Engineering Limberlost Place
OCT 16, 2025
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CONTENTS
8
COLUMNS
04 | Comment
Challenging times call for big ideas.
5 | Climate Perspectives
In the face of the climate crisis, the energy transition will require breakthroughs in many areas, including fossil fuels—but not all fuels are the same!
22 | Conversation
Fernando Del Melo has helped ensure RAM Consulting's contractor safety management program (CSMP) is customizable to its clients’ needs.
FEATURES
8
COVER STORY
Engineering Limberlost Place
Vancouver’s Fast + Epp brought its west-coast expertise—and new R&D undertaken at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC)— to Toronto for the construction of a new 10-storey building on George Brown College’s waterfront campus.
12
All Things HVAC At AHR Expo
March/April 2025
Volume 66 | ISSUE 2 ccemag.com
12
15
ON THE COVER
Limberlost Place, Ontario’s first tall timber institutional building, was recently completed and now awaits furnishings, furniture and, in fall 2026, students of George Brown College. See story on p. 8.
Canadian Consulting Engineer travelled to Orlando, Fla., in February for AHR Expo, where common themes included decarbonization, electrification, low-GWP refrigerants, building automation and controls.
15
Case Study: Coal Harbour Phase 2
A new 11-storey complex in Vancouver, part of a master plan, is on target to achieve Passive House certification while meeting the city’s stringent building code and aggressive energy code.
18
Non-solicit and Non-compete Clauses for Engineers
It is important for engineers, whose knowledge can be valuable to competitors, to understand the intricacies of employment clauses, their enforceability and legal developments in Canada, including regional prohibitions.
Comment
by Peter Saunders
Big Ideas in Engineering
Do challenging times call for big ideas? They certainly seem to be a running theme lately! In response to the threat of a trade war with the U.S., leaders in business and politics across Canada are pushing for expansion and diversification of transportation infrastructure, from rail to utility corridors to ports, to make it easier to ship resources and finished products to countries other than our largest trading partner. As organizers of the Canadian Trade Infrastructure Plan (CTIP) put it, “if you can’t move it, you can’t sell it.”
What big ideas are on your mind these days in terms of engineering and infrastructure?
The CTIP is a campaign, endorsed in principle by all of Canada’s premiers, that has roots dating back before the U.S. started to threaten new tariffs on its imports from Canada, but has now taken on a new sense of urgency. It calls for “long-term (20-plus years) co-ordination and planning of investments in trade infrastructure (road, rail, air, port and marine assets) along key economic corridors to enhance their fluidity and reliability, boost Canada’s competitiveness and restore our global reputation.”
“We’ve become reliant on one increasingly unreliable partner that is the destination for three quarters of Canada’s total exports,” say its organizers.
Another long-considered idea that could finally make some progress is high-speed rail, at least between Toronto and Quebec City. With ongoing challenges facing air travel, from affordability to safety to security, it may not be surprising to see many passengers one day preferring to ride by rail along the country’s busiest corridor. If a trip from Montreal to Toronto can take three hours, that’s certainly competitive with flying when one adds in all time actually spent arriving early at the airport, going through checks,
boarding by zone and eventually deplaning.
Some ideas are newer. WZMH Architects’ research and development (R&D) lab, known as Sparkbird, recently shared two ‘initiatives’ to address Toronto’s challenges with aging infrastructure and unaffordable housing by optimizing use of existing public spaces
The first, dubbed ‘Housing, Urban Bibliotheca, Servers’ (HUBS), proposes the modernization of “outdated’ single-storey Toronto Public Library (TPL) buildings— such as the Hillcrest branch, built in the 1970s on Leslie Street north of Finch Avenue—into multi-functional structures that integrate new libraries with residential units and small-format data centres. Each server room would be part of a citywide network to not only support TPL’s own digital needs, but also to offer distributed artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure as a service to outside customers.
The second of WZMH’s proposed initiatives, ‘Elevate,’ would build rental housing above schools’ parking lots, along with further server hubs to support local businesses and educational needs.
Both models are envisioned as public-private partnerships (P3s) and designed to be scalable, sustainable (through energy-efficiency and green building techniques) and transformative.
“Toronto has 100 public libraries and nearly 600 schools, many of which sit on underutilized land, including single-storey buildings and vast asphalt parking lots,” the company says. “What if these spaces could be reimagined to help solve pressing urban challenges?
What big ideas are on your mind these days in terms of engineering and infrastructure? Let me know at the email address below.
Peter
Saunders • psaunders@ccemag.com
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By Stan Ridley
The Past, Present and Future of Fossil Fuels
Since the early 1800s, human civilization has become increasingly fossil-fuelled, through the consumption of coal, oil, conventional natural gas, fracked shale gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Globally, the Energy Institute currently reports our total primary energy consumption (TPEC) in 2023 was about 620 exajoules per year, with fossil fuels accounting for 82% of that. By comparison, renewable wind and solar energy represent only 4% and 3%, respectively.
The climate change crisis has been caused mainly by our extra-
ordinary consumption of fossil fuels, which emit an enormous amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs). According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and others, the world’s anthropogenic ( i.e. human- caused) emissions total about 60 to 100 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) every year.
