The cost of the new Squamish public works facility isn’t getting any cheaper.
In a District of Squamish staff report to elected officials for the Sept. 3 committee of the whole meeting on the progress of the site, municipal planners revealed an additional $1.3 million could be tacked onto the $37 million budget already planned for the project.
The District’s director of facility planning and construction, Kal Bragg, explained at the meeting that the additional funds would be for a “contingency.”
“Currently, in the five-year financial plan, we're at $37 million. The Class A has come back at $36.3 million that includes a risk register of $1.35 million,” Bragg said.
“What a risk register is, is a very specific best guess, but an intrinsic number of what could go wrong specifically on this project. This doesn't include an overall client-side contingency.
“The Royal Architect Institute of Canada recommends a 5% contingency at Class A. Staff have dove into this with the project team, and we're looking at increasing that by 0.4% and the reason for that is that we're still in the ground.
“There's risk and a lot of unknowns still with this project.”
A Class A estimate is based on completed construction drawings and specifications and is the point where the project is ready to go out to tender.
“The level of accuracy of a Class A budget is at least 95% accuracy,” said a District spokesperson.
A bit of history
The public works facility had a contentious start. In the spring of 2022, 1,700 residents cast ballots against the project in an alternate approval process (AAP) where the District proposed borrowing $ 16 million for the project.
With AAPs, if 10% of the population votes against a municipal request, it fails.
During the summer of 2022, the proposal was floated in an AAP process again, but this time asking to borrow $20.2 million.
This time, the proposal passed.
In early 2023, the price for the public works facility jumped up by almost 40% from its previous estimate, which was $26.4 million.
Cost escalation pressures for labour, material and transport were described as part of the reason behind the price hike.
Bragg told councillors that the builder for the public work facility is Kinetic Construction Ltd– the same builder used for Fire Hall 1 and who is currently working on the Brennan Park upgrades.
“It is understanding that cost creep can happen where people say this is the budget, and they go and build right up to that budget where they could have actually built it for 10% [less]. This comes down to then having the right builder, the right project manager internally, and the right systems to make sure that everyone understands that,” he said.
“We trust that their system, regardless of what the budget is, they're going to go out and get a market number, not rely on the budget number that we've installed in front of them.”
On the potential $1.3 million budget increase, Bragg said it would mean “having a bit of money in our back pocket just to cover anything if it could go wrong.”
Current and future plans
The existing public works yard sits at 13,000 square feet and consists of a “vehicle and equipment maintenance and repair building, an administrative trailer, a lunch room trailer, a large yard for equipment storage, a sand and salt shelter, and a number of sea cans and sheds”.
The new building is planned to be double the size at approximately 27,200 square feet–in addition to the yard and the existing maintenance bays.
Around 70 spaces have been allocated for vehicle parking as well as additional bike parking and charging spaces.
Current works at the site include flood construction levelling. The whole site is being raised by three metres to maximize climate resiliency.
Bragg said the next steps in the project will be to continue the civil works and start the building foundation work early next year.
Councillor concerns
Coun. Andrew Hamilton noted that he would need more information from District staff before he would approve a budget increase in the future.
“I know that you're pushing hard to keep this project on track and on budget, but in order for us to support you, I need more information before I can support a budget increase on this item,” Hamilton said.
“I need to understand, in detail, how our budgets are escalating so far out of our own estimates because our budgets that we proposed back eight, nine months ago and two years ago, they included escalation, or what the escalation is expected to be two years from now.
“So, to come back a year later and say escalation is the reason doesn't really sit right with me, because we should be building cost escalation into our budgets.
“So I support the motion to receive but I do not plan on supporting an increase in this budget line item unless I have a much clearer understanding of why this budget has increased and how we can prevent budget creep happening in the future.”
Coun. John French spoke in favour of the project that he says has been hurting his head since 2018 when the initial projected budget was $16 million.
“I agree with Coun. Hamilton, more information on this project is better than less information, and I think that applies to any capital project that involves building,” French said.
“I would like for us to be inundated with information so that we really understand the numbers.
“Then, having said all that, our community needs this building and the members of our public's work team, they deserve a better work environment than what they have right now.
“So let's get building on this before the price goes up another 50%.”
According to the report, the public works facility is expected to be completed by early 2026.
The issue will come back before elected officials at a future council meeting.
To read more about the public works facility visit the District of Squamish website.
—With a file from Steven Chua/The Squamish Chief
