Canada Petawawa's $60-million military medical complex to open this summer after three-year delay

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The project went off the rails in 2019, the year the complex was supposed to open, when the main contractor ran into financial difficulties.
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A photo showing construction of the new Health Services Centre at Garrison Petawawa. Photo by Defence Construction Canada /Handout

A new medical complex that cost taxpayers $60 million and was supposed to be open in 2019 at the Canadian military base in Petawawa remains closed.

But the Department of National Defence says it hopes to have the 9,740-square-metre facility fully operating by the end of summer.





The complex was originally touted as bringing medical, dental and mental health care services together in one centrally located building at Garrison Petawawa. The facility would also have a pharmacy and provide physiotherapy and radiology services. This “one-stop-shop” approach was seen as an example of National Defence providing top-notch health services to military personnel while making the best use of tax dollars.





But the health services centre project went off the rails the year the complex was supposed to open after the main contractor, Bondfield Construction, ran into financial difficulties. Bondfield had been awarded a $30.6-million construction contract for the facility in 2016.

In 2019, the firm entered into bankruptcy protection.





“While work at the facility is ongoing, we have faced project delays of approximately three years, mostly due to the Bondfield Construction’s court filing under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in March 2019,” National Defence spokesperson Dan Le Bouthillier said. “Although Bondfield finished a majority of the required work, we had to issue several smaller contracts to finish the work.”





Supply chain shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to delays, Le Bouthillier added.





When then-Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was asked at the House of Commons defence committee in March 2020 about the status of the construction project, he acknowledged Bondfield’s insolvency but said the health-care facility was 93 per cent completed.

Rob Chambers, an assistant deputy minister at National Defence, told the Commons committee the complex would be completed in June 2020.





In February 2021, Defence Construction Canada, the Crown Corporation involved in the project, said the health centre would be completed in October of that year.





“DCC has been able to provide DND with support to keep the project progressing in good time,” Arthur Humble, DCC Program Leader at CFB Petawawa, explained in the corporation’s public-relations material. “Now, we’re looking forward to welcoming both the professionals who will be providing services and those who will benefit from them.”





That October 2021 opening never happened. Le Bouthillier said the complex was now expected to be ready this summer and fully open by August.

“The success of Canada’s defence depends on our people,” Le Bouthillier noted. “Canadian Armed Forces members are devoted to serving their country, and we are equally committed to our duty to improve the assistance, services and care we provide them and their families.”





Currently, health-care services at Garrison Petawawa are provided from four different locations on the base. The new health complex will consolidate those into one location.





While the original contract to Bondfield was for $30.6 million, the overall project is costing taxpayers $60 million. That includes equipment and furnishings, project management and government contracting agency costs, design and engineering fees, demolition costs, telecommunications and security fees.

Le Bouthillier said recent comments on social media that the centre wasn’t structurally sound were not true. “There are no issues with the structural integrity of this facility,” he added.





Garrison Petawawa has seen hundreds of millions of dollars in new construction. That includes a special forces facility, a military family resource centre, a communications and information systems building and other structures.





Defence Minister Anita Anand has asked the Canadian military to come up with further new construction and equipment programs as she pushes the Liberal government to spend billions of dollars more on defence.





Anand says she will present “aggressive options” to boost the current $23-billion military budget. Spending details could be revealed this coming Thursday, when Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland reveals the Liberal government’s latest budget.





Critics, however, warn that, over the past several years, billions of tax dollars have been wasted on military equipment projects that have skyrocketed in price.

Anand, previously the minister in charge of federal procurement, did nothing to try to fix that ongoing problem, the critics add.

 
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