In 2018, I wrote for the Institution of Civil Engineers’ (ICE’s) blog that “we will not end the fossil fuel age until and unless we find cost-effective, efficient, convenient, human-friendly and planet-friendly alternate sour ces of power and energy, until we derail our civiliza-
tion or until we exhaust the economically reachable fossil fuels.”
As the vast majority of the scientific community has told us clearly over at least the last three decades, our consumption of fossil fuels, the resulting CO2e emissions and the climate crisis will result—unless they are stopped—in the deterioration of our civilization to an unrecognizable condition and in the demise of uncounted other living organisms.
Unfortunately, as I wrote in the November/December 2024 issue of this magazine, we “have no viably scalable alternatives to fossil fuels today that could take a significant
Stan Ridley, C.Eng., MICE, BSc (Eng), MSc (Eng), DIC, is president of West 2012 Energy Management, based in Vancouver. He is also a member of United Nations (UN) groups of experts on gas and coal mine methane & just transition.
‘bite’ out of gigatonnes of anthropogenic CO2e emissions.” With this in mind, we need to invent major technological breakthroughs, quickly, in a number of areas—including fossil fuels.
Not all fuels are the same
Many engineers and scientists today focus their efforts on looking for viably scalable technologies that can remove CO 2e from power plants and other industrial, commercial and residential energy conversion systems.
The challenge is much greater than just the conversion systems, however, because we also mine, extract, process, transport, store and distribute fossil fuels before burning them to generate energy. At each step of the life cycle, we release CO2e, directly and indirectly.
Also, fossil fuels are not all the same. The 82% of TPEC accounted for by fossil fuels includes about 32% oil, 27% coal and 23% natural gases. While the coal and oil emit mainly large quantities of CO2, the natural gases contain 90 to 95% methane and emit more CO2e than other GHGs, in less than a 30-year atmospheric horizon and operating life, when considering the average integrated global warming potential (GWP) of methane.
Three of the four anthropogenic GHGs—namely, carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ), nitrous oxide (N2O) and fluorinated GHGs (F-gases)—essentially don’t decrease in terms of their GWPs over hundreds of years; but the fourth, methane, does deteriorate.
In the first year after its release, methane traps about 120 times as much heat as CO 2, kilogram for kilogram. This deteriorates to about 83 to 104 times over a 20-year atmospheric ‘horizon’ and then 28 to 58 times over a 100-year horizon on a single pulse and an average integrated methane GWP basis.
Governments, the fossil fuel industry, environmental reporting
agencies and academics are still calculating the heat trapped by the past year’s methane emissions, using the deteriorated 100-year ‘horizon’ and methane GWP of 28.
Operating an LNG-fired power plant for 25 years is equally as ‘dirty’ as using coal.
What’s important is not just the significant underestimate of global annual CO 2e emissions, but the continuing use of the 100-year horizon for methane to justify building and operating gas-fired power plants—including those burning LNG—that, in their typical 25-year operational lifetime, are equally as ‘dirty’ in terms of CO2e as using coal.
Unless we develop extraordinarily successful methods of trapping CO2e emitted by fossil fuels, right across their life cycles, we will have to stop using almost all fossil fuels
the next few decades. Such a proposition is easily said but, at the moment, impossible to achieve.
The CCUSS challenge
The broad term for endeavours to trap a significant percentage of CO2e emissions is ‘carbon capture, utilization and safe sequestration’ (CCUSS). Such systems are presently in their infancy and apply mainly to the collection of CO2 at power plants, not over fossil fuels’ entire life cycle. In particular, where upstream fugitive emissions of methane (FEMs) top 3.5%, it is cleaner in CO2e terms to use coal rather than natural gas.
In general, within a 30-year horizon and life cycle and invoking actual measured FEMs, all fossil fuels emit
within
Natural gases contain 90% to 95% methane and emit more CO2e than other GHGs.
between about 850 and 1,200 kg CO2e per MWh of energy produced.
Over the last few decades, there have been many attempts to develop viably scalable CCUSS systems. Most have ended with very meagre results, at a very tiny scale, and very few have been able to do very much in terms of safely storing significant quantities of captured CO2. More than 80% of the modest amount of presently captured CO2 is used for enhanced oil and gas recovery (EOGR) processes.
EOGR typically pumps captured CO2, at pressure, into underground low-yield oil and natural gas-bearing geological sequences, so as to increase or rejuvenate the extraction of additional fuel from depleted strata. A significant percentage of the injected CO2 bubbles up and needs to be recaptured and reinjected. (Hence the pertinence of the ‘safe’ in ‘CCUSS.’)
Where upstream fugitive emissions of methane (FEMs) top 3.5%, it is cleaner in CO2 e terms to use coal rather than natural gas.
Globally, there are about 45 operating CCUSS projects, which together capture about 0.06 gigatonnes of CO2 per year. There are also about 700 CCUSS projects at various stages of development globally, which could increase that total to 0.435 gigatonnes per year by 2030, and we are still forecast to capture less than 1 gigatonne annually by 2050, which would be very modest given our present emissions top 60 gigatonnes per year.
All new systems in their developmental infancy are very expensive. This column does not address the total capital and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs of CCUSS projects, but viably scalable systems will hopefully emerge from the long list of pilot projects. The total life-cycle costs of ‘winning’ technologies tend to be associated with affordable levelized unit costs.
