Construction started this week in Campbell River and Courtenay on two new North Island hospitals costing a total of $606.2 million.
The hospitals are scheduled to begin accepting patients in the fall of 2017.
Island Health spent two-and-a-half hours in late June signing agreements with a consortium called Tandem Health Partners that will design, build, partly finance, and maintain the two new hospitals, under a public-private partnership.
Tandem began construction at each site on Monday.
“They’re in the process right now of setting up the construction fencing, looking at the excavation requirements, doing their health-and-safety (measures), putting their site trailers in. That’ll take place over the next month or so,” Tom Sparrow, chief project officer for the North Islands Hospitals Project, said Thursday.
“The intent is to get the large cranes on site in early September at both sites.”
The two projects are expected to create 1,900 direct jobs for 145 trades during the construction period.
A green bond of approximately $231.5 million has been issued by Tandem.
This marks the first time such a bond has been issued to finance public infrastructure in Canada, and the first time one will be used to back a public-private partnership in North America, B.C. government officials said.
Tandem’s bond, which matures in 32 years, qualified as green because of the environmental benefits. Construction to meet LEED Gold certification follows stringent guidelines over matters such as the types of materials used, how they get to the site, how they will be used and how waste materials will be disposed of, Sparrow said.
Meeting energy and greenhouse gas targets, and conforming with B.C.’s climate-action plan, also played a role in the green designation.
The project is attracting international attention from media outlets, Sparrow said. “The world is watching how we design and build these facilities.”
One advantage is the experience gained when a public-private partnership arrangement was used to build the patient care facility at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, he said.
Along with the bond, Tandem was required to provide about $40 million in equity up front, Sparrow said.
Demand to participate in the bond was strong because of B.C.’s triple-A credit rating.
The project is being cost-shared by the province at 60 per cent and the Comox Strathcona Regional Hospital District at 40 per cent.
Regional district funds are paid out during construction, Sparrow said.
The province’s share will be paid out via Island Health after construction and through the life of a 30-year agreement with Tandem to help cover capital costs and for facilities management.
The launch of construction comes eight years after a consultant recommended one hospital, rather than two, be built midway between Campbell River and the Comox Valley.
New facilities were needed because each community had older hospitals requiring modernization.
Massive public opposition and debate over the proposed single hospital scheme led what was then the Vancouver Island Health Authority to announce in early 2009 that it had changed its mind and would support two hospitals.
The 153-bed Comox Valley Hospital in Courtenay is to cost $331.7 million and will comprise a total of 428,700 square feet.
In Campbell River, the 95-bed, 348,000-square-foot hospital is to cost $247.5 million.
Each hospital will have University of B.C. academic teaching space.
This year, 375 direct jobs are expected to be involved in construction, with numbers peaking in 2016 at 675, according to project documents.
Project officials have been working with B.C.’s Industry Training Authority, local First Nations and regional employment agencies to try to line up enough skilled workers.
It is hoped that many of the Vancouver Islanders who have gone to work in Alberta and northern B.C. will return to work on the hospitals, Sparrow said.
“We are lining up all the different apprenticeship programs that [Industry Training Authority] offers, and we will be aligning them with all the contractors and sub-contractors on site.” The aim is to maximize the number of apprenticeships, he said.
> For video previews of the future hospitals, go to:
• Campbell River: nihp.viha.ca/
campbell-river/building-details-design/
• Courtenay: nihp.viha.ca/
comox-valley/building-details-design//
