P3 award winners celebrated for ingenuity, flexibility and perseverance

TORONTO — The five winners of the 2021 National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships will be presented with awards Nov. 17 at the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) annual conference.

Winning projects are located in Alberta, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Bermuda. They include the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital in Ontario with a Gold Award, Infrastructure; the Valley Line West LRT in Alberta, Gold Award, Project Development; the L.F. Wade International Airport Redevelopment Project in Bermuda, Gold Award, Infrastructure, International; the New Adult and Mental Health Addictions Facility in Newfoundland and Labrador, Silver Award, Project Development; and the GO Rail Expansion – Highway 401 Rail Tunnels in Ontario, Silver Award, Infrastructure.

This year marks the second time in its history the awards have recognized an international project, states a CCPPP release, adding all projects “showcase how partners are continuing to adapt and refine the made-in-Canada P3 model to create, deliver, operate and maintain innovative and transformative infrastructure for their communities.”
Winning project details include:

• Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital: The $1.7 billion project, the first hospital built in the City of Vaughan, Ont. and the first net new hospital to be built in Ontario in the last 30 years, has a state-of-the-art emergency department, capacity for 350 beds with flexibility to expand and is the first hospital in Canada to feature fully integrated smart technology, enabling systems and medical devices to communicate directly with one another. In February 2021, as it prepared to open, the hospital pivoted to temporarily become a system-wide resource supporting Ontario’s COVID-19 response. Partners on the project include Mackenzie Health, Infrastructure Ontario and Plenary Health.
• Valley Line West LRT: The $2.67 billion, 14-kilometre light-rail extension is the second stage of the City of Edmonton’s Valley Line. The design-build-finance project, which entered its RFP phase and reached financial close during the pandemic in 2020, bundles together design, system integration and construction into one contract. It also is the first to embed a community benefits agreement for a major capital project in Edmonton. With its 14 street-level stops and two elevated stations, the extension will help connect city neighbourhoods and reduce congestion. Partners include the City of Edmonton and Marigold Infrastructure Partners.
• F. Wade International Airport Redevelopment Project: Bermuda was able to achieve what many small airports in the world have struggled to do — attract private sector investment to finance a major capital redevelopment. The US$300 million project is the largest P3 infrastructure deal in Bermuda’s history. The bespoke government-to-government contract and guarantee mechanism, supported by an underlying P3 commercial and financing structure, enabled the new 288,000-square-foot facility to meet the latest international standards while still dramatically lowering the project’s initial capital budget. It also includes the latest technology, is built sustainably and factors in the impacts of climate change. The partners on the project are the Government of Bermuda, Canadian Commercial Corporation and Aecon Concessions.
• New Adult and Mental Health Addictions Facility, Newfoundland and Labrador: The $330 million project will help transform and destigmatize mental health and addictions treatment in Newfoundland and Labrador, reflecting the move away from an inpatient-centred model. The new 24,000-square-foot facility, co-located at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s, is replacing a facility constructed in the 1800s. It will house a 102-bed hospital and a new 60-bed hostel. Partners include the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Eastern Regional Health Authority and Avalon Healthcare Partnership.
• GO Rail Expansion: The $132 million design-build-finance project created twin tunnels under 21 lanes of traffic, without disrupting travel on the busiest highway in North America and the world’s busiest truck route. Completed in July, the tunnels will increase capacity on the GO Kitchener Rail Corridor as part of Metrolinx’s GO Rail Expansion program. The new 176-metre twin tunnels beneath the access ramps of Highway 401 and Highway 409 will enable the simultaneous passage of two trains travelling in opposite directions without any speed restrictions. Partners include Infrastructure Ontario, Metrolinx and Toronto Tunnel Partners.

“It was a difficult task for the awards committee given the strength of the submissions but these five truly stood out for the ingenuity, flexibility and perseverance they’ve demonstrated in applying the P3 model and in developing strong partnerships. All five will have tremendous positive impacts — both socially and economically — on their communities,” said Brad Nicpon, partner with McCarthy Tétrault LLP, and chair of the national awards committee, in a statement.