For municipalities
A defensible, evidenced position on the scale. Not a vanity digital twin.
Most Canadian municipalities — even the larger ones — do not employ a BIM manager or a digital strategist. We calibrate to council and board cycles, and to grant funding timelines. If you are a CAO, a CFO, a Director of Engineering or Public Works, a Council Chair or an elected official, this page is written for you.
The pattern
The pattern in the public record
Four Canadian municipal cases across four provinces, spanning nearly two decades and almost $300 million of measurable public-record cost. They cover the four areas most municipalities spend the most on: buildings, roads, bridges and waterworks. Every figure is sourced to a judicial inquiry, an auditor general, an independent review or a court record.
They have one thing in common. Information that did not travel from the place it was generated to the place it would have changed a decision.
Hamilton, Ontario · Roads
Red Hill Valley Parkway
A friction test report reached senior staff and then sat for six years.
Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry, Final Report, November 2023
Waterloo, Ontario · Buildings
RIM Park
Council saw 4.73%. The executed contract said 9.2%.
Sills Judicial Inquiry into RIM Park financing, 2003
Halifax, Nova Scotia · Waterworks
Harbour Solutions plant
Commissioning tested the components, not the failure.
Halifax Water and Nova Scotia Environment regulatory filings
Edmonton, Alberta · Bridges
Walterdale Bridge
The fabricator and the design team were not working from the same model.
City of Edmonton project briefings and Council reports
Two business dimensions, almost every time
Where the pressure usually sits
Across the municipal diagnostics we run, two business dimensions come up first almost every time.
Contracts. The digital requirements are not in the procurement language, so the supply chain is not asked for them, so they do not arrive. A scored requirement is a demand signal, not just a filter — and it is the lever that makes everything else stick.
Governance. Information duties are assumed rather than assigned. Three people believe they are the approver and none of them is accountable. Four divisions name the same asset four different ways.
Neither of these is a software problem, and neither is fixed by buying one.
O. Reg. 588/17 and its equivalents
The reporting obligation you already carry
Ontario municipalities report under Ontario Regulation 588/17 on fixed dates, with council review each July and a five-year renewal cycle. Municipalities elsewhere carry equivalent obligations under provincial asset-management frameworks and federal funding conditions.
The citations behind a Grounded Diagnostic score are close to the evidence that annual questionnaire and council review already require. The work is done once, and the output serves both.
What to expect
What working with us looks like
We start with the free Snapshot Audit
Three minutes, no cost, no obligation. It gives you enough of a read to decide whether a conversation is worth your time.
The Grounded Diagnostic is scoped to your size
All five client tracks cover all 43 segments — a small town and a large region are measured against the same yardstick, at appropriate depth.
The report is written for a council chamber
It is drafted to survive an Auditor General or procurement-fairness review, and to read in a council package. Numbers, not adjectives.
You keep everything
The scorecard, the priced cost of your current state, and the Digitalization Plan, whether or not you continue.