26th Annual Brownie Awards winners honoured in Toronto

Brownfield development was in the spotlight this month as the industry gathered in downtown Toronto to celebrate the winners of the 26th Annual Brownie Awards.

The are presented in partnership with the Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN) and SiteMedia, parent company of Environment Journal. Nominations were received from a wide variety of projects, large and small, urban and northern. The goal is to highlight the best brownfield projects across the country Organizers noted that the awards jury consisted of a diverse representation of industry experts and experienced practitioners from across the country.

One of the most prestigious awards, best overall project, went to Biidaasige Park. The project team has transformed roughly 20 hectares of former industrial waterfront—once a filled-in marsh and flood-prone canal zone—into the city’s largest new park in a generation. The site was long constrained by contamination and the engineered 90-degree turn of the Don River, which made redevelopment risky and discouraged investment. A $1.4-billion tri-government flood protection and remediation project rerouted and naturalized the river mouth, created the new island of Ookwemin Minising and cleaned up decades of industrial use to make way for wetlands, trails and community spaces.

Environment Journal Editor Connie Vitello, who serves as the communications representative on the jury, remarked that it was a challenging process this year. “I’m always blown away by the variety of inspiring projects. It’s a confidential process but I can report that this year was the most difficult yet for the jury in terms of decision-making with the quality of nomination applications received. The scores were super close.”

Ontario’s Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, the Honourable Todd McCarthy, provided a warm welcome address, thanking the room of leading brownfielders for their dedication and transformative work.

“I want to salute and thank all of you here tonight for your dedication, and for the transformative work that you all do. I know that we’re actually gathering on former brownfield lands and look at what is around us as we look out the window looking north, what transformation, what economic hub this is for Toronto, for Ontario and for Canada,” said the Minister. “It demonstrates what can be done with your dedication and your great work. And so we celebrate the best examples of cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites across Canada.”

Here is this year’s full list of winners:

REPROGRAM: Legislation, Policy and Program Initiatives

Guelph: Removing Environmental Barriers at a Municipal-Wide Scale – Guelph, ON

REMEDIATE: Technological Innovation

PCB Free Product Boundary Control and Encapsulation – Mississauga, ON

REMEDIATE: Sustainable Remediation

Pétromont: Réhabilitation environnementale d’un ancien terrain d’usine – Varennes, QC

RESTRATEGIZE: Partnership and Community Engagement

Inuit Capacity Building Program for Remediation of a Former – Coral Harbour, NU

REBUILD: Project Development at the Building Scale

Charlie West – Kitchener, ON

RENEW: Project Development at the Neighbourhood Scale

Richmond Yards – Halifax, NS

REFOCUS: Vision of Alternative Benefits to Brownfield Remediation

Dow’s Lake Revitalization – Ottawa, ON

Best Small-Scale Project

University of Ottawa, Faculty of Health Sciences – Ottawa, ON

Best Large-Scale Project

Galleria on the Park – Toronto, ON

Best Overall Project

Biidaasige Park – Toronto, ON

Brownfielder of the Year

Joe Chowaniec – Special Advisor, Environmental Services Association of Alberta