In many rural or small communities, federal buildings or infrastructure contribute significantly to the institutional fabric of the community. In doing so, federal property and related improvements need to be integrated into the community and be part of the land use, emergency measures and program delivery that serve such communities. Remote communities also offer unique challenges in the planning and building of federal improvements, like Arctic research labs, ports, and RCMP or Canada Post buildings, as well as transportation infrastructure.

Part 1 – Approaches to Planning and Building Facilities in Rural and Remote Communities: An RCMP Perspective on Local Collaboration and Engagement

Holly Herald, Regional Manager, Environment and Sustainable Development, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

For nearly 140 years, the RCMP have been building policing infrastructure in rural and remote communities across the country. The ability and opportunity to directly engage at the local level has successfully led to a collaborative planning and design process for many major projects. Demonstrated through RCMP experience, active engagement with communities on federal projects has translated to numerous benefits and can transform the way a community operates. Long-term results can include: improved cultural value; lower environmental impacts; cost reduction; strengthened partnerships; and, service and technology innovation. From Fort MacLeod in 1874 to Iqaluit Headquarters in 2010, the reflection of needs and values and the ultimate legacy for communities served remains an important aspect of the RCMP decision-making process.

Part 2 – Polar Continental Shelf Program Facilities: Collaboration and Engagement Through Canada’s Northern Strategy

Chantal Audet, Program Development Officer, Natural Resources Canada

In 1958, Natural Resources Canada’s Polar Continental Shelf Project (as it was called then) was established to do Arctic research. In 1960 PCSP established its first base at Resolute, Cornwallis Island, which consisted of a plywood shack. The PCSP facility in Resolute has changed considerably since then, but the challenges of working in the North and the importance of local and international partnerships have increased. From a Real Property perspective, supporting the Northern facilities is challenging due to logistics and seasonal limitations, heavy reliance on the limited local resources, arms-length control and monitoring, and pressures of expansion. Natural Resources Canada Real Property has developed a unique partnership of centralized Real Property and regional Sector involvement to carry out the ongoing facility and management needs for the Northerners, Northern facilities, and the Arctic scientific community.

Managing natural hazards such as floods, wildfires, earthquake/tsunamis, permafrost degradation etc., often requires a coordinated effort involving many jurisdictions. This coordination may require federal, provincial/territorial, municipal or Aboriginal jurisdictional efforts, and even third party involvement. Federal custodians cannot work in isolation and need to be part of larger coordinated planning efforts with other jurisdictions.

Part 1 – Earthquakes and Floods – Too Much Shaking and Too Much Water

Dr. Greg Brooks, Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada

Canada experiences a wide range of natural hazards, but exposure to these hazards varies widely because of the very large and physiographically-diverse Canadian landmass. This talk will provide a review of the mechanisms, characteristics, and key concepts of two significant natural hazards in Canada: earthquakes and floods. Aspects of hazard mitigation and management will be highlighted as well as sources for obtaining additional hazard information.

Part 2 – Slave Lake Wildfires: Perspectives on Coordinated Planning and Emergency Response

Handout 1
Handout 2

Cpl. Clint Vair, M.Sc., B.Ed., B.Sc., Operational Readiness and Response, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

From the recent events of the Slave Lake wildfires and other emergency events, there are many lessons learned with respect to coordinated planning and response efforts, not only to ensure public safety but to keep critical infrastructure, transportation routes and housing in-tact and operational. Through a review of events, the role of integrated continuity planning and coordinated response planning is discussed.

Rural federal properties are seen as public space and may be used with or without the knowledge or permission of the federal custodian. If not managed, public or third party access may infringe on the program objectives of the custodial departments; create possible public health and safety issues, or leave federal land vulnerable to misuse by unauthorized uses, squatting, wildlife poaching etc. Nevertheless, if managed in cooperation with neighbouring interests and jurisdictions, federal lands may offer opportunities to enhance the use of the property without undermining the program objectives for the lands.

Part 1 – Collaboration Involving Access to Federal Real Property

Scott Roy, Manager, Western Service Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
John Dyer, Real Property Advisor (Air Force), Directorate Real Property Management, Department of National Defence
Mats Striegler, Department of National Defence

The Department of National Defence (DND) is one of the largest landowners of federal real property. Due to the unique and specialised nature of our own numerous programmed land uses and the geographic breadth and diversity of our rural locations, we have a number of specific dynamic operational, legislative, regulatory and policy considerations we must address before granting surface access rights to third parties in rural settings. Our challenges in addressing these considerations to be highlighted include the determination of market value for agricultural use, the implementation of the Species at Risk Act (SARA) and capacity issues to respond to requirements, the impact of provincial drainage acts and riparian water rights, the impact of sensitive and high risk military installations on security considerations and for users, and the duty to consult and accommodate First Nation Inuit and Metis interests and any risk to those interests.

