Construction Underway on Campus of Care

Thursday, November 22, 2007 04:00 AM

Construction has started on the new “Campus of Care” seniors home at 20^th and Victoria in Prince George, but there is still no word on who will actually operate the facility.

The project, which will provide 93 complex care beds and 80 assisted living units, was supposed to be developed by Spectrum, and then operated by Chartwell REIT. Spectrum bowed out of the project late last summer. “I believe the company was caught off guard on the construction costs” says Northern Health Communications Director Mark Karjaluoto. He says the local MLAs were very helpful in getting the Province to put in the $42 million dollars needed to get the project going. Of that amount, $35 million is to cover construction costs, while the balance is to cover things like, design, land purchase and development fees.

But there was no “tender” process for the construction of the facility.

(at right, architectural drawing of "Campus of Care")

WIC has the contract, and Karjaluoto says he believes WIC had been chosen by Spectrum, and since that was a “private” company looking for a contractor, the tender process could have been handled in whatever manner Spectrum wished. The project was behind schedule, and WIC was familiar with the whole project, so Northern Health decided to continue with WIC doing the construction. He says the Prince George Construction Association had some questions and he believes those questions have been addressed and that the PGCA is satisfied.

Karjaluoto says Northern Health is still looking at all the options including selling the building once construction is complete. In the meantime, Karjaluoto says PGRH is feeling the pressure of an aging population. “We have some space, but, for instance, Rainbow Lodge is not really intended to handle complex intensive care residents, but we have 20 seniors in that facility. We have stepped up our home services, but we need the beds that will be provided by the Campus of Care.”

The facility is expected to be completed in the summer of 2008.
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Posted on Thursday, November 22, 2007 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: buddy on November 22 2007 7:54 PM

When the tenders for the airport were opened WIC was 30 percent higher than IDL/Sharp. They have been direct awarded the new senior facility and have all the hourly work at the new twinning. Is this our tax dollars at work or are we just supplementing our government wworkers and officials salary's. Maybe Ben can find out why the company that can't compete in the public tender process is being given all the gravy.

Posted by: red2b on November 22 2007 8:12 PM

Add to this the Northern Sports Centre which was handed to them. It is not what you know or how competitive your tender can be, it's who you know and who you can influence with $$$$. Why not ask the PGCA members if they ARE happy instead of taking Karjaluoto's word?

Posted by: metalman on November 23 2007 8:59 AM

It all smells like what fell from the rear end of the cow; gender male. I too heard about the fact that WIC's price was higher, but I have my own thoughts on that. I believe that WIC has had the project sewn up from the start, and any attempt to seek pricing from others was just a front, to create a sense of transparency. I have seen this happen before, with other players, they ask the locals to bid on a project that has already been handed to someone else, just, in my opinion, to make it look like they are being fair. If private money is funding the WIC project, like with Wood Wheaton, or N.L. Hyundai, then we have no cause or right to complain. In this case, if our tax money is helping to build this facility, then there should damn well be open, public tenders. This PPP (public private partnership) process is garbage. The contractors involved in negotiating these things are in it for a profit, not for the good of humanity, of course they will twist things any way they can to make things go their way, that is just business. The problem here is that there is no apparent oversight in the distribution of taxpayer's monies.
That is my opinion.
metalman.