Helping Customers to Help Themselves Everyone needs the right tools to do their jobs properly. In a sense, one of Government’s functions is to help customers to help themselves by providing the right tools. In this newsletter, we describe a few of the recent tools – publications and programs – that Public   Works and Services (PW&S) has developed to help our customers, clients and community officials do their jobs, however they choose to do that – either independently or with PW&S support. Good Building Practice Guidebook – Facilities Built for the North Facilities in Canada are built according to provincial standards and Canada’s National Building Code. But how does the GNWT construct facilities that withstand the harsh northern climate and meet unique building challenges? PW&S recently completed Kakisa’s new log school. For 35 years, PW&S has been working to meet those challenges when constructing northern facilities. To avoid reinventing the wheel for similar challenges, it’s kept track of what works well in the North, and what doesn’t. PW&S did that by producing a guidebook called Good Building Practice for Northern Facilities (GBP). The guidebook suggests building practices that are appropriate, economic and realistic for the North. Guidelines are provided for architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical considerations and systems. Good Building Practice also suggests preferred materials and methods, and logistics for designing and constructing northern facilities.   To develop the guidebook, the Department worked with NWT public and private sector architects, engineers, building contractors, suppliers, and facility administrators and operators. The result – the 250-page technical publication – represents the NWT construction industry’s collective corporate memory, experience and knowledge. As GBP is the industry’s one repository for what works best in the North, it’s been distributed to 400 industry members. The Good Building Practice guidebook represents the NWT construction industry’s collective corporate memory, experience and knowledge. Like the construction industry, the guidebook is not cast in concrete – it’s still evolving. Technologies, products and processes continually improve, and the guidebook will keep up with those improvements in future editions.                                                 continued on Page 2... Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Return to: Getting Results Home | PWS Home |