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The need for breakthroughs
While a few of the present CCUSS developments seem hopeful, we are still awaiting major technological breakthroughs. As the International Energy Agency has put it, “without strong and targeted R&D efforts in critical technologies, net-zero emissions are not achievable.”
We are very unlikely to see any significant reduction in use of fossil fuels over the next few decades. Without breakthroughs to substantially reduce their emissions, it is clear the natural environment will not gladly suffer such a trend.
We need to spend trillions of equivalent U.S. dollars each year to decarbonize our society and find solutions to our present GHG emissions. This process will hopefully involve CCUSS, among other promising technologies. Fingers crossed.
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Engineering Limberlost Place
Ontario gets its first tall timber institutional building.
By Peter Saunders
Limberlost Place, a new 10-storey building on George Brown College’s waterfront campus in downtown Toronto, achieved occupancy in January. It is Ontario’s first tall timber institutional building. As furnishings and furniture are now being installed, the facility is scheduled to welcome its first round of students in fall 2026.
Formerly known as The Arbour, the building has been named for the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve near Huntsville, Ont., following donations to the college of $8 million in 2015 and $10 million in 2021 by the reserve’s chair, Can-
adian business leader and philanthropist Jack Cockwell.
The 52.5-m tall, 20,903-m2 structure, whose design was unveiled back in 2018, will provide many new classrooms and related spaces for George Brown’s students, faculty and visitors. It will house college’s School of Computer Technology and, particularly fittingly, School of Architectural Technology and Tall Wood Research Institute, as well as child-care and social spaces.
Working with Moriyama Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects, Vancouver-headquartered consulting engineering firm Fast + Epp held a key role in the project, including the testing and development of a new large-span, beamless timber-concrete composite (TCC) ‘slab band’ system with perpendicular cross-laminated timber infill panels, all supported on glue-laminated (glulam) columns. Their structural design received a positive response from peer review by Toronto-based Moses Structural Engineers, a firm well-known for its own mass-timber expertise.
“We were on the project from day one of the design competition in January 2018, when the architects
asked us about the latest and greatest mass-timber options,” says Robert Jackson, P.Eng., partner at Fast + Epp. “It takes a long time to get these projects through design to permits to occupancy!”
As the first institutional building of its kind in Ontario, George Brown College reports, Limberlost Place’s construction “will contribute to significant revisions of national and provincial building codes to allow for mass-timber buildings over six storeys.” Its engineered wood components were sourced from Montreal-based fabricator Nordic Structures.
“George Brown has a fantastic ownership team that was forward-thinking, progressive and suppor tive,” says Jackson, “and at the end of the day, they got a pretty amazing building for it. They
Fast + Epp’s slab band concept was tested at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).
PHOTO C OURTESY FAST + EP P.
showed it’s possible to go to 10 storeys of classroom occupancy safely with mass timber.”
Developing the slab band
In 2018, Fast + Epp was on one of four teams shortlisted for the project. The TCC slab band concept distinguished its proposal from the others and was significant in winning the competition.
“ We had explored this idea in other projects,” says Jackson, “and decided to go for it, knowing that if we won the competition, we could likely get funding to help turn the concept into reality.”
That funding would come through Natural Resources Canada’s Green Construction through Wood Program.
“The stars sort of aligned with the owner, the architects, the funding
Natural Resources Canada provided funding for research.
and the opportunity,” says Jackson. “That doesn’t happen very often! It’s a testament to everybody who was involved, in a certain set of circumstances and a time, that allowed this building to occur.”
The TCC slab band was created by topping seven-ply CLT panels with a 150-mm layer of concrete. This design replaced deep glulam beams to maximize spatial efficiency with increased headroom, which enabled the 10 storeys to fit within a strict height envelope.
In turn, the TCC slabs are supported by detailed 0.4 x 1.2-m glulam columns, which have been positioned so as to withstand unbalanced loading. Each column connection enables a direct load transfer between the vertical elements, without transmitting forces through the TCC floor panels.
The slab band concept could only be implemented successfully after a comprehensive experimental program. Fast + Epp studied more than 60 breaks—ranging from small- to half- to full-scale—to evaluate the performance of a variety of composite connectors.
Among the successful outcomes of the rigorous testing were the identification and development of a cost-effective shear flow connector. Referred to as the ‘kerf plate connector,’ it promised to enhance the TCC system’s efficiency as an economically viable alternative to existing, costly, proprietary options that used screws or perforated plates.
As part of the project team’s commitment to sharing knowledge, the findings from Fast + Epp’s experiments—which were undertaken in 2020 at the University of Northern
British Columbia (UNBC)—were open-source, so as to contribute new information to the broader engineering and architectural field.
Other members of the project team included consulting engineering firms GHL and CHM Fire as design and fire code consultants; Walters Group, which provided 1,232 tons of steel; and PCL Constructors, which built the structure.
Lateral stability
The project’s lateral stability strategy involved a central core of steelbraced frames to provide not only seismic resistance, but also a slimmer profile and increased efficiency, compared to conventional timber alternatives.
The use of hollow structural sections (HSSs) for steel braces ensured ductility and overstrength without the need additional fire protection, contributing to the project’s overall cost-effectiveness.
“Limberlost Place is years ahead of Toronto’s goals for sustainable design.”
