VM in Canada

McGill University, Montreal Quebec
One of the earliest formal recognitions to Value Engineering, in Canada, was a Value Engineering course in the mechanical engineering department at McGill University. This course was initiated in 1973 as a means to bridge the gap between students and industry. Robert Sproule and Hank Wales, both from General Electric taught the course. David Pfeiffer was the professor that introduced the course into his curriculum at that time. Vince Thomson replaced David Pfeiffer in 1996 and has continued this course with six studies being conducted each year. Each year since 1973, 30 students are trained and 5 or 6 VA/VE studies are conducted for industries in the greater Montreal and Toronto areas.

Ministry of Environment
In 1985, there was a rapid upgrade and expansion to wastewater facilities in Quebec. The deputy minister  instituted Value Engineering as the methodology of choice. He instructed the Director of Purchasing, to obtain training in VE and fast track a program to approve new sites. This resulted in 10 VE wastewater treatment facilities to be studied in a 1 year period.

Hydro Quebec
In the mid 1980's and early 1990's, Quebec Hydro was undergoing rapid expansion with the James Bay Hydro power project including transmission line planning. This methodology was used on many projects including the addition of functional performance specifications as a complementary tool. An internal VE manual was issued in 1995.

Pratt & Whitney Canada
Pratt & Whitney, Canada introduced VM/VE into their corporate structure, in 1996. PWC have conducted over 300 workshops and have trained numerous personnel in this methodology to complement their overall client focused management system.

Ontario Ministry of Transportation
MTO completed its first value engineering study in 1995. The VE program was then developed following success stories on road projects. MTO now applies VE to road standards, business processes and road projects. The savings generated by the VE program since 1998 are over $1.2 Billion. Here are more benefits:

• Business process improvements
• Innovative ideas
• Collaboration between stakeholders
• Better return for projects
• Increased security
• Increased value for taxpayers

Municipal Engineering Services
The ministry of transportation of BC started in 1993 to use VE on its highway program for the island of Vancouver. Since then, VE is a must at this ministry.

Value analysis guidelines (December 2000) have been developed with the Ministry of Finance to introduce VE in projects for schools with provincial financing. They have resulted in VE proposals that can be applied in the design of various types of installations.

Professional quantity surveyors have started using VE in many construction projects in the mid 70s. Alberta Infrastructures has used VE on some school and hospital projects. It has just updated its VM policy for projects (2017).

A Value Analysis and risk study was conducted in 2002 on the Red River Floodway, involving many technical agencies and specialists.