PROPOSAL

RATIONALIZATION FOR DFO

Background

Following the presentation of the draft DFO rationalization workplan to Land and Business Geographics (L&BG) on October 18th, 2000, L&BG has identified a number of value-added services that can be provided on a national basis to assist DFO and PWGSC in their strategic and operational activities related to the rationalization activity.

The following proposal is a brief description of the products and services L&BG can offer on a national basis. The first section "About Land and Business Geographics" will give you an overview of our group and capabilities in our three business lines. The second section will address, more specifically, the range of services within the context of the "Rationalization Workplan" specific activities. The appendices attached include a list of Land and Business Geographics national and regional contacts. In addition, we have also included sample products that were generated by our group on a national basis as well as some analysis made using the initial listing of Phase 1 and Phase 2 properties provided by the Rationalization Team.

About Land and Business Geographics

Within Real Estate Services(RES), the Land & Business Geographics (L&BG) Group is a national team of ±50 professionals with backgrounds in urban geography, geomatics, land surveys, economics, statistics and cartography. We are PWGSC's subject matter experts in land information, business geographics and land survey. Our expertise is applied to a wide variety of real property related activities such as acquisition and disposal, development, valuation, urban and land use planning, payments-in-lieu of taxes, asset management, socio-economic analysis, portfolio management, strategic management, mapping, data management, facilities management, environmental management, site selection and corporate information systems.

Over the last year our focus has been to strengthen our regional approach to products and services and to complement it with the further building of a dynamic national team approach. This is being accomplished through the development of a generic base level of expertise, improved communication of lessons learned, sharing expertise and experiences, sharing tools, shared research and development and the development of national quality control and quality assurance standards.

Our approach is to utilize progressive approaches to traditional and new business lines to effectively deal with real property issues. As a result, L&BG applies leading edge technology such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Internet and Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) software in delivering some of its products and services.

L&BG includes three business areas, Business Geographics, Land Information and Land Surveys. These business areas are defined as follows:

Business Geographics - The process of managing Real Property Services Branch's business issues and services by applying location-referenced data to leverage diverse information with technology in order to improve business processes, approaches, modelling, analyses, and decision making.

Land Information - The process of managing the portion of the Real Property Services Branch's business issues and services associated with the gathering, maintaining, verifying, organizing and disseminating general and detailed information pertaining to land and sites.

Land Surveys - The process of managing the portion of the Real Property Services Branch's business issues and services associated with the science or art of making measurements to determine or establish the relative position of points, objects and various data sets above, on, or beneath the surface of the earth, with the exception of those similar issues and services associated with hydrographic surveys and the site improvements including the associated infrastructure.

The following is a list of some of the typical products and services Land & Business Geographics provide to clients. Please refer to the Products & Services appendix within this proposal for more details.

Rationalization Workplan context

Background

Departments often acquire buildings and facilities when they start new programs. But programs change, departments change the way they deliver programs, and technologies change. After a while, assets may become obsolete or otherwise unsuited to the needs of the department or its programs.

Inventory rationalization is a systematic method for matching a client's current asset base to its program requirements. It provides a detailed analysis of a client's inventory against departmental goals and program needs, generating recommendations on how to achieve a "best fit."

In working with clients to rationalize their inventories, RES's goal is to ensure that the client's real property assets support the activities and goals of the department, its branches and projects; that every asset is used to its full potential; and that each asset adds value to the overall portfolio. These criteria can be applied to an entire inventory or to a specific facility or building.

Working jointly with the Real Estate advisors in each region, L&BG can assist and provide value-added products, services and tools in Land Survey, Land Information and Business Geographics areas. The following are some of the activities whereby L&BG can enhance the level of understanding of strategic and operational activities in the context of a rationalization for DFO.

To carry out a portfolio rationalization, RES:

- catalogues and assesses the client's portfolio of real property;

- identifies departmental and program needs, based on a thorough assessment of their activities, goals, products, clients, methods, and so on;

- evaluates the degree of compatibility between departmental/project needs and available real property assets;

- develops strategies to reconcile supply with demand in a way that minimizes costs to the Crown and maximizes the value of the client's real property assets.

Typical rationalization strategies include measures such as:

- consolidating assets through disposal, divestiture and /or strategic investments;

- buying, building or leasing additional facilities;

- restoring or upgrading existing facilities to make them more serviceable;

- transferring a program or activity to a more suitable facility;

- intensifying the use of existing facilities through more appropriate scheduling or sharing of resources.

L&BG can assist and work with the Rationalization team to address and help in the strategies outlined above.

Information Collection, Modelling, Analysis, Management and Reporting

A department's Real Property Management Framework articulates its roles and responsibilities, its overall goals with respect to real property, and its decision-making process. A necessary adjunct to this framework is a strategy for real property information. The purpose of such a strategy is four-fold.

1. First, it identifies the various information elements required in an inventory to describe a custodian's assets.

2. Second, it identifies the various information elements required which describes the setting in which an asset is located.

3. Third, it identifies the various business requirements for information.

4. Fourth, it identifies the business process, work processes and tools required for the collection, maintenance and analysis of the information.

Our land information expertise extends well beyond the ability to collect and manage quality information. We have the ability to provide advice on information requirements, business practices and the application of tools. In addition we can provide a consistent tool to capture the information listed into the section 3 of the Rationalization Workplan under Table 2: Rationalization Initiative Information Requirements.

The prerequisite for managing real property effectively within the context of a rationalization is "knowing" your property portfolio and where it is.

L&BG is the place to go for comprehensive, accurate information about your real property assets, or about assets you might wish to acquire. L&BG collects, verifies, manages and disseminates a multitude of information about real property, from establishing its legal and geographical boundaries to determining the ownership (and limitations thereto) of all applicable rights, interests and benefits. Land information is used for overall portfolio management and decision making, property transactions, legal proceedings, engineering projects, marketing, mapping and environmental management, among other things.

Our experienced surveyors can locate and delineate precisely all aspects of real property, including what is on, above or below the earth's surface. We plan and carry out land and topographic surveys, project control surveys, geodesic and cadastral surveys, and mining claim surveys, among others. Our product line-up includes registered plans, reference plans, surveyor's real property reports, land ownership inventory reports, site plans and georeferencing.

Most real estate activities such as the rationalization have an association with location; and the use of Business Geographics tools is its ability to use geographic location to deal with these associations. Based on some sample datasets provided to L&BG we have developed a number of products that are included in the appendix B. Using the tools and techniques of the Business Geographics expert, we can model and analyse various type of

real property information to enhance the comprehension of the problem/ situation within the context of a rationalization. The following are examples of the application of modelling and analysis techniques to a real estate situation:

- viewing and analysis of data in a manner previously not possible or economically feasible;

- accessing data in many forms (tabular, graphical, analytical, maps, etc.);

- sorting information using the geographic components of the data (by region, province, cities, communities, neighborhood, etc..) to display the results on a map;

- lets you see patterns and relationships in information quickly and easily.

Equipped with full cartographic capability, L&BG can prepare a variety of topographic, photographic and digital maps, including customized three-dimensional and thematic maps (please see in Appendix B for some sample maps).

Conclusion

The use of L&BG expertise and tools can enhance the delivery of RES services in support of Rationalization Study for DFO, more specifically to:

- identify the essential data or considerations relevant to the problem/ situation;

- assist in analysis of real estate data for a custodian;

- display vital information on a property or group of properties in a visually effective way;

- integrate information into a plan, profile, or map that is orderly, clear and logical;

- propose solutions that are relevant, feasible, workable;

- recognize situational limitations, procedures and priorities;

- propose alternatives or scenario with advantages, disadvantages where possible;

- share information with RES project Team and DFO.

Through timely involvement with the Real Estate Advisors at national and regional levels and adequate support from the team, the completion of various projects can be achieved within timeframe indicated in the workplan. It is key that all parties work together and develop strong lines of communication to ensure delivery and timely products and services on a national consistent basis.

Appendix A

List of contacts

CONTACTS/ PERSONNES RESSOURCES

LAND & BUSINESS GEOGRAPHICS GROUP/

GROUPE D'INFORMATION FONCIÈRE ET GÉOMATIQUE DANS LE DOMAINE DES AFFAIRES

Appendix B-

Sample Products and Services

Realty Profile / Asset Briefs

A Realty Profile / Asset Brief is a one or two page document which provides: (i) a synopsis of key real property facts; (ii) a graphic illustration of the location; and (iii) an analysis of a particular issue associated with real estate. These "Profiles / Briefs" are similar to executive summaries. Realty Profiles / Asset Briefs can be utilized by all levels of an organization from the executive to the working level, to present an "instant picture" when discussing issues. The following are three examples.

The first Real Profile presents the salient facts related to various properties within the National Defence inventory which were reviewed to determine the potential to declare them surplus. The second Realty Profile presents information associated with the Division Based Investment Strategy for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The third example is an Asset Brief created for the Owner Investor Group of Public Works and Government Services Canada to support various briefing activities of the Portfolio Managers.

Site Selection

A Site Selection Study can be utilized to support the decision making process associated with the acquisition of a right, benefit or interest in real property. These Studies focus on: (i) the investigation and identification of the criteria which must be considered in finding a suitable location; and (ii) analyzing the criteria to determine the suitability of a location. Using Geographic Information System technology, advanced modelling techniques can be applied to assist in the evaluation of the spatial relationship between potential properties and the selection criteria. The following are two examples.

The first map forms part of the analysis conducted during the site selection process for a new Royal Canadian Mounted Police Divisional headquarters for "H" Division. The map illustrates the location of the existing headquarters, the three detachments in the vicinity and the international airport. An Area of Concentration (15.5 kilometers from the Central Business District) and the Primary Focus Area (7.0 kilometers from the Central Business District) were determined using parameters set based on driving time from a potential site to the court house within the City of Halifax.

The second and third maps formed part of the analysis conducted to locate potential sites which were considered for addition to Cambridge Reserve #32.

Rationalization Study

Data dissemination

The maps included into this section are sample illustrations of the geographical components of the location of rationalization sites provided to us for the context of this proposal. For example,

- the location of the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg and the relationship with other federal buildings in the same area;

- a national overview of the real property value for the provided sites;

- a map showing the utilization level in comparison with the operational status of the site;

- a national overview of Phase 1 and Phase 2 properties and a categorization of site priority (Cold, Warm, Hot).