Ground Breaking News

On Thursday, October 23, Glen McDonald, Chair of the Board of Trust and Natasa Veljovic, President & CEO, signed the final contract with Integrated Team Solutions (ITS), signifying the beginning of construction on our new hospital. The new hospital is being built under the AFP model, which transfers responsibility of most risks related to designing and constructing the facility, arranging financing for its construction and maintaining the building for a 30-year-period to ITS. Transferring these risks to the consortia ensures the new hospital is built on time, on budget and is well maintained.

The estimated total cost of the Woodstock General Hospital project, which is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is $685 million. This includes the cost of the contract with ITS, as well as new furniture and replacement furniture and equipment, permits, architectural and engineering fees, transaction fees, project management fees and operating costs related to facilities maintenance.

ITS will receive annual payments from the hospital over a 30-year-period. Payments cover construction, building maintenance, life cycle repair and renewal and project financing. The payments are like a fixed rate mortgage with maintenance and repair expenses included and will total approximately $599.3 million after 30 years. In today’s dollars, that is equivalent to approximately $268.7 million.

A Value for Money (VFM) report on our new hospital project will be posted online at www.infrastructureontario.ca, along with the project agreement, within the next few weeks. This 3rd party VFM assessment compares the benefits or value derived on the AFP project to a traditional procurement approach. The VFM report summarizes the estimated total project costs including the fixed cost of the contract with ITS, equipment, transaction and other ancillary costs.

The cost of our new hospital has risen significantly, due to a number of factors. Previous estimates reflected a building that was 80,000 square feet smaller and did not include a 30-year maintenance contract. In addition, there have been a number of scope changes, changes to Building Code requirements and the addition of a new wing, increasing capacity from 154 beds to up to 178 beds. The elimination of ward beds and the implementation of a higher number of private and semi-private rooms, addresses infection control issues.

Construction costs in Canada have been rising due to higher labour and fuel costs, as well as material price increases. According to Statistics Canada, non-residential construction costs rose 35% between first quarter of 2003 and the first quarter of 2008.

Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care have been strong partners in developing our new hospital, which will remain publicly owned, publicly controlled and publicly accountable.

After years of waiting, months and months of planning and countless meetings ... our dream of a new hospital is finally coming true! This is an exciting time for everyone, as we get ready to break ground. It will be very rewarding to see activity on the site, as cranes and construction crews build our new hospital.