Burnaby city council is expected to vote today (Jan. 29) on a plan to spend more than $229 million for a new RCMP detachment – nearly $67 million more than the project’s original estimate.
A brief staff report recommending council approve the plan says simply that the original $193-million budget for the proposed Norland Avenue facility, which would be complete in 2027, is "insufficient to award this contract due to increased contractor pricing."
Besides a multi-million-dollar increase in the budget for the "base building," however, staff is also recommending council approve an "optional opportunity" to spend $17.4 million for an expanded underground parking garage.
$17.4M for extra parking
That recommendation is new since the plan last came to council in the fall.
In an Oct. 30 report, staff recommended council approve a $208.7-million plan that included only a "small" number of underground parking spaces to meet the detachment's minimum operational requirements.
The project team had rejected more underground parking as too expensive, according to the report.
"As a cost mitigation measure, the team considered the use of shared parking on existing, underutilized parking lots adjacent to the city's Deer Lake buildings," stated the report.
The Oct. 30 plan had been "successfully validated," according to the report, and staff said the proposed budget would provide "good value to the city."
But that report and those staff recommendations weren't discussed or voted on at the Oct. 30 meeting.
"This report has been removed and will come back before us next week," Mayor Mike Hurley said before referring it, without any comments from council, to the Nov. 6 meeting.
The report wasn't discussed at that meeting either, though, or at any other public meeting before appearing on this Monday's agenda with the much bigger price tag.
'Independent cost consultant'
Although he didn’t say so at the Oct. 30 public meeting, Hurley "had concerns with the contract price and wanted a more detailed explanation about the drivers of the cost estimates," according to a statement from the city’s public affairs manager, Chris Bryan.
To satisfy the mayor's request, Bryan said the city hired a third-party validator to make sure the IPD quote compared favourably to similar projects in other cities.
"This process required more time, which is why it is only now returning to council," Bryan said.
The results of the validator's work were presented to a closed meeting of council last week, Bryan said, and a redacted version of the presentation has now been posted on the RCMP building project page.
Some parts of the presentation were redacted because they contained "sensitive security information" or financial details about other, comparable facilities that haven't been made public yet, according to Bryan.
Despite the validator's report and Hurley's reported concerns about the contract price, however, council is now being presented with a plan that is $20.6 million more costly than the one presented at the Oct. 30 meeting – and nearly $67 million more