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www.comoxvalleyecho.com Tuesday April 8, 2014
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Volume 20, No. 28
Telus plans giant telecoms tower at Merville By Philip Round Echo Staff
Site of the future 153-bed hospital in Courtenay which is expected to open in 2017
Olympic-sized companies chosen to finance and build two new hospitals By Drew A. Penner Echo Staff A slate made up of large Canadian and international companies, some of which have been tasked with constructing recent Olympic Games infrastructure, has been selected to finance, build and manage two new North Island hospitals under a Public Private Partnership (P3) structure. On April 4, Island Health announced it had selected Tandem Health Partners as the preferred proponent for establishing a 153bed hospital in Courtenay and a 95-bed hospital in Campbell River, ushering in a group of companies that includes Balfour Beatty Capital Canada Ltd., Graham Design Builders LP and Stantec Inc. “This is a huge milestone for us, for Island Health and for everybody who lives and works on North Vancouver Island,” said Tom Sparrow, chief project officer for the North Island Hospitals Project (NIHP), noting the acute care facilities are on target for a 2017 completion date. “We’ve been so busy working on this.” Gracorp Capital Advisors Ltd., Connor Clark & Lunn GVest Traditional Infrastructure LP and Honeywell International Inc. round out the team that will now enter into negotiations to hammer out the complex financial relationships necessary to allow the health care facilities to come to life. “When you’re looking at the financing of
Tom Sparrow, Chief Project Officer these projects there’s an equity component and debt component,” explained Mark Romoff, president and CEO of the Canadian Council for Private Public Partnerships. “The thing about these arrangements is it’s a fixed price contract and the responsibility or risk is transferred from the public sector to the private sector.” Balfour Beatty is on a roll in BC, as they recently locked down a P3 contract with the Provincial Health Services Authority in January. Sparrow said while NIHP negotiations
are strictly confidential it’s likely the final numbers will look quite similar to the deal struck between the firm and the province for the $350 million BC Children’s & BC Women’s Redevelopment Project. There the company will shoulder 70 per cent of the equity - representing a $16.5 million investment. And in that case Balfour Beatty Construction and Ledcor Design Build will build the facility in a 50/50 partnership, while Balfour Beatty Communities and Black & McDonald Limited will manage the facilities for 30 years, also in a 50/50 deal. “Over the next few weeks we’ll be negotiating various parts of the project,” Sparrow said. “We break teams off so they can work specifically on each area.” Balfour Beatty recently won a $281 million contract to convert London’s Olympic stadium into the new home of the West Ham United soccer team. It also built the Olympic Park’s pool and constructed bridges and roads ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics. The recent good news for the international company follows a year where its UK business hit rocky waters, causing two profit warnings and a drop in first-half underlying profit. The prominent division was completely reorganized after a review revealed poor project management and uncompetitive bidding had led to the loss of $91 million in profit. (Continued on page 2)
Telus Mobility has unveiled plans for a 200ft-high telecommunications tower close to the Inland Island Highway on the outskirts of Merville. It is about the tallest freestanding lattice steel structure that can be built in windy areas without additional support from guy wires, such as those used to secure radio and television transmission masts. Details were set out by Rapinda Basi, a representative of Altus Group Ltd. - which is working on behalf of Telus - at yesterday’s meeting of Comox Valley Regional District’s electoral areas services committee. The proposal is out for public consultation until May 6, although the final decision on whether it gets the go-ahead will not be made by the regional district, but by Industry Canada - a federal government department. Basi said 27 million Canadians subscribed to wireless services, and in BC, 82 per cent of customers had a cell phone or other wireless device - sometimes several. Telecommunication companies like Telus were striving to ensure ever-better service, especially as the majority of 911 calls were now made via cell phones. The proposed site for the structure was within a treed area at 6520 Fortnum Road, which would help mitigate at least some of the visual impact. Access to the property to build and equip the 62-metre structure, along with its small unmanned equipment shelter at the base, would be by way of an easement over neighbouring land to Winn Road. That route would then be used as access for future maintenance. The main reason for erecting the mast was to improve wireless service to along a nine kilometre stretch of the Inland Island Highway, he explained, but it would also offer some more localized benefits by improving the strength of wireless signals in nearby parts of the rural area. In answer to questions from rural Area C director Edwin Grieve, Basi said if other telecommunication companies wanted to put their antennae on the structure to improve their own services, Telus would seek to negotiate service agreements with them in line with federal guidelines. Committee chair Bruce Jolliffe (Area A) said it was imperative rival companies like Rogers and Bell co-located equipment to avoid multiple towers or masts being constructed. Basi said the tower and its infrastructure - including, potentially, microwave dishes - would not directly address the issue of poor internet access in the area. (Continued on page 2)
Double dipper facing charges after stolen bike is spotted By Philip Round Echo Staff Keir Hamilton’s bike has been found - and the person who allegedly took it is facing double dipping charges from the RCMP. As reported in Friday’s Echo, Courtenay resident Keir Hamilton used the red bike with its distinctive ‘TPBC’ initials as part of his rehab program after sustaining a spine injury in a workplace accident. But a week ago it went missing from the carport outside his home
Keir Hamilton is happy to get his bike back
close to downtown, and he posted a plea for its return on Craigslist. He didn’t get the bike back - but was overwhelmed by the messages of support from the community, noting that even when bad things happen it was an awesome place to live when there was so much goodwill out there. The day after the Echo shared his story, a reader was heading in to do a spot of shopping at Walmart and noticed a bike outside that looked very much like the one described in the article.
So much so, said RCMP Const Don Sinclair, that a call was put in to the local detachment to alert police. They went to the store’s parking lot and waited for someone to return to the bike to ask them more about its ownership. When that person did emerge from the store, it not only became clear the bike was the one that disappeared from Hamilton’s home, but also that the person returning to it appeared to have been shoplifting while in the store. “Inquiries are continuing but I can
confirm charges are being recommended both in relation to the theft of the bike and to stolen goods from the store,” said Sinclair. As for Hamilton, he said he was thrilled to be getting the bike back, and grateful to both the Echo for highlighting the story and to the person who called the police. “What an unbelievable day,” he said. “It just underlines the great community we live in that people are looking out for each other even when they are total strangers.” pround@comoxvalleyecho.com