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.
Today's announcement signifies the completion of an open, competitive bidding process, enabling construction to 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 OPP 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.
“These new, modern buildings will better support our OPP officers in their work to keep Ontario's communities safe,” said Jim Bradley, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
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.
Visit www.infrastructureontario.ca for more information.
Contacts:
Joe Kim
Minister's Office
Community Safety and Correctional Services
(416) 325-8282
Anthony Brown
Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services
(416) 314-7772
Tom Boreskie
Infrastructure Ontario
(416) 212-6447