There is a general consensus that the development of BIM in Canada lags many other developed countries around the globe. This is partly due to little encouragement from government procurement at the federal and provincial levels and partly due to a fragmented industry effort to push a BIM agenda. I have just spent an exciting day at the Canada BIM Council (CanBIM) Regional Session in Vancouver and had a very illuminating talk with Thomas Strong, President of CanBIM. I am happy to report that there has been significant progress in accelerating the rate of BIM adoption in Canada by the industry, government and academic sectors.
Background
The Canadian architecture, engineering, construction and owners (AECO) industry represent about $300 billion in capital expenditure, approximately 20% of the Canadian GDP. The construction industry employs over 1.3 million people or 7.5% of total workforce distributed across more than 120 000 enterprises. As in many countries the Canadian architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry suffers from low productivity. To remedy this problem many countries around the globe have prioritized the development of building information modeling (BIM) and related technologies. There is a general consensus that Canada is lagging behind many of these other countries in the adoption and implementation of BIM.
Although a number of private AEC firms in Canada have adopted BIM and are using it on major projects, government procurement with some exceptions does not require or incentivize BIM on public projects. An exception is the the Department of National Defence (DND) which began adopting BIM in a significant way a number of years ago. However, last year the Department of Public Works and Government Services invited Carleton University School of Business to develop a BIM and energy performance modeling exercise to create an interactive 3D-model of the East Block of Parliament for the purposes of an upcoming rehabilitation project of the building. The project includes documenting heritage objects. There are signs that the Federal government is beginning to recognize the potential benefits of BIM for some projects.
Until two or three years ago another hindrance to the development of BIM in Canada was that the industry effort to push BIM adoption was fragmented. Two industry organizations, the Canadian BIM Council and the Institute for BIM in Canada (IBC)/buildingSMART Canada, which work at a national level to encourage BIM adoption, had pursued separate agendas and had not coordinated their efforts to work toward common goals. The good news is that for over a year now these two organizations have closely coordinated their efforts.
At the CanBIM Regional conference in Vancouver I had a chance to chat with Thomas Strong, President of the Canada BIM Council (CanBIM) and Managing director of EllisDon’s Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) group. who revealed that there has been significant progress in addressing both of these drags on BIM adoption.
By way of background Thomas told me that CanBIM is a not-for-profit organization founded 10 years ago. It has grown steadily over the past decade and currently has more than 350 members. The membership includes major AECO firms across Canada with good participation on all levels in the industry; owners and residential, commercial, civil construction, architects, engineers, academia, trades and technology providers.
BIM advancement by government
On the government procurement front Thomas told me that BIM requirements have appeared for years in RFPs from Alberta Infrastructure and Infrastructure Ontario, but there has not been a concerted effor to advance BIM as there has been in other countries. In Quebec the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) has developed an action plan for the progressive and gradual adoption of BIM and related technology. Since 2016, the SQI has had a rolling deployment plan for BIM that is based on the evolution of the maturity of Québec industry. Accomplishments to date include
- 2009-2014 - Compile past experience. Submit report in 2014.
- April 2015 - Approval of the business opportunity. International benchmarking study of experience of several international organizations in the field of BIM by l'École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) de Montréal . Development of a deployment scenario.
- May 2016 - Approval of the business case. Elucidation of costs and benefits. Optimization of the deployment scenario and initiation of deployment.
Planned future developments include
- 3D - Interdisciplinary collaboration using the 3-dimensional model.
- 6D - Use of the model and associated data to simulate and integrate the elements of sustainable development.
- 4D and 5D - 4D:Addition of schedule to the model. Simulation of the virtual construction. 5D Integration of the project cost component.
- 7D - Use all data collected for infrastructure operations.
The University of Alberta completed a review in 2016 of international BIM standards including AEC (UK) BIM Technology Protocol, National BIM Standard- United States, AEC (CAN) BIM Technology Protocol, Singapore BIM Guide, New York City BIM Guidelines, Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission BIM Guide, State of Ohio Building Information Modeling Protocol, and Texas Facilities Commission Professional Architectural/Engineering Guidelines. Alberta Infrastructure plans to release Digital Project Delivery and Handover Standards on March 31st, 2018. Quebec and Alberta represent the leading edge of planned BIM advancement by top levels of government in Canada.
BIM advancement by industry associations
Secondly, CanBIM is starting to drive integration with other construction organizations across Canada. Since CanBIM is a cross-disciplinary organization representing members from design, engineering, general contractors, and facility management, there are many associations representing those disciplines. BIM tends to touch all of these disciplines. CanBIM wants to work with these industry associations, pull them into what they are doing, participate in what they are doing and drive a consistent methodology and best practices. Thomas revealed that CanBIM has set up a regular communication channel with the Institute for BIM in Canada (IBC)/buildingSMART Canada to ensure that two groups coordinate their efforts toward common goals.
CanBIM attends IBC/BSC meetings and vice versa. CanBIM and BSC have signed an official MOU as of November 2017 stating CanBIM and BSC will co-brand, work jointly, and share resources, workload and costs to develop and maintain a mutually agreeable set of initiatives; committees, publications, events, standards, practice documents, newsletters, leaving open the possibility to incorporate further mutually agreeable initiatives as needed. In 2016, CanBIM and IBC/buildingSMART Canada announced that they are bringing together two of their key committees to work hand in hand to further the interests of BIM in Canada. Their Owners and Education Committees will combine their efforts to address the most pressing issues facing the AECO community in Canada so that there is a clear set of outcomes that both agencies can support and endorse in a variety of ways. Furthermore the two organizations launched the joint bSC/CanBIM Canadian Education initiative. The aim of the BIM initiative is to provide a clear scope and sequence of education activities that must be carried out to support and enable the transformation of the Canadian AECO community. Thomas expressed his hope that over the next few years, CanBIM and IBC/buildingSMART will be tied together in some form. With respect to both government procurement and industry associations this represents significant progress. That CanBIM and IBC/BSM have agreed to cooperate on a BIM education initiative is very good news especially for young Canadians who will require BIM skills in order to participate, not only in the future domestic construction industry, but also in the burgeoning international construction market.
In summary significant progress has been made in the development of BIM in Canada by industry, government, and academic sectors. To date BIM has been primarily an industry initiative with industry early adopters implementing BIM for business reasons, primarily, to reduce risk and improve efficiency. Thomas noted that there have been Public – Private Partnerships (P3s) RFPs for years that have included BIM requirements, but there have not been concerted federal or provincial government efforts to promote BIM at the procurement level until very recently. That Quebec and Alberta provincial governments have recognized that BIM could help reduce the cost of designing, building and maintaining and operating public infrastructure and have taken concrete steps with respect to BIM represents important progress. Secondly industry leaders in BIM have coalesced their efforts through Canadian industry BIM organizations and have begun reaching out to other industry associations. Thirdly, that universities like Carleton University, University of Alberta, and l'École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) de Montréal have gotten involved in the process of helping digitalize construction is also contributing to the acceleration of BIM and digital technology adoption in the construction industry in Canada.
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