– George Brown College
Managing moisture
Moisture management was an especially important consideration during the construction of Limberlost Place, given wood’s inherent vulnerability in terms of shrinkage, expansion, warping, rotting and mould growth. PCL implemented comprehensive measures to mitigate these risks.
“ The snow and ice associated with Toronto, in comparison to wet November and December rains in Vancouver, made it a different experience for me!” says Jackson. “You have to chip the snow and ice off.”
Acknowledging the hygroscopic nature of wood (i.e. its tendency to absorb moisture from the air), a risk assessment identified sources of moisture throughout the construction process. Next, the team implemented a comprehensive monitoring strategy, incorporating visual checks, sensors and moisture content measurements.
By closely monitoring both current moisture levels and weather for ecasts, the team was able to identify and address deviations and minimize the risk of moisture-related damage to the building during its construction.
The project plan also included strategic controls and sequencing to reduce moisture exposure, such as enclosing the structure up to a designated level, coating CLT panels during fabrication and installing temporary drainage systems. Vapour-permeable membranes and SIGA Wetguard tapes were used to prevent water propagation and seal joints.
“PCL did a great job managing it,” adds Jackson. “Their main innovation was ratchet-strapping down cinch tarps, which don’t flap in the wind, around the perimeter. This made it possible to dry down the inside as they were erecting a couple of plates above.”
Construction through winter called for comprehensive efforts at moisture control.
Overall, the plan and this proactive approach reduced the likelihood of moisture-related damage by systematically addressing risks and continuously monitoring and adapting to changing conditions.
Green goals
Limberlost Place was designed with environmental, social and economic well-being goals in mind. With mass timber as its primar y structural material, it promises net-zero carbon emissions and aims to meet the requirements for both Version 4 of the Toronto Green Standard (TGS) and the Canada Green Build-
ing Council’s (CaGBC’s) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.
“Limberlost Place is years ahead of Toronto’s 2030 goals for sustainable design,” the college reports.
The project incorporated a thermally efficient building envelope, optimized daylighting and natural ventilation systems to minimize reliance on mechanical counterparts. A 40% window-to-wall ratio helps maximize natural light and fresh air. Two solar chimneys enhance natural convection, ensuring a constant flow of fresh air from operable windows for passive ventilation.
A sloping roof not only hosts south-facing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, but also introduces a clerestory, allowing northern light to reach the interior of the Tall Wood Institute. Lighting efficiency is furthered by incorporating ‘smart’ daylight sensors and dimming controls.
Limberlost Place is designed to run on electricity and no fuel-fired systems, with the roof-mounted solar array expected to generate 24% of the energy the building consumes. The college says it will be capable of operating ‘passively’ for half of the year.
A 40% window-towall ratio helps maximize natural light and fresh air.
All Things HVAC At AHR Expo
The show offered solutions to many of today’s challenges.
By Peter Saunders
AHR Expo returned in February to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., for the first time since 2020, shortly before COVID-19 lockdowns. Co-sponsored by ASHRAE and AHRI, the annual event has remained strong since the pandemic. This year, it drew 50,807 attendees, including 39,609 visitors and 11,198 exhibitors, representing between them more than 120 countries around the world.
Running themes that were apparent on the trade show floor and at many of the event’s 100-plus educational sessions—and, for that matter, at the ASHRAE Winter Conference in the nearby Hilton Orlando Hotel, timed to coincide with AHR (and accounting for 3,800 attendees itself)—included building automation and controls, refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP), decarbonization, tenant comfort, artificial intelligence (AI), electrification and data centre cooling.
The following are just some of the highlights from the 516,060-sf trade show floor.
Delta Controls, based in Surrey, B.C., showcased a new, compact variable air volume (VAV) controller designed for energy efficiency in alignment with ASHRAE Guideline 36, High-Performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems.
D anfoss announced Kristian Strand would take over climate solutions as president on Apr. 1, succeeding Jürgen Fischer, who is retiring after 16 years with the company. Among other products, Danfoss presented weather-resistant rooftop drives and the Bock HGX56 CO2 T compressor, which won a 2025 AHR
Expo Innovation Awards in the refrigeration category.
Johnson Controls is celebrating not only its 140th anniversary, but also the 150th anniversary of its York brand of process systems. The company featured its Facility Ex plorer building automation system (BAS) controllers for supervisory and general-purpose applications.
Rheem, celebrating 100 years, added ‘Super’ (119-gal) and ‘Light-Duty’ (50- and 75-gal) commercial gas water heaters to its Triton lineup of 80- and 100-gal ‘Heavy-Duty’ units, promising up to 98% thermal efficiency. Its corporate parent, Paloma R heem, also plans to acquire Fujitsu General by this July.
Victaulic unveiled its Series-250 butterfly valve for commercial piping systems, with variations for stainless steel, copper and chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC). The company promised they will last two to 15 times longer than standard lug and wafer valves.
Uponor, part of industrial piping firm Georg Fischer (GF) since 2023, promised the largest portfolio expansion in its history. This includes what it calls “a new product category” with ChlorFit Schedule 80 Corzan CPVC pipe, fittings, valves and transitions engineered for commercial domestic water and low temperature hydronics.
Chemours, spun off from Dupont a decade ago, introduced its Opteon XL40 refrigerant (a finalist for the Innovation Awards) to reduce GWP by 94%. Incidentally, a community ice rink in Saskatchewan recently became the first to use Opteon XL41.
