Habitat Banking focuses on creating and improving fish and wildlife habitat in advance of port development projects, to ensure potential impacts to existing habitat are off-set.

Port Metro Vancouver’s (PMV) Habitat Banking Program is an ongoing, proactive measure intended to offset the potential impacts of port development projects to fish and wildlife habitats. To be considered truly successful these projects must include substantive participation of local First Nation people. Consultants awarded work on PMV’s Habitat Banking Program projects are encouraged to provide employment and training opportunities to First Nation individuals and First Nation owned businesses.

TMJV works with PMV, the employment coordinators at each local First Nation and a variety of organizations that provide funding for skills training to First Nation individuals to ensure PMV’s First Nations project participation mandate is exceeded.

PMV Habitat Banking Program sites 3.1 to 3.5 comprise 90.000 square metres of waterfront salt marsh habitat between Boundary Bay and Roberts Bank, BC. The rehabilitation of this sensitive habitat includes the works to remove the abandoned logs, garbage, barbed wire and other contaminants as well as the construction of safe, contaminate-free perching and foraging habitat.

To date these projects have generated full-time employment in South Delta for five Tsawwassen, one Hwlitsum and one Shisale First Nation Members. As well, Tsawwassen First Nation artisans have been provided access to a significant quantity of valuable salvaged materials, such as cedar for carving.

Funded by regional stakeholder TI Corporation, the FNFLF was established to facilitate the participation of the Katzie, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem, Musqueam, Tsawwassen and Tsleil-Waututh communities in collaborative works that address the impacts to fish and fish habitat caused by continued industrialization and urbanization of the lower Fraser River. Our innovative First Nations Opportunities Plan provided for, facilitated and reported on employment and training opportunities we made available to First Nations individuals on this project.

Matcon Civil, through its joint venture with the Tsawwassen First Nation, was awarded the earthworks portion of the Surrey Bend habitat enhancement project, a politically and environmentally sensitive initiative that provided for the construction of 3.5km of large meandering-channel salmon habitat and accompanying berms. Works included the clearing of land, 45,000m3 of peat excavation and placement working on swamp pads during wet months and the placement of 15,000 tons of gravel preload. Also constructed were internal roads and pathways, a new vehicle road access and parking lot, and installed both a new aluminum pedestrian foot bridge and a steel equipment bridge structure.

Completed in early 2011, this project included two kilometers of four lane industrial road construction and underground utilities on 41b Street and 27b Avenue on the Tsawwassen First Nation Lands, adjacent to BNSF railways. Also completed were a two km water main installation and a $400,000 tie in to Metro Vancouver Water District’s large diameter water main. In addition to working with the Tsawwassen First Nation community, $1,300,000 of the project was performed directly for the Ministry of Transportation.

Tsawwassen Mills Shopping Centre is one of the first major developments on TFN Lands following the successful negotiation of TFN’s Treaty, and is the first time that Ivanhoé Cambridge has collaborated directly with a First Nation community. Matcon Civil is proud to have been a part of this project team.

Located at Highway 17 and 52nd Street, Tsawwassen Mills includes approximately 111,500 m2 (1.2 million ft2) of retail space, with 16 anchors and a unique mix of premium fashion brands, factory outlets, restaurants and first to market retailers, as well as a 1,100-seat food court. The development will be modelled on the successful CrossIron Mills in the Calgary Region, and Vaughan Mills in the Greater Toronto area.

Matcon Civil, through its joint venture with the Tsawwassen First Nation, managed what was the largest structural preload project in the Lower Mainland during the construction of Tsawwassen Mills Shopping Centre. Our project works include managing the procurement, placement and grading of 2,000,000 metric tons of sand, the installation of underground utilities, road construction and the construction of park-like habitat areas.

As well, we worked closely with TFN, the project’s developer Ivanhoe Cambridge, and the general contractor Ledcor Canada to ensure the delivery of substantive opportunities for First Nation individuals and First Nation-owned businesses during the construction of this exciting project. Matcon Civil’s Opportunity reporting tracked not only staff hours, but procurement dollars and opportunities, and the skills and competencies training and job shadowing opportunities we were able to deliver on.

