Ottawa Police Service wants to proceed with plan for new south-end facility, with $60M added to price tag
The south facility has been the planned replacement for several leased properties as well as the Leitrim and Greenbank police stations
Taylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jan 20, 2023 • 4 minute read
The Ottawa Police Service is looking to move ahead with its plan for a new facility in Barrhaven, with a revised capital budget that grows the project price tag from $118 million to $178 million.
In a refresh of the police service’s “facilities strategic plan” (FSP) scheduled to come before the board for approval on Monday, a handful of projects have been prioritized for implementation over the next five years. The south facility, years in the making and delayed during the pandemic, is by far the largest and costliest.
According to a June report on the project from the police chief, the plan for the city-owned site at 3505 Prince of Wales Dr. was for a 218,000-square foot building on roughly half of the property, with 38,000 square feet inside dedicated to a “partnering agency” and seven acres left for future development.
The south facility has been the planned replacement for several leased properties as well as the Leitrim and Greenbank police stations. These are at capacity and end-of-life, with renovations or retrofits considered a “poor use of taxpayer funds,” according to the report, which described the south facility as “critical for the OPS to be able to serve the growing communities in the south, southeast and southwest of Ottawa.”
The ward’s councillor, Wilson Lo, took the news of the 50 per cent price increase in stride. What he was glad to hear was that the project in Barrhaven East is back on track, after an initial construction tender for the facility was cancelled in the spring of 2021, when approved capital funding for the project totalled $118.2 million.
OPS staff recommended a project pause at that time, explaining they were rethinking their approach in light of mounting costs: from construction materials to mechanical equipment, as well as competition for scarce labour between the LRT, Parliament Hill and super-library projects.
Lo said that in a normal year, the price hike would be of concern to him – but it’s not a surprise given the inflationary environment of late.
Based on resident feedback, there is demand for this new facility, said Lo, and he believes it will contribute to policing efficiency and presence in the area.
“A lot of residents did bring up safety as a really high concern in Barrhaven,” said Lo, elected last fall to his first term on council. “There’s a lot of street racing, stunt driving … and just the absurd amount of car thefts that happen in this community.
“I know the facility is not the answer and not the solution to it all… There’s also officers that will need to help with this. But I think having a better facility is a great start.”
His ward neighbour in Riverside South-Findlay Creek wasn’t as sanguine about the cost development on the project, to be constructed not far from the Vimy Memorial Bridge connecting their wards.
Steve Desroches started by saying it’s good to have an update on south facility. Previously an area councillor between 2006 and 2014, he remembers firsthand when the site selection was finalized and believes it remains the right location for the project.
But he’s got questions about the price tag, and said he hopes the police service is “optimizing the site and trying to keep the costs contained and having a focus on their resources in the field.”
“I really hope it’s not going to be a project that has a massive police station and police officers behind desks. We want them in the community.”
The report that police board will consider Monday says the OPS project team for the south facility met over the summer with the city’s emergency and protective services, innovative client services and community and social services departments to “explore the opportunity to co-locate and create a partnership within the proposed new building.”
“Discussions between the OPS and the city were productive as the nature of policing and the noted city services present some logical alignments that could provide efficiencies across both organizations. However, these discussions continue, and no commitments have been made at this time,” the report notes.
The facility will also include a new 911 communications centre, while a previous plan to move the OPS corporate services team there won’t be going ahead, according to the June report. It forecast that if a contract for the project was awarded in early 2023, police would move into the facility in the spring of 2026.
Front desk services, a collision reporting centre and a community police centre have also been part of the plan for the facility – at least as of the time it was put on pause.
Of the revised capital cost of $178 million, $126 million is proposed to be debt-funded, $46 million would come from development charges, and $6 million would be drawn from the police service’s general reserve fund, according to the facilities strategic plan update to be considered by the board Monday.
The previous approved $118-million budget for the facility involved $72 million in debt funding and the same $46 million in development charges.
As of June 2022, $11 million had been spent to design the facility.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...d-to-price-tag
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