The $8 million announced in Tuesday’s provincial budget for the new hospital in Corner Brook won’t be used to buy steel or other building supplies.
What it will go towards are procurement of consultants, technical advisors, legal advisors and to fulfill the province’s staffing requirements as the project moves to the next stage, said Transportation and Works Minister Steve Crocker on Thursday.
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The same day the request for qualifications on the public-private partnership (P3) build of the 164-bed acute care hospital closed.
The request was issued in January and Crocker said the process now will be to review those submissions and develop a short-list of proponents. That list will be announced this summer and the successful proponents will then start to construct their bids.
The evaluation of those bids is expected to be completed by next winter and the successful proponent in the design, build, finance and maintain method of build announced. Construction of the hospital is planned to start in 2019.
“We see ourselves as on time for construction,” said Crocker. “All the pieces are falling into place.”
The project is a big one, in the high hundreds of millions of dollars and Crocker said it’s been a long time since the province undertook such a massive construction project.
“It’s a big build and an important build.”
There was also $400,000 earmarked in the budget for the new long-term care facility being constructed on the same site as the hospital.
Crocker said like the hospital money, it’s resources to follow the project through.
That build, also under the P3 model, started late last fall with some more site work after the Corner Brook Care Partnership was announced as the successful bidder on the approximately $120 million-project.
Crocker said once a partnership is established the province doesn’t put any money into the cost of construction.
“They’re building it for us and when it’s completed we’ll actually take the keys and then we start the payments,” he said.
Even outside of the fiscal climate in the province, Crocker said the P3s make sense as the government is being responsible in doing projects this way.
He said over the life of the long-term care project the province will save $14.5 million.
Crocker said once the snow goes the contractor will get into the build.
“And start the actual going up with the long-term care facility.”
Long-term care
The Corner Brook Care Partnership team, led by Plenary Group, is the proponent building the new long-term care facility in Corner Brook.
Other members of the team include Montgomery Sisam Architects, Marco Services as the builder and G.J. Cahill as the service provider.
Construction of the new acute-care hospital and long-term care facility in Corner Brook will create 4,330 person years of employment and $498 million in economic activity.
(Source: Province of Newfoundland and Labrador)
