Saskatchewan awards massive 9-school P3 project

The largest new-school project in Saskatchewan’s history has been awarded the P3 team, Joint Use Mutual Partnership (JUMP), with Bird Construction taking a lead role in the design and construction of the projects.

JUMP will deliver nine new joint-use elementary schools that will be built in Saskatchewan by September 2017, including three new schools in Regina in the Harbour Landing, Greens on Gardiner and Skywood neighbourhoods. Each site includes one public and catholic school as well as centrally shared space that includes a multi-purpose room, community resource centre and a child care centre to form a single cohesive joint use educational facility.

Once complete, this will be the largest new schools project in Saskatchewan’s history and will create more than 2,000 jobs in the province.

“As a company that was founded in 1920 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, over 95 years ago, we are excited about the announcement of our selection for this significant project in the province that provided the foundation for our success,” said Ian Boyd, President and CEO of Bird.

“Together with our partners in the consortium, particularly our construction partner, Wright Construction, a long standing builder in the province, we look forward to the opportunity to work closely with local industry, the Province of Saskatchewan and the various stakeholders to deliver these community focused schools.”

The schools will accommodate more than 11,000 students from Prekindergarten to Grade 8 at full design capacity, which includes more than 3,000 students for Regina. Each joint-use school will also contain a 90-space child care centre as well as community space. Joint-use schools are co-located so that they share a roof and spaces such as gymnasiums, multipurpose rooms, community resource centres, and child care spaces.

“Today is an exciting day for education in Saskatchewan as we now move one step closer to starting construction and providing students, early learners and teachers with safe, comfortable and state-of-the-art schools and child care centres,” Saskatchewan’s Education Minister Don Morgan said. “Students, teachers, parents, school divisions and communities have been great partners and will continue to play an important role in helping students at these new schools achieve success.”

“Building nine joint-use schools by the fall of 2017 is a major undertaking that could not have been achieved through a conventional approach,” SaskBuilds Minister Gordon Wyant said. “Getting these schools built on schedule and cost effectively in some of the fastest-growing communities is a priority for our government and the P3 model will achieve this on-time and on-budget.”

JUMP was selected to deliver two bundles of schools (three joint-use schools in Regina, and six joint-use schools in Saskatoon, Martensville and Warman). JUMP includes the following partners as one integrated team:

• • • Concert Infrastructure Ltd.
    • Bird Capital Limited Partnerships/Bird DesignBuild Construction Inc.
    • Wright Construction Western Inc.
    • Kindrachuck Agrey Architecture
    • Johnson Controls Canada LP
    • GEC Architecture

Contract negotiations will now begin with the intent to finalize terms by late-summer 2015. The contract’s financial details will be disclosed once contract negotiations and signing are complete at financial close. Releasing this information sooner could harm the province’s negotiating position. The value for money report will be based on the final agreement and released at the earliest opportunity following financial close.

SaskBuilds and its external financial advisors determined there was value for money delivering the project using a P3 model. There is value for money when the cost of delivering a project using a P3 model is less than the cost of delivering the same project using a traditional approach. The value for money calculation includes P3-related costs, such as private financing.

The province will enter into an Early Works Agreement with JUMP in advance of contract finalization. Early works may include activities such as design work, site mobilization and utility connections.

Construction on the publicly-owned and operated schools is expected to begin in summer 2015 and be ready for students in September 2017.