Viega, under the new leadership of COOturned-CEO Marki Huston, has expanded its portfolio with 21 new valves across the ProPress, MegaPress and PureFlow metal piping systems. The manufacturer also recently promoted Peter Paulozza to director for Canada, succeeding general manager (GM) Pragnesh Desai, who has become vice-president (VP) for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East region.
Rinnai, which marked its 50th anniversary in 2024, showcased electric water heaters, commercial floor-standing boilers for schools and similar-sized facilities and commercial water heaters with built-in redundancy to ensure continuity of operations for hotels and restaurants.
Toronto-based pump manufacturer Armstrong put the spotlight on its Envelope cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS), which shares information from networked HVAC components, allowing users to check energy consumption, costs, asset health and any issues.
Copeland announced at a press conference it had launched 124 new products since divesting from Emerson in June 2023. Examples included an oil-free centrifugal compressor for data centres, health-care facilities and other heavy-demand buildings and the Vilter VQ95 single-screw heat pump for the industrial market.
Infinitum, already known for its fan motors, will now sell entire fan systems
that include other companies’ components. By way of example, Infinitum has partnered with Cincinnati Fan on blowers and with Armstrong on pump assemblies.
As WaterFurnace has evolved from residential chillers and heat pumps to add commercial products, it has supported electrification with modular systems designed to move energy around, rather than wasting it. One new entry is the TruClimate 900, which can reportedly deliver chilled water at 7 C and hot water at 60 C simultaneously.
EVAPCO approaches its 50th anniversary in 2026 with, as its name suggests, evaporative cooling systems, particularly (but not solely) to meet the rising demands of newly built data centres. As some of these facilities are in areas with little water, however, EVAPCO has also engineered dry and hybrid systems.
U.S Boiler showcased its Aspen fire-tube heat exchangers, which have proven popular in Canada for snowmelt and agricultural applications, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and New Brunswick.
Watts demonstrated its Tekmar smart controls for HVAC systems, hydronics and commercial boilers, including the Wi-Fi Setpoint Control 170 for one-stage heating or cooling systems in multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs), where precise temperature control can provide energy savings.
IPEX of Oakville, Ont., is adapting its System 636 CPVC flue gas venting system from the Canadian market for the U.S. As IPEX provides all components, including pipe, fittings, solvent cements and venting accessories, the entire system can be certified, as the Canadian one was to Underwriters Laboratories’ (UL’s) ULC-S636, Standard for Type BH Gas Venting Systems.
Samsung Electronics has entered a joint venture (JV) with manufacturer and distributor Lennox to sell ductless and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) HVAC systems in Canada and the U.S. At AHR, Samsung previewed its DMV S2 generation of VRF systems, which will use AI and deep neural network algorithms to optimize system operations.
While this year’s AHR Expo was timed to follow Super Bowl Sunday, the next will coincide instead with Groundhog Day, running from Feb. 2 to 4, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nev
There were 11,198 exhibitors at February’s expo.
The show returned to Orlando for the first time since before the pandemic in 2020.
Case Study: Coal Harbour Phase 2
By Alyson Serkin
Anew 11-storey waterfront complex represents Phase 2 of Vancouver’s Coal Harbour master plan, integrating with the adjacent Phase 1 community centre (which was constructed in 2000). The design team’s creatively engineered envelope for the newer building at 488 Broughton Street, set to be completed early this year, is on target to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold and Passive House certification while meeting the city’s stringent building code and aggressive energy code.
Phase 2 is a multi-use building. Its lowest level accommodates bicycle storage and an elevator lobby. An atrium section rises from ground level. Levels one through three house Coal Harbour Elementary School, followed by a child-care and outdoor patio play area on level four. Levels five to 10 are dedicated to 60 units of social housing, with a residential amenity space and landscaped outdoor patio at level 11. A green roof caps the building. Vancouver requires at least R-22 thermal performance in walls of multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) and calls for a drastic reduction of thermal bridging in the envelope. Passive House designation, meanwhile, necessitates reducing a building’s space energy demands for heating and cooling to no more than 15 kWh per m2 (or 4.75
kBtu per sf) per year. As the city puts it, Passive House buildings “generally require 90% less heating energy and 60% less overall energy than typical buildings” in Vancouver.
The project team included Glotman Simpson (structural engineering), RDH Building Science (envelope consulting), A2M (Passive H ouse consulting), Henriquez Partners Architects (design) and The Haebler Group (construction).
Engineering the envelope
To mitigate heat loss through the building envelope, the design team specified a façade primarily composed of precast concrete ‘sandwich’ panels rated at R-39 with 20 cm (8 in.) of extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam, a triple-glazed fibreglass window wall
“Rigid insulation varies in its carbon footprint,” Schimert adds. “ There are now products on the market with a relatively low carbon footprint, which we specified. This is important, since our aim is to reduce our carbon emissions as a whole.”
Role of structural thermal breaks
To mitigate thermal bridging and heat loss at all above-grade levels, the team specified vertically oriented concrete-to-concrete structural thermal breaks where curbs and upstand beams connect to the floor slabs.
system and some 527 m (1,730 ft) of structural thermal breaks.