The Natural Resource Transfer Agreements were attached to the Constitution Act (1930). These Agreements transferred ownership, jurisdiction and responsibility of all natural resources, not previously dealt with by the B.N.A. Act, from the federal Crown to the provincial Crown. As a result, the provincial jurisdictions are able to make these resources available to the open market by sale or lease. Should these resources be located beneath federal Crown land, then there is an obligation to provide access to these resources. In order to accommodate these requests for access and, out of necessity, AAFC has developed policies and procedures governing the process. It includes, but is not limited to, required compliance with all Federal, Provincial and Municipal legislation, particularly related to the environment (CEAA, SARA, DFO), mitigation proposals, respect for AAFC operational requirements and the provision of various guidance documents. Open communication and coordination with other government departments, both Federal and Provincial, is absolutely essential. Overall, this is certainly not a simple challenge, but a daunting one.”

Part 2 – Collaboration to Manage Access to Federal Lands in Rural Areas and on the Urban Fringe

Crawford Kilpatrick, Chief - Realty Services, Parks Canada Agency
Marie Boulet, Director – Gatineau Park and Greenbelt, National Capital Commission

Parks Canada’s (PCA) system of protected areas and sites continues to expand, and is currently comprised of 42 national parks, 167 national historic sites (administered by the PCA), and four national marine conservation areas. In total, the PCA holds approximately 36 million hectares of land, equating to 90% of all federally held Crown land. The PCA welcomes approximately 20 million visitors per year to its locations and, as you can imagine, it can be difficult to manage authorised and illegal use of its lands. The PCA’s portion of this presentation will illustrate how the Agency manages use of its lands, from authorised use by the general public (visitation, recreation, leasing and licensing of public land for private use) to managing and preventing unauthorised use (poaching, illegal dumping, squatting, etc.). Following the recent Government of Canada announcement regarding the establishment of a national urban park in the Rouge Valley east of Toronto, prevention of unauthorised use could become a more complex challenge due to the urban nature of this location.

From a more urban perspective, the National Capital Commission (NCC) manages 10% of the lands in the National Capital Region. Two of the main rural/urban areas are the Greenbelt (21,495 hectares or 215 sq. km) and Gatineau Park (36,131 hectares or 361 sq. km) and they attract over five million visits per year due to their proximity to the urban core. These protected natural areas contribute to an exceptional quality of life in Canada’s Capital Region by offering a rich diversity of recreational offerings and also numerous ecological services and functions. The NCC portion of the presentation will focus mainly on the Greenbelt: presenting the challenges, lessons learned and opportunities for planning and managing these rural lands in an urban environment. It will also present a number of opportunities for partnership with community, academic, public and private organisations. These partnerships have contributed to the NCC in a number of ways: they have helped improve the conservation of highly valued ecosystems, further enhanced the recreational offerings, continued progress toward a more sustainable agriculture, and addressed impacts from adjacent urbanization.

Part 1 – Service Delivery Collaboration

Gilles Brasseur, Manager, Environmental Regulations and Assessments, Environmental Services Directorate, Real Property Branch, Public Works and Government Services Canada

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) assists Departments and Agencies across Canada in meeting their environmental responsibilities, which are present for both rural lands and in small communities. Federal activities and programs that have been developed and implemented to address environmental compliance will be discussed. While PWGSC is available to provide these services to its clients, all property managers and project managers are responsible to ensure they understand and meet environmental legislative requirements. PWGSC will discuss how environmental programs are delivered in collaboration with client departments, other levels of government and in some cases the private sector.

Part 2 – Greening Government Operations

Jean François Mercier, Director, Environmental Management Services, Real Property and Facilities Management Division, Health Canada

Health Canada’s leading approach to Greening Government Operations (GGO) has established four key areas for planning, policy and program development. They include: green buildings; energy and greenhouse gas reduction; waste management; and green procurement. At the same time, the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) has set new and mandatory GGO targets. This presentation will focus on the Health Canada Environmental Framework and explain how the Department is incorporating the FSDS targets into its operations. The objective is to identify key environmental activities (compliance policy and program initiatives) and how they are being managed with an emphasis on new initiatives (internal and external - branch, departmental and collaboration with Public Works and Government Services Canada and other stakeholders) that have resulted in huge benefits to the department in the areas of cost savings, reduction in GHG emission, safety and enhanced energy efficiency. The benefits being generated by the Environmental Framework positions Health Canada to support the government wide green agenda.

Part 3 – Environmental Management Objectives and Unique Properties

Ignacio Duque, Senior Environmental Assessment Advisor, Environmental Programs, Transport Canada

Transport Canada manages a number of airports across Canada, while others are run under local Airport Authorities. Transport Canada retains responsibility to ensure their environmental management objectives are met at the airports they operate, while relying on collaboration with the Airport Authorities and others to meet obligations at other airports. Transport Canada will discuss their collaborative approach to meeting their sustainable environmental management objectives across Canada, at airports they operate and on the vast land holdings under their jurisdiction. The role of property managers and their environmental responsibilities will be presented and discussed in areas such as species at risk; fisheries; water, soil and air quality; etc.