilities held by each department or job type
• Update existing job descriptions to include the knowledge, skills and behaviours (i.e. competencies) relevant to asset management
• Create new job descriptions for any full-time asset management positions you would like to fill
• Assess the competency proficiency levels of staff on a four-level scale
• Communicate to council the value of further training and additional staff
• Develop a program to address competency gaps through training and recruitment
• Improve succession planning

Sign up to access the Asset Management Competency Framework and learn more about how to get started.

"I have a better appreciation of how important people are in an overall asset management system”
– Logan McVeity, Town of East Gwillimbury, ON (cohort participant)

"The AM Competency Framework (AMCF) … supported my creation of new job descriptions and hiring of staff to support asset management within the City of Regina. The AMCF will further support development and training of staff both within my branch and also more broadly across the organization."
– Geoff Brown, City of Regina, SK (cohort participant)

Other resources

• With support from FCM, CNAM has developed an introductory booklet, Asset Management 101: The What, Why, and How For Your Community.

Contact

Iain Cranston
CNAM MAMP3 Program Manager
Tel:  250-801-0598

General inquiries about the AMCF

In the Region of Peel, ON, extreme rainfall events have caused flooding that has impacted residents and municipal infrastructure. With climate change, these occurrences are expected to become more frequent and severe. Temperature increases intensify the environmental impacts, making the receiving streams more vulnerable to a rise in water temperature.

A key strategy in addressing this issue is the region’s expanding network of roadways, whose drainage systems contribute to the flow of stormwater into the watershed. The Region of Peel completed an innovative project to reconstruct the storm drainage system using a low-impact development (LID) approach that mimics the natural movement of water through the environment on a six-lane regional road - Mississauga Road. The project was funded through a grant from FCM’s Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP).

In 2014, Peel’s regional council made plans to pilot low-impact development principles as part of a watershed approach to stormwater management. The aim is to take the health of the whole watershed into consideration, while reducing infrastructure life cycle costs and maintaining high service levels.

Low-impact development uses existing landscape features and construction techniques to infiltrate, filter and absorb rainwater upstream, where it falls. It’s a cost-effective way to reduce stormwater runoff, improve its quality and prevent temperature changes in receiving waterways.

The Mississauga Road project is the first instance in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) of this green infrastructure approach to stormwater management and could be a model for future road projects. The region installed a bioswale - linear channels designed to concentrate stormwater runoff while removing debris and pollution - in the centre median of the roadway, made up of granular material and native plants. A pipe diverts stormwater from the road drainage system into the median, where it passes over weirs to prevent erosion and subsequently, irrigates the plants. The vegetation filters and cools the water before it re-enters the drainage system.

The region plans to begin monitoring the system in 2020. This will include automated water quality sampling and the monitoring of flow and water levels.

Project details

• Project: Mississauga Road low-impact development stormwater pilot project
• Sector: Water
• Grant amount: $925,600
• Lead entity: Department of Public Works

Primary objectives

• Reduce the vulnerability of both new and existing municipal assets to climate change impacts such as flooding.
• Mitigate increases in stream water temperature in the Credit River.
• Reduce the number of overflow events.
• Avoid costly upgrades to conventional infrastructure.
• Reduce infrastructure life cycle costs and extend the life of municipal infrastructure.
• Reduce erosion in receiving watercourses, which in turn reduces hazards, protects property and reduces municipal costs related to erosion protection.
• Improve watershed health.
• Maintain high levels of service.
• Reduce water consumption.

By the numbers

• 25mm of precipitation of each rain event treated, covering 90% of all rain events
• 10–36% reduction in runoff volumes
• $1,560,000 anticipated reduction in capital expenditures
• $3400 anticipated reduction in maintenance/repair costs (existing stormwater management pond)
• $83,400 anticipated reduction in maintenance/repair costs (erosion control)
• 5.63 hectare drainage area with imperviousness of 67.7%

Project activities

• Prepare the site and remove existing materials, including asphalt pavement, impressed concrete, concrete curb and gutter, existing median planters and temporary asphalt curb and gutter.
• Install a storm sewer network and components, including an oil and grit separator to capture oils and sediments from stormwater runoff.
• Install concrete weirs, a bioswale and a planting bed.
• Complete remediation of the roadway and surfaces, including a concrete curb, gutter, median and splash pad.
• Complete the landscaping by installing a jute mat, plantings and accessories.

