Toronto – Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services today announced that Shield Infrastructure Partnership has signed a contract to design, build, finance and maintain new OPP facilities in 16 communities across Ontario.
With today’s announcement, all contractual steps have been completed and construction can begin. Shield Infrastructure Partnership will begin mobilizing equipment at sites over the next few weeks. The construction project will provide a sizeable stimulus to Ontario’s economy by directly and indirectly creating and supporting thousands of jobs. Labour will be drawn from across the province.
The new facilities will be constructed in Kenora, Dryden, Armstrong, Nipigon, Kapuskasing, Timmins, Iroquois Falls, North Bay, Burk’s Falls, Chatham-Kent, Walkerton, Mount Forest, Orillia, Peterborough, Smiths Falls and Long Sault.
The project will include the construction of new detachments, regional headquarters and forensic identification units. The new facilities, which in many cases are replacing facilities that have exceeded their useful life, will feature up-to-date amenities to better support the demands of modern police operations and meet the needs of the community.
The OPP modernization project will be delivered using an Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP) model. Shield Infrastructure Partnership will receive annual payments from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services over a 30-year period. Payments cover construction, building maintenance, life-cycle repair and renewal, and project financing. Life-cycle repair and renewal will ensure that heating and cooling systems, windows, floors and roofing structures, for example, are kept in excellent working condition over the 30-year period. The annual payments are comparable to a fixed-rate mortgage with maintenance and repair expenses included and, along with payments made at substantial completion, will total approximately $548.5 million after 30 years. In today's dollars, this is equivalent to approximately $292.7 million.
Construction of the new facilities is expected to be completed in the fall of 2012.
“Concert is pleased to be part of the Shield Infrastructure Partnership and working alongside HOCHTIEF on this important project. Concert’s participation in this project combined with its’ recent closing of the Forensic Science and Coroner’s Complex Project has firmly positioned Concert as an important player in the Canadian infrastructure market” said David Podmore Concert’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services are working on the redevelopment. The facilities will remain publicly owned and publicly controlled. Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to managing some of the province’s larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects – ensuring they are built on time and on budget.
Contacts:
Tim Philpotts
Concert Properties Ltd
604.602.3701
Jonathan Austin
Concert Properties Ltd
604.602.3782