BROWNFIELDS
MARKETPLACE
editorial
A MATTER OF VALUE Site restoration in British Columbia
T
he world of brownfield redevelopment in British Columbia is unique in many ways. The province has Canada’s highest real estate values, with residential properties averaging over $495,000 compared to the national average of just over $337,000. (In Vancouver the average is an astonishing $627,500, according to CREA data from December 2009.) There has been no shortage of financial rewards for cleaning a contaminated industrial site in the urban centres. For this reason many of these sites in Vancouver have already been cleaned or are well underway. Some of the recently remediated sites were cleaned up for the 2010 Winter Olympic facilities. Where then do BC’s challenges lie? One answer is found by following the salmon up the Fraser River. Canada’s lumber industry faces economic hurdles — Canada’s lumber production is down 13.7 per cent from November 2008-2009 according to StatsCan. Immigration Canada anticipates population growth in BC, reporting that it’s the destination of choice for over 17 per cent of all new immigrants to the country. This will cause the use of certain lands to change, in some cases dramatically. Former sawmill sites can be perfect places for residential development, with their riverfront locations and highway access. But first they must be cleaned. The provincial government has been working on many pro-active initiatives to promote brownfield remediation. Activities include the following: February 2008: the BC government announced the BC Brownfield Renewal Strategy, a partnership of five provincial ministries led by the Ministry of Agriculture & Lands in-
by Jamie Ross 32 www.hazmatmag.com SPRING 2010
“Former sawmill sites can be perfect places for residential development, with their riverfront locations and highway access. But first they must be cleaned.”
tended to increase brownfield redevelopment across private and provincially owned brownfields. Fall 2008: Questionnaire administered to all 186 local governments in the province asking key questions to help guide the development and implementation of the BC Brownfield Renewal Strategy (with a 21.5 per cent response rate). In this same time period, changes were made to Crown land tenures to better protect the Crown from contamination on leases. A Brownfield Information Line was created that provides direct access to provincial government brownfield staff to assist on technical, regulatory, planning, finance and other brownfield questions. Fall 2008/Winter 2009: Delivery of four “Brownfield 101” workshops to 19 local governments and several speaking engagements across the province. Winter 2009: Post-secondary Brownfield Program launched through the University of British Columbia and the BC Institute of Technology, providing brownfield practitioners with knowledge, skills and networking opportunities. The Brownfield Renewal website was launched, www. brownfieldrenewal.gov.bc.ca April 2009: A $10 million funding program was launched for investigations on private lands to encourage redevelopment of brownfield sites by assisting landowners with the cost of investigations. August 2009-September 2009: First $1.6 million awarded to 17 successful applicants under the BC Brownfield Renewal Funding Program. October 2009: The province won the Brownie Award for Best Legislation, Policy and Program Initiatives. November 2009: Hosted a webinar for local governments to showcase the Gas Station framework from Ontario and begin a dialogue about the applicability of such a tool in BC. Lastly, here at Business Information Group, our own ERIS (Environmental Risk Information Services) has developed a new report specifically tailored for British Columbia. Launched in November 2009, the B.C. Standard Report Plus joins the BC Site Registry Report in our stable of regionally tailored reports. For more information go to www.eris.ca
Jamie Ross is Account Manager for the Brownfields Marketplace and HazMat Management magazine. Contact Jamie at jross@bizinfogroup.ca