The envelope, which extends below-grade to a structural slab, is tied into a grade-level beam and connected to the walls using concrete-to-concrete structural thermal breaks. At the ground level, a la yer of R-60 foam insulation is sandwiched between the lower slab and a grade-level slab.
Thermal integrity at the ground level is further achieved by isolating the curbs and upstands with vertically oriented structural concrete-to-concrete thermal breaks, combined with horizontally oriented concrete-to-concrete thermal breaks tying to the interior slab.
All floors feature the precast concrete sandwich panels. Fibreglass tabs connect the panels to the building structure and serve as thermal breaks, given their high insulation value. Fibreglass was also specified for all window frames, as it reportedly offers 250% greater thermal performance than aluminum.
T he panels were craned into place, with the inner foam layer sitting on the slab edge and acting as a thermal break with no contact between the outer and the inner walls, according to Christian Schimert, associate with Henriquez Partners Architects.
The structural thermal breaks, designed for parapets and other vertical structures, comprise rigid foam insulation modules with stainless steel rebar running through for tension and shear strength. The reinforcement bars of the thermal breaks are tied horizontally to the slab rebar and vertically to the rebar of the exterior concrete curbs and upstand beam. The structural thermal breaks transfer moment and shear forces from the vertical element to the concrete slab structure.
Structural thermal breaks are said to improve the R-value of the envelope at structural penetrations by up to 90%.
“As the general thermal envelope improves and the insulation levels increase in a Passive House, the relative impact of thermal bridging grows more significant on the energy balance,” says Cyril Vibert, thermal building engineer with A2M. “Treating all thermal bridges is a key requirement of certification. If untreated, that area of concentrated heat loss can introduce a risk of condensation on the internal surfaces, which is detrimental to the comfort of the users and can lead to mould growth.”
“The project has hundreds of thermal breaks,” says Haebler Group project director Trevor Heide, “most
Structural thermal breaks designed for parapets will mitigate heat loss, as they tie to the rebar of the vertical element and the horizontal slab.
Thermal breaks will transfer moment and shear forces from the upstands to the concrete slab.
of which are designed for vertical elements. It’s interesting because you have special ways to place and secure them.”
The potential for seismic activity in British Columbia necessitated additional structural thermal break modules, designed for earthquake resistance. When used in combination with the standard concrete-to-concrete thermal breaks, they transfer forces parallel to the insulation layer, as well as uplift forces, resulting from a seismic event.
Rising expectations
The building design significantly reduces energy consumption to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels. As Schimert says, a correctly engineered Passive House can be heated using only sunlight and domestic hot water. The complex will be
heated and cooled using electric-powered air-to-water heat pumps and a centralized heat recovery ventilation system.
In addition to producing zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the project targeted a 40% reduction in embodied carbon during construction.
Sitting on prized waterfront property, Coal Harbour’s Phase 2 is a particularly high-profile example of the Passive House concept.
“It’s challenging because it has very tight margins, but that’s the nature of the beast,” says Schimert. “We have created a project that has a lot of architecture in it, which is unusual for Passive House.”
Heide adds the construction crews received support from the structural thermal breaks’ manufacturer, Schöck North America.
“ They came in to train the guys on how to do the installation,” he says. “They answered questions and their technical ability was very good. Everybody on the design team has been learning along the way.”
Linear drainage
Structural thermal breaks were cast in place at the curbs on the Level 4 patio.
Alyson
Non-solicit and Non-compete Clauses for Engineers
It is important to understand details of Canadian employment contracts.
By Todd Busch, P.Eng.
In the realm of employment law, non-solicit and non-compete clauses are used by employers to protect their business interests. Often embedded in employment contracts, they aim to restrict the activities of employees both during and after their tenure with the company.
It is important for engineers— who often work on proprietary projects and whose specialized knowledge can be highly valuable to their employer’s competitors—to understand these clauses, their enforceability and recent legal developments in Canada.
Non-compete clauses are more stringent than non-solicit clauses.
Non-solicit clauses
A non-solicit clause is designed to prevent former employees from poaching clients, customers or other employees from their previous employer.
This type of clause is crucial for maintaining the stability and client base of a business after an employee’s departure, especially after that employee has built strong relationships with clients and/or in-depth knowledge of ongoing projects.
Scope
Typically, these clauses specify a period during which the former employee is restricted from soliciting clients or employees. This period can range from a few months to several years. For engineers, there may be restrictions on contacting clients or colleagues involved in specific projects or technologies.
Geographical limitations
Some clauses include restrictions that limit the former employee’s activities within a certain area. Engineers working on region-specific
projects or with local clients may find these particularly relevant.
Enforceability
Courts generally view non-solicit clauses more favorably than non-compete clauses, as they are seen as less restrictive on the employee’s ability to earn a livelihood. While engineers may be restricted from soliciting former clients or colleagues, they can still work in their field.
Non-compete clauses
Non-compete clauses are more stringent. They prohibit former employees from engaging in activities that compete directly with their previous employer’s business, such as working for a competitor or starting a similar business.
Scope and duration
These clauses often specify a time frame and geographical area within which the former employee cannot compete. The duration can vary, but overly long or broad restrictions are less likely to be enforced. Engineers might face restrictions on working in
specific industries or regions where their former employer operates.
