North Bay hospital off the waiting list.

The ground breaking on North Bay's long-awaited new hospital is set for mid-August.

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Minister of Health and Long-Term Care George Smitherman gave the green light in April for project managers to proceed on that city's proposed Regional Health Centre.

The $220 million development will be the single-largest construction project ever undertaken in the Nipissing district. It represents a major injection of new dollars and heightened local economic activity both in the three-year construction phase and in the long-term, say hospital executives.

Once a Ministry-approved financing plan is in place, officials expect to proceed to tender by June, with construction beginning by August.

"Our architects' and engineers' documents are ready to be printed," says hospital board chairman Barry Bertrand, who received the unexpected good news from Nipissing MPP Monique Smith at their April 14 board meeting.

Smith got the approval from Smitherman that evening and couldn't wait to deliver the news.

Designed by North Bay's Critchley Delean Trussler Evans Bertrand Architects, the 703,000-square-foot complex is tentatively scheduled to open in summer 2008.

Situated on a greenfield site next to Highway 17, the development will combine two main groups, the 275-bed North Bay General Hospital and the 113-bed Northeastern Mental Health Centre, side-by-side on one campus. The complex will also house the children's treatment centre, amalgamating all the area children's programs and services under one roof.

The hospital will feature leading-edge medical advances, including laparoscopic surgery, also known as minimal access surgery, and will be Canada's first site for telerobotic surgery.

Space provisions have been made to accommodate the Northern Ontario School of Medicine with an auditorium, research library and residents' lounge.

Delays in ministry approval have pushed the hospital's construction costs past the $218.6 million estimate submitted to the ministry last spring.

According to new cost forecasts, factoring in per-month increases based on inflation, the final price tag will likely be in the $223 million range, says Paul Landry, the hospital project's executive director.

But before the project goes for tender, the province is insisting North Bay complete a special financing plan, a new model for funding hospital capital projects that may require a Request for Proposals to various investment groups, lenders and pension funds.

Neither Bertrand nor Landry were sure about the details but were expecting to meet with ministry officials within weeks to discuss various options to finalize a financing strategy before proceeding to tender and getting construction underway.

"Hopefully, we'll be doing that within the next few weeks ... it will be concluded within three to four weeks and we'll go to tender soon afterward," says Landry. "Our tender documents are ready to go. If we could, we could go next week." The project's funding breakdown is a 70/30 split between the province and the community.

North Bay is responsible for a local share of $40 million, about $18 million of which was fundraised through a national award-winning campaign by the hospital foundation.

The municipal share of $17.5 million includes contributions from the City of North Bay and its surrounding communities.

Bertrand says the project is expected to create a major economic impact in the city, creating 400 construction jobs over a 30- to 36-month period along with a longer sustainable economic spinoff with 178 new hospital jobs. Already a top local employer, North Bay General Hospital employs, 1,100 people. The net economic impact from the health centre generated through payroll is estimated at $18 million annually.

Bertrand does not expect there will be a major shortfall in finding skilled construction labour.

With Weyerhaeuser closing their mill in Sturgeon Falls, he says there are many tradespeople available.

"The surrounding communities are absolutely ecstatic to hear that this is a go because it will create economic input in the North Bay and West Nipissing area. It's going to provide a big boost to the (various) municipalities in the area."

Landry has talked to some leading Ontario contractors.

"A project of this magnitude will reach out to involve as many trades as are available in this area," he says, adding contractors are scouring the marketplace to identify available labour pools.

Landry attended the April opening of Parry Sound's new hospital. He says many of the tradespeople there came from Northern Ontario and as far north as Timmins.

"That tells us there's a good labour pool and we can get this project to tender real soon to secure those trades in this region."

Landry says the hospital will not impose any restrictions upon general contractors that a certain percentage of work must be done by local labour.

"That has been done in other communities and it has impacted upon the cost of the project."

Landry says he would prefer to let market forces work, and allow contractors to assemble the human resources they need to build the project.

"Hopefully, we'll have very open and very competitive forces at work to deliver the best possible price for the project."

While the financial and labour groundwork is being worked on, much of the preparation work at the site is ready to go.

A four-lane access has been completed, including light standards, while some pre-loading work has been done at the site to compress the clay and drive the groundwater out.

Landry says being able to go with a traditional ground-floor slab, as opposed to engineered structural slab, provides a tremendous amount of savings and offers greater flexibility to make future infrastructure changes.

About $10 million in road, sidewalk, water and sewer upgrades will be installed to service the hospital and future development in North Bay's west end.

Through a cost-sharing agreement, the city will pay the bulk of those upgrades ($7.1 million), with the remainder ($2.9 million) picked up by the hospital and mental health centre.

Landry says the upgrades are an improvement for North Bay's under-serviced west end. The city has future plans to develop parcels of land around the hospital for multi-use commercial and housing developments, especially south of the highway across from the new hospital.

BY IAN ROSS 

Northern Ontario Business