Author(s)

K. H. Tiedemann

Abstract

Years of neglect have left a legacy of contaminated and underutilized brownfield sites in Canada, with attendant environmental, social and economic costs. Rehabilitation of brownfield sites has emerged as a major public issue in Canada over the past twenty years. This paper explores several dimensions of the brownfields issue in Canada: the size and nature of the brownfields situation by province; the role and extent of federal and provincial government regulatory activities and financing programs; and the cost effectiveness of brownfields site rehabilitation efforts. Keywords: brownfield sites, environmental policy, cost effectiveness. 1 Introduction Rehabilitation of brownfield sites has emerged as major public issue in Canada over the past twenty years. Years of neglect have left a legacy of contaminated and underutilized commercial and industrial brownfield sites. As indicated in the references, a number of studies have explored various aspects of the brownfields situation in Canada, but there have been few attempts to examine the environmental, policy and economic aspects of brownfields in Canada. This study attempts to help fill this gap by exploring the following related issues: (1) estimate the number of brownfield sites by province and characterize these sites; (2) review federal and provincial brownfields policies; and (3) undertake a cost effectiveness analysis of brownfield sites rehabilitation. 2 Canadian brownfields situation The extent and nature of the brownfield sites situation varies considerably by province across Canada as shown in Table 1, but there are common features

Keywords

brownfield sites, environmental policy, cost effectiveness.