Reasonableness
For a non-compete clause to be enforceable, it must be reasonable in terms of period, geogr aphy and scope of restricted activities. Courts will assess whether the clause is necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests without being excessively restrictive. The c lause should not unduly hinder engineers’ ability to find employment in their specialized field.
The legal landscape
The enforceability of non-solicit and non-compete clauses varies across Canada in provincial legislation and judicial interpretation. The following are some examples concerning the largest provinces.
Ontario
In Ontario, non-compete clauses have been largely prohibited under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) since October 2021. The act applies before, during and after employment.
In Ontario, non-compete clauses have been largely prohibited since 2021.
The main reasons for the prohibition are to protect employees’ rights to seek employment freely and to prevent undue restrictions on their ability to work. Non-compete clauses can significantly limit an individual’s career opportunities and earning potential, which is wh y they are generally disallowed. There are exceptions, however, which engineers should be aware of.
In one key exception, if an individual sells their business and then becomes an employee of the purchaser, a non-compete clause can be included in the agreement.
So, imagine Jane owns an engineering company and decides to sell it to another firm. As part of the sale, she agrees to work for the new owner. The purchaser can include a non-compete clause in her employment contract to prevent her from starting a competing business immediately after the sale.
This exception exists to protect the purchaser’s investment and ensure the seller does not undermine the value of the sale.
Non-compete clauses are also allowed for individuals in executive positions, such as CEOs and CFOs. This is because they often have access to sensitive company information and strategic plans. The exception helps protect the company’s interests by preventing executives from taking critical knowledge to competitors.
British Columbia
British Columbia’s courts have traditionally been cautious in enforcing non-compete clauses, often favouring non-solicit clauses as a less restrictive means of protecting business interests. The reasonableness of the clause is a key factor in its enforceability.
Alberta
In Alberta, non-compete clauses are generally enforceable if they are considered reasonable and necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests. However, as in other provinces, overly broad or lengthy restrictions are likely to be struck down by the courts. Engineers should ensure any non-compete clauses are narrowly tailored to protect specific business interests without unduly restricting their career opportunities.
Quebec
Quebec has a civil law system, which differs from the common law system in other provinces. Non-compete clauses in Quebec must be limited in period, geographical area and type of employment or business activities to be restricted. The clause must be deemed necessary to protect the legitimate business interests of the employer. Engineers working in Quebec should be aware of these specific requirements.
Recent developments
The recent prohibition of non-compete clauses in Ontario marked a
significant shift in the legal landscape. The change aimed to promote a more competitive labour market and reduce barriers to employment mobility.
Employers in Ontario must now rely more heavily on non-solicit and confidentiality agreements to protect their business interests. For engineers, who as mentioned often work on proprietary projects and possess specialized knowledge, these changes have specific implications.
Implications for employers
Employers must carefully draft non-solicit and non-compete clauses to ensure they are reasonable and enforceable. This includes specifying clear time frames, geographical limits and scope for restricted activities. For engineers, this might involve restrictions related to technologies or projects.
In Ontario, with the prohibition of non-compete clauses, employers should consider alternative protections to safeguard their business interests. For engineering firms, this could mean focusing on protecting proprietary designs, trade secrets and client relationships.
Implications for employees
Engineers should be aware of their rights and the limitations of non-so -
In the case of Engineered Air v. Langton, an engineer in Alberta was subject to a non-compete clause that restricted him from working in the HVAC industry for two years after leaving his employer.
licit and non-compete clauses. Seeking legal advice before signing an employment contract can help clarify these restrictions, with particular attention paid to clauses that might limit an engineer’s ability to work on certain types of projects or with certain clients.
Also, given the prohibition of non-compete clauses in Ontario, employers might instead consider using such alternative measures as confidentiality agreements, intellectual property (IP) agreements and/or client relationship protections.
Real-world cases
In Alberta, overly broad or lengthy restrictions are likely to be struck down by the courts.
If engineers believe a non-solicit or non-compete clause is unreasonable, they can challenge its enforceability in court. Courts will assess the reasonableness of the clause based on the aforementioned factors, including duration, geographical scope and the necessity to protect the employer’s interests. So, engineers should be prepared to argue how such clauses might unduly restrict their career opportunities.
Drafting reasonable and enforceable clauses
Employers must ensure non-solicit and non-compete clauses are reasonable and enforceable by specifying clear time frames (e.g. restricting an engineer from contacting former clients for one year after leaving the company), defining geographical limits (e.g. preventing an engineer from working with competitors within a 50-km radius of the company’s main office) and detailing the scope of restricted activities ( e.g. specific projects or technologies).
In the case of Shafron v. KRG Insurance Brokers (Western) Inc., 2009 SCC 6, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) addressed the enforceability of a non-compete clause. The clause in question restricted the employee from working anywhere in the “Metropolitan City of Vancouver” for three years after leaving the company. The court found “Metropolitan City of Vancouver” ambiguous and unenforceable. The case highlighted the importance of clear and precise language in non-compete clauses. For engineers, this means ensuring any geographical restrictions are clearly defined and relevant to their field of work.
Another case, Payette v. Guay Inc., 2013 SCC 45, involved a non-solicit clause in the context of the sale of a business. The SCC upheld the clause, which prevented the former owner from soliciting clients of the business for five years. This decision emphasized how non-solicit clauses are generally more enforceable than non-compete clauses, especially when they are part of a business sale agreement. Engineers involved in business transactions should be aware of how such clauses might affect their ability to engage with former clients or colleagues.
In the landmark case of Elsley v. J.G. Collins Insurance Agencies Ltd., 2 SCR 916, the SCC upheld a confidentiality clause that prevented a former employee from disclosing sensitive information about the employer’s business. The court ruled such clauses are enforceable as long as they are reasonable and necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests. For
engineers, confidentiality clauses are particularly important in protecting proprietary information and trade secrets.
One case more specific to engineers was Engineered Air v. Langton, 2019 ABQB 550, in which an engineer in Alberta was subject to a non- compete clause that restricted him from working in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry for two years after leaving his employer. The court found the clause to be overly broad
B.C. courts have been cautious in enforcing noncompete clauses.
and unenforceable because it significantly restricted the engineer’s ability to find employment in his field. This case underscored the need for non-compete clauses to be reasonable in scope and duration. Engineers should ensure that any such clauses in their contracts are narrowly tailored to avoid undue hardship.
All of these cases illustrate the importance of drafting clear, reasonable and specific clauses. It’s crucial to not unduly restrict employees’ ability to work in their field, while
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still protecting the employer’s legitimate business interests.
Engineers, given their specialized skills and knowledge, must pay particular attention and be proactive in negotiating contract terms that will allow them to continue their careers without unnecessary limitations that could unduly hinder their professional growth and opportunities.
Engineering a Sustainable Canada
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Todd Busch, P.Eng., is a senior associate with acoustical consulting firm Veneklasen Associates and a member of Canadian Consulting Engineer’s editorial advisory board (EAB).
Managing Contractor Safety
Fernando Del Melo is safety management principal for Vancouver-based consulting engineering firm RAM and has more than 30 years’ experience as a health and safety consultant across Western Canada.
His career began when he volunteered for St. John Ambulance at special events; he went on to get certified in 2008 as a health and safety consultant by the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers (CSSE)— now Health and Safety Professionals of Canada (HSPC)—and from 2021 to 2022 served as vice-chair of its Lower Mainland chapter.
In his current role at RAM, he has helped ensure the firm’s contractor safety management program (CSMP) is customizable and scalable to its various clients’ needs.
How did this come to be your focus?
I developed a specialty in contractor safety management while helping large organizations. I was particularly fortunate to enter a working relationship with the Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) as an advisor when it was undertaking a massive terminal expansion in preparation for a significant increase in passenger numbers, both for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and in general.
I started my own firm, Pacific Safety Consulting Group, in 2008 and ran it for 16 years until RAM acquired us. Safety was one of their core values and there was client demand for support services in that area.
Integrating safety into everything RAM does is a huge value-add for its clients, especially with the increase in contractorization in the engineering business. Those of us from Pacific Safety had to quickly learn how to
integrate with internal stakeholders. It’s been a cool experience!
What are some examples of the safety measures you implement?
RAM’S CSSP looks at many elements from pre- to post-work activities. We support our clients’ people and processes and then the implementation of those processes, embedding safety throughout their procedures.
At the planning stage, there is prequalification to ensure contractors are prepared to do the scope of work our clients need. We find ways to set them up for safe work and
establish a ‘bridge’ between them and the clients.
During the work, we ensure safety measures are based on the project’s highest-risk activities, so those can be managed, and we give the contractors enough space to do their work, demonstrate their competency and self-report. We work with them to meet expectations.
We’ve also helped contract owners, when they are awarding jobs, to evaluate and make difficult decisions about which contractors should be prime or not. We also ensure there’s enough space and time between various contractors, for a safe work environment. We’ve been able to apply that measure to a lot of projects very quickly.
Do contractors bring their own safety plans?
Yes, in this day and age, it’s not rare for them to bring their own elements of safety.
When you design a CSSP to be scalable across various contractors, you have to realize some will be ‘outliers’—including highly specialized single owner-operators—who are not going to have a robust health and safety program that could meet significant prequalification requirements, even though they do safe work ver y well. So, you need to ensure your system works with those types of individuals.
You want to start with the idea of fostering a community to execute great work safely. Not every consulting engineering firm needs subject matter expertise in this field, but they all need to recognize their role in ensuring contractor safety culture. Safety is more than a manual or a checklist. It’s about how people and organizations come together to perform.
Fernando Del Melo.
PHOTO C OURTESY RAM
RAM customizes its contractor safety management program for clients.
WOMEN IN ENGINEERING JOIN US ONLINE
JUNE 19, 2025
The Advance: Women in Engineering virtual summit will be held on June 19, 2025, strategically timed to lead directly into International Women in Engineering Day on June 23. This is a key opportunity to promote greater gender diversity in one of Canada’s most celebrated areas of expertise, as consulting engineering firms seek to recruit and retain more women for roles at all levels of seniority.
Our goal is to spotlight the accomplishments of successful female professional engineers, encourage more women to join the industry/community and raise awareness of organizations that are already taking a leading role in this effort.
Join the conversation with Advance: Women in Engineering!
WHY SUPPORT WOMEN IN CONSULTING ENGINEERING?
z Recognize the careers of successful women in the industry
z Build your reputation as an industry leader in diversity
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