CCPPP reveals its 2022 award winners

Royal Inland Hospital – Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower. (Photo by Jerald Walliser/courtesy of CCPP)

A bundle of Alberta high schools and a state-of-the-art national archival facility are among the seven winners of 2022 National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships announced by Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP). Winners will receive their awards during the organization’s annual conference, P3 2022.

Presented by CCPPP since 1998, this year’s winning projects are located in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, and all showcase how partners are continuing to adapt and refine the “made-in-Canada” P3 model to create, deliver, operate and maintain innovative and transformative infrastructure for their communities.

“We’re excited to welcome back our National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in P3s to a live presentation at our 30th anniversary conference,” said Lisa Mitchell, CCPPP’s president and CEO. “This year, the projects being honoured are transforming our communities, from building state-of-the-art high schools and hospitals to bringing critical broadband service to rural and remote citizens. These seven projects demonstrate the continuing evolution and resiliency of the P3 model in delivering best-in-class infrastructure for Canadians that is innovative and cost effective.”

“The awards committee had several tremendously strong contenders to consider this year,” said Brad Nicpon, partner with McCarthy Tétrault LLP, and chair of the national awards committee. “We were particularly excited to see candidate projects from across a diverse spectrum of asset classes, with the P3 model being deployed in new ways to bring value and much-needed infrastructure to Canadians. The calibre of this year’s candidates demonstrates that the P3 model continues to work to deliver strong, collaborative partnerships between government and the private sector. Congratulation to all the winners!”

The 2022 winners are:

Project Development – Gold Award: P3 Schools Bundle #2, Alberta

The $300.3-million project is the first ever P3 schools bundle in Alberta comprised exclusively of high schools. Once completed in 2024, the state-of-the-art schools will serve almost 7,000 students in the municipalities of Blackfalds, Edmonton, Leduc and Langdon. In addition, it is estimated that the use of a design-build-finance-maintain P3 will save $114.5 million over the 30-year life cycle of the project compared to a traditional build contract.

Partners: Alberta Infrastructure, Concert Infrastructure and partners Bird Construction, Wright Construction and Ainsworth

Project Development – Silver Award: Accelerated High Speed Internet Program, Ontario

This innovative $1.25-billion project is the first of its kind to execute a large-scale electronic reverse auction in Canada designed to foster competition among national, regional and local internet service providers (ISPs) with the goal of connecting up to 266,000 of the hardest to reach homes and businesses across Ontario with high-speed internet by the end of 2025. Under AHSIP, ISPs had the opportunity to bid for provincial subsidies for defined geographic areas as part of a two-stage competitive procurement process. In August 2022, the province announced it had signed DBFOM agreements with eight ISPs to serve as many as 339 municipalities.

Partners: Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure, Infrastructure Ontario, Bell Canada, Bragg Communications, Cogeco Connexion, Community Network Partners, Eh!Tel Networks Inc., North Frontenac Telephone Company, Rogers Communications Canada Inc., and Xplore Inc.

Project Development – Award of Merit: Grandview Children’s Treatment Centre Redevelopment Project, Ontario

This project, currently in the development phase, will serve as the new headquarters for Grandview Kids, which specializes in care and support for children and youth with physical, communication and developmental needs, and their families. The new four-storey facility will have a gross area of 94,733 sq. feet and will increase the centre’s ability to offer more services and serve a greater number of children and youth in Ontario’s Durham region. In 2021-2022, Grandview Kids provided services to more than 16,000 young people, however there are an estimated 11,500 children on the wait list. As part of the development phase, the consortium is hosting design workshops with the centre’s clinical and non-clinical staff, families and clients to receive feedback on drawings and plans, which include input on the architecture, electrical, structural and mechanical design. Construction is currently underway.

Partners: Infrastructure Ontario, Grandview Children’s Centre, and Children First Consortium (Amico Design Build Inc. and Sacyr Construction S.A)

Infrastructure – Gold Award: Gatineau 2, Library and Archives Canada

The $330-million (NPV) state-of the-art new Preservation Storage Facility, built as part of the Gatineau 2 project, reached substantial completion in June 2022. It sits next to and complements the existing award-winning Preservation Centre in Gatineau, Que., which is also undergoing improvements as part of this DBFOM project. The Preservation Storage Facility is the first net-zero carbon building dedicated to archival preservation in the Americas and is the largest facility of its kind in the world equipped with a high-tech automated storage and retrieval system. Overall, the Gatineau 2 project is enabling Library and Archives Canada to ensure that our country’s precious collections are kept under optimal preservation conditions and is setting a new benchmark for archival facilities worldwide.

Partners: Library and Archives Canada and Plenary Properties Gatineau (Plenary Americas and PCL Investments Canada Inc.)

Infrastructure – Silver Award: Highway 7 West Bus Rapid Transit, Ontario

In service since 2019, this $333.2-million project delivered a 12.6-kilometre bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor in the Ontario communities of Vaughan and Richmond Hill, connecting to the 34-kilometre BRT network serving York Region’s growing urban centres. The system, which was delivered on time and on budget, included the construction of 20 centre-median station platforms, a unique multi-use path on the Highway 7 bridge over Highway 400 and enhanced streetscaping. To date, the corridor has provided residents and commuters with better connections, has led to a decrease in traffic collisions and supported a big boost in commercial and residential development. Strong and effective partnerships enabled this project’s seamless delivery.

Partners: York Region Rapid Transit Corporation and EDCO (EllisDon Civil Ltd. and Green Infrastructure Partners Inc.)

Infrastructure – Award of Merit: Royal Inland Hospital – Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower, British Columbia

In operation since February 2022, this new $417-million, 300,000 sq. foot patient care tower at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, B.C., houses new clinical, administrative and support spaces, including a surgical suite and neonatal intensive care unit serving 220,000 residents of B.C.’s Thompson Cariboo Shuswap region. Under a single project agreement, the project used a DBFM model with a construction management agreement, resulting in an estimated savings of $64 million compared with a traditional procurement. During construction, the project faced a number of extraordinary impacts caused by the pandemic, wildfires and extensive flooding caused by the 2021 atmospheric rivers. The events impacted resources, supply chain logistics, workflows, and budgets, yet EllisDon still found innovative ways to ensure project success with the hospital completed on time and on budget.

Partners: Infrastructure BC, Interior Health Authority, and EllisDon Infrastructure Healthcare

Service Delivery – Award of Merit: Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, Ontario

In operation since 2015, this $2-billion DBFM hospital project remains one of the largest infrastructure projects in Ontario. The LEED-gold facility, with 457 beds and shelled-in space to facilitate 602 beds by 2023, is equipped with multiple smart technology enhancements and opened on time and on budget. The project demonstrates the resiliency of the P3 model, with top service delivery continuing despite the global collapse of initial consortium partner Carillion Canada Inc. in 2018. As a result, EllisDon stepped in at short notice and took over 100 per cent responsibility for the 30-year management of the hospital’s facilities and services.

Partners: Infrastructure Ontario, Halton Healthcare Services Corp., and Hospital Infrastructure Partners (Carillion Canada Inc., EllisDon Corp. and Fengate Capital Management Ltd.)

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