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Playing Games

As the curtain came down on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Canada deservedly beamed with pride as our competitors skated, skied, and slid away with a…

The P3 Leader

Although the public-private partnership (P3) concept originated in the United Kingdom during the 1990s, Canada quickly established itself as a serious market player. With a…

Reversal of Fortune for Cities

Toronto, Vancouver, and Halifax will record the fastest economic growth rates this year among the 13 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) covered in The Conference Board…

Trending P3

In Canada, public-private partnerships (P3s) are increasingly being used to build big infrastructure projects—everything from wastewater plants to roads and hospitals. P3s are a performance-based…

Want Transit? Vote on It

Hemmed between the Fraser River, the Salish Sea, and some of the most beautiful national parks in Canada, Vancouver is a beautiful city. By virtue…

Canada’s Other Energy Boom

When it comes to energy infrastructure, Canada is on the move. Of course, that may seem like nothing new, given Canada’s lengthy energy history, particularly…

Rates of Return

When a consortium took control of Montreal Gateway Terminals from Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners earlier this spring, the price tag—about $650 million—attracted attention. As did…

Smart Mobility

Traffic congestion and gridlock are gripping cities across Canada. While many of the proposed solutions, such as expanding public transit, could help in the long…

The City of the Future

Intelligent communities. Smart cities. Ubiquitous societies. Digital municipalities. These are just some of the labels defining the latest trend in urban innovation and 21st century…

The Roads of the Future

The impact of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on Canada’s infrastructure will be significant. The best proxy for this is to look back to the early years…

Getting Our Priorities Straight

The federal election is not until the fall, but provincial and municipal leaders have already begun throwing their opinions into the fray. In January 2015,…

Cementing Our Future

Many Torontonians are often surprised to learn that the Toronto Port Lands remain a functioning port area and will continue to house industrial tenants. Situated…

Halifax’s Bold Move

In the 1960s, Halifax was struck with the same idea as Toronto: build a major commuter highway through the lower downtown core to enable cars…

Boost Your City’s IQ

Civilization was built one stone at a time. Today, urban infrastructure is the physical and organizational foundation required to operate modern and flourishing societies. The…

What’s Old is New

Tansley Bridge was originally built in 1919 and supported a highway crossing Bronte Creek. In 1948, the highway was realigned following the construction of the…

Too Big to Fail

Large-scale infrastructure projects from procurement to completion are becoming increasingly complicated and risky in Canada. Local opposition, and the political response it inevitably generates, has…

Engaging Strategy

When Metro Vancouver began the indicative design process (IDP) for the new Lions Gate secondary wastewater treatment plant (No. 68 this year),one of the first…

Capturing Value

In October 2014, the world’s first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage plant began operating right here in Canada. Built by SaskPower, Saskatchewan’s public electricity utility,…

Engineered Against Flooding

In August 2005, Southern Ontario experienced one of the largest storms it had since Hurricane Hazel. More than 150 millimeters of rainfall in a two-hour…

On the SmartTrack

The recent election of John Tory as Toronto’s new mayor has been closely linked with a far-sighted transit plan branded as SmartTrack, a proposal to…

A Matter of Integrity

The Quebec government has lowered the threshold triggering the requirement for any company (and their subcontractors) responding to public calls for tender issued as of…