RAVCON, our partnership with Tsawwassen First Nation Member-owned Raven Contracting, is moving into site preparation for phase two of Tsawwassen Shores, the first residential development to take place on the Tsawwassen First Nation Lands after its historic treaty was signed in 2008. The five-phase Aquilini Investments development, which broke ground in 2012, is part of the 270-acre masterplanned TFN community that includes the Tsawwassen Mills and Tsawwassen Commons commercial developments. Our works encompass all aspects of civil site preparation including filling, preloading, grading, underground utilities, and new road construction. As well, in partnership with Raven and the Tsawwassen First Nation, we provide employment and training opportunities for qualified First Nation individuals as part of our project works.

Managed under a federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) permit, the Sutherland Road project restored the configuration of what had most recently been a market farm, back to a wetlands habitat in support several species at risk including the Oregon Spotted Frog, Oregon Forest Snail, Western Painted Turtle, and the Pacific Water Shrew. Because the land utilized for this project was federally owned, this project had been subject to a screening-level environmental assessment in 2012.

Matcon Civil’s project team was responsible for the remediation of contaminated soils and sediments. Our works included the removal of 16,000m3 of contaminated soil and sediment from within and around watercourses that drain into the Mountain Slough watershed, and the construction and re-grading of 800 metres of channel habitat. Contaminated water was managed through the construction of in-ground holding tanks and the installation of a vertical filtration system used in combination to both clean the water, and to manage the flow during active construction. Vegetation in the existing ditch areas was mowed to allow for visual surveys and hand-catching of various species.

Matcon Civil also leveraged our involvement in this project to include our invasive species project team members from our TFN Construction / Matcon Civil Joint Venture, who worked closely with the biologists of Balance Ecological to utilize manual and mechanical methods to remove invasive plant species, install containment/exclusion fencing and tube traps for target species, and assist with fauna salvages and bird surveys.

FortisBC’s expansion of their Tilbury Island liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility in Delta, BC is intended to meet the long-term projected growth for LNG as a cleaner transportation fuel and an important energy source for communities, industry and the marketplace. This expansion will result in increased LNG supply, creating opportunities for industrial users and remote communities, bringing economic development and new jobs to BC.

Through TMJV, the long-standing joint venture partnership between Tsawwassen First Nation and Matcon Civil, we were contracted by FortisBC to provide a range of heavy civil construction services both on and off the project site. FortisBC’s mandate to engage local First Nation-owned businesses and individuals in their project work furnished us with an excellent opportunity to showcase our capacity for creative solutions, and reaffirm our reputation as leaders in BC’s civil construction industry.

As the project site is located within an established industrial area, and is directly adjacent to the south arm of the Fraser River, coordination with the projects many stakeholders, participants, and neighbors was paramount. The project’s Registered Environmental Professional guided work around nesting and fisheries windows, and our team worked hard to coordinate with both the adjacent local businesses and the other contractors participating in the project. More than 600 people worked on the FortisBC Tilbury LNG Expansion project, including 100 local businesses from 10 lower mainland communities, furnishing 475 on-site local skilled tradespeople who are represented by 10 unions and brought $10Million to Delta in goods and services.

Our Off-Site works included roadwork such as the repair and widening of Hopcott Road, the addition of sidewalks and a boulevard, street lighting, hydro/tel/shaw services, installation and management of erosion and sediment control, and installation of the off-site cathodic Protection. We also upgraded the storm sewer system, sanitary sewer system, and waterworks, tying into the adjacent existing Corporation of Delta and privately owned infrastructure, including the drainage system that connects to the Tilbury Slough.

While our On-Site works included the installation of erosion and sediment control, the storm sewer system, sanitary sewer, Fire Line, and waterworks, as well as construction of the access road to the substation, and the installation of the on-site cathodic protection.

Wellpoint dewatering was utilized to overcome Delta’s high water table during the installation of both the water main and the fire suppression line, while the fire line itself along with the restraints and fittings were field-tested against the extremely high pressures necessary for the facilities operations.

TMJV also participated in FortisBC’s reporting processes for Indigenous and other under-represented workers, leveraging our internal Employment Retention and Advancement and Work Experience Program for First Nation Youth programs, as well as our solid working relationships with local First Nations and First Nation individuals.