REGINA – Three new joint use schools in Regina are one step closer to being built – a construction team has been chosen.
Joint Use Mutual Partnership (JUMP) has been selected to build nine P3 Schools in Saskatchewan, with construction starting by this summer.
JUMP was selected to build the schools after they successfully completed a two-staged, transparent procurement process consisting of a Request for Qualifications and a Request for Proposals. The team is comprised of:
- Concert Infrastructure Ltd. (British Columbia)
- Bird Capital Limited Partnerships/Bird Design‐Build Construction Inc. (Ontario)
- Wright Construction Western Inc. (Saskatoon)
- Kindrachuck Agrey Architecture (Saskatoon)
- Johnson Controls Canada LP (United States, with Canadian offices)
- GEC Architecture (Alberta)
The three new schools in Regina will be in the Harbor Landing, Greens on Gardiner, and Skywood neighbourhoods – accommodating more than 3,000 students from pre-kindergarten to Grade 8.
Each joint-use school will also have a 90-space child care centre, as well as some community space.
P3 criticisms
NDP education critic Trent Wotherspoon gives the P3 school builds a failing grade, pointing to other provinces that have had less-than-successful experiences partnering with the private sector to build schools.
“(They’re building) in a way that’s more costly, in a way that shuts out Saskatchewan builders, in a way that has the risk of shutting out local communities and their access to those schools,” Wotherspoon said.
In 2014, Alberta’s former Progressive Conservative government bailed on its P3 plan when there was only one bidder for a bundle of school projects, which would have cost $14-million more than expected.
The minister responsible for SaskBuilds, Gord Wyant, says that won’t happen in Saskatchewan because no contracts have actually been signed yet and early negotiations project the schools to come in under budget.
Wyant also combated NDP criticisms, saying each school will be owned and operated by their respective school divisions.
‘Value-for-money’
There’s still no publicly available proof the P3 school builds will cost less – a point the provincial auditor made in early June, saying the government needs to show much sooner that Saskatchewan is getting the best bang-for-the-buck.
“We don’t want to disclose what our budgets might be,” Wyant said.
“Those numbers will come forward once the contract numbers are executed and we think they’ll demonstrate value for the taxpayer.”
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