"On a watershed basis, regional roads represent a major contributor to watershed flow through storm drainage networks discharging to local watercourses. Over the past decade, the Region of Peel has experienced several severe weather events that have resulted in significant impacts to municipal infrastructure systems and services. The Mississauga Road LID project has significant environmental, social and economic benefits that will help to create a more sustainable community in West Brampton by reducing, cleaning and cooling stormwater before it enters the natural environment and providing a gateway feature for the community."

— Samantha Paquette, Project Manager, Infrastructure Programming and Studies, Transportation, Public Works, Region of Peel

Resources 

• Mississauga Road Low Impact Development Infrastructure Performance and Risk Assessment

Ten Quebec municipalities:

• Ville de Carleton-sur-Mer
• Communauté maritime des Îles-de-la-Madeleine
• Ville de Maniwaki
• MRC de Pontiac
• Municipalité de Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu
• Ville de Saint-Constant
• Municipalité de Saint-Fulgence
• Ville de Mercier
• Municipalité de Saint-Siméon
• Ville de Varennes

Ten Quebec municipalities are introducing electric vehicles into their fleets—vehicles that will also be shared with the community. It is all part of an innovative program called the SAUVéR project.

The transportation sector produces a significant portion of municipal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making electric vehicles a promising local climate solution. The SAUVéR project (Système d'autopartage de véhicules électriques en région) already involves six Quebec municipalities, and they will be joined by 10 new participants.

With a grant from FCM’s Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program, each of the ten municipalities will introduce one electric vehicle into its fleet. On evenings and weekends, when not being used by municipal staff, the electric vehicles will be available to community members through a new car-sharing system. The municipalities will set up charging stations, with the aim of creating a route so that electric vehicles can travel longer distances and be charged at multiple stations along the route.

The new car-sharing program will provide access to an affordable form of transportation in communities underserved by public transit and taxis. The project is also an opportunity for the municipalities to optimize the use of their fleets. Many municipal vehicles are only in use part time, and sometimes larger vehicles like trucks are used unnecessarily. This can result in inefficiencies and unnecessary maintenance and depreciation costs. Optimizing the fleets will reduce the total number of municipal vehicles required and lower vehicle usage costs.

The municipalities plan to have the new vehicles in place and the car sharing systems and charging stations up and running by late 2020. 

Project details

• Project: Regional electric car-sharing system: The SAUVéR project (Système d'autopartage de véhicules électriques en région)
• Sector: Transportation
• Grant amount: $750,000
• Lead entity: City of Varennes

Primary objectives

• Reduce corporate and community GHG emissions by replacing conventional vehicles with electric vehicles.
• Minimize energy consumption by introducing energy-efficient vehicles (e.g. replacing trucks with compact electric vehicles).
• Optimize the use of the municipal fleet, to reduce vehicle usage and depreciation costs.
• Generate revenue through the car-sharing program.
• Provide an affordable transportation solution through the car-sharing program and encourage the adoption of car sharing in the community.
• Encourage and support the adoption of electric transportation in the community by providing a shared electric car and charging stations.
• Create a route to encourage broader adoption of electric transportation options in the region.

By the numbers

• 50–99.8% annual reduction in GHG emissions with the use of the new electric vehicles compared to the same distance travelled by conventional vehicles
• 45–83% annual savings in fuel costs compared to conventional vehicles
• 10 electric vehicles introduced into municipal fleets and communities—one in each participating municipality
• 17 charging stations
• $81,180–109,620 in direct and indirect economic benefits annually

Project activities

• Acquire 10 electric vehicles (one per municipality).
• Install 17 charging stations that can be adapted over the long term (10 years) to meet the changing needs of municipalities.
• Set up car-sharing systems for the new electric cars to be available to community members on evenings and weekends.

Resources

• Dix municipalités offriront un autopartage de véhicules électriques (in French only)
• SAUVéR : un second projet pilote d’autopartage de VÉ en région(in French only)