RRC suspends work on $95-M project

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This article was published 06/03/2018 (2920 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Red River College has halted construction of the $95-million Innovation Centre at its downtown campus after failing to get Ottawa to budge on what it considers to be a near-impossible project completion deadline.

At stake is the bulk of a $40.6-million federal contribution to the Winnipeg centre announced last April. Ottawa wants the project completed by Nov. 30 of this year.

A source working on the project said six tenders have been placed on hold while the college attempts to work out a new arrangement with Ottawa. The source noted a formal agreement with the federal government for strategic infrastructure funding was only finalized in late June 2017.

That’s left only 17 months to complete a complex project that includes incorporating the shell of a heritage building.

“We don’t want to build it recklessly. It needs to be built properly,” the project source said, adding RRC warned Ottawa from the start the deadline would be extremely difficult to meet.

A Red River College spokeswoman confirmed Monday work on the project has been suspended.

“The tenders are on hold while we continue to work with Ottawa on construction timing. We remain hopeful for a positive resolution to the situation,” she said.

Red River College is on the hook for the bulk of the construction costs. The Manitoba government’s sole contribution is to guarantee a loan for up to $54.8 million as the college implements a fundraising campaign.

The project, when completed, is expected to attract more than 1,200 students and staff to Red River’s downtown campus. The college did not say how much time it requires to complete the project, but it’s said it wants to open the centre to students in 2020.

The project has strong support from the local business community and is seen as a key pillar underpinning the growing downtown hub of tech and start-up enterprises known as Innovation Alley.

Mayor Brian Bowman called the proposed centre “an incredibly important project for the Exchange District and for Winnipeg.”

“This innovation centre would really take our innovation ecosystem — that connectivity between educational institutions and the job market — to another level. That’s why I’m incredibly supportive of it proceeding,” he said by telephone Monday.

“We’re hopeful that between Red River and the federal government, they are able to get past this speed bump and proceed.”

Chuck Davidson, president and chief executive officer of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, said the business community is solidly behind the project.

“This was going to play a big role in regards to increasing innovation and really being that pathway for entrepreneurs here in Manitoba,” he said. “I would hope that the two sides could sit down and come to some sort of conclusion that would be reasonable for both sides so this project isn’t put in jeopardy.”

Davidson said keeping to Ottawa’s Nov. 30 completion deadline would be a “gargantuan task.” He said as long as Red River isn’t dragging its feet and keeps Ottawa in the loop, he fails to see why the the project would be jeopardized “simply over a time frame issue.”

Ottawa has already advanced about $14 million towards the project. The college would need to return anything it couldn’t spend by the Nov. 30 deadline and forgo the remainder of the $40.6 million promised by the feds, the project source said.

Karl Sasseville, a spokesman for federal Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, said the project was approved under a post-secondary institutions strategic investment fund that was launched in April 2016. He said it was seen as a temporary program “to generate immediate short-term economic activity while supporting long-term innovation and environmental objectives.”

The initial deadline for completion of projects under the one-time funding deal was April 30, 2018. Red River and proponents of other projects across Canada later applied and received extensions to Nov. 30 of this year, Sasseville said in an emailed statement. He did not indicate whether a further deadline extension was possible.

Meanwhile, a second source close to the file said late Monday the project was delayed in getting off the ground, in part, because of a fruitless effort to get the province to contribute to the centre.

“The reason it might not be doable is because the province dragged its feet for so long,” the source said.

Asked for a response, a provincial cabinet spokeswoman simply pointed out that the province was not a funder of the “important innovation project.”

“We will continue to monitor the situation and are hopeful that Red River College and the federal government can work out any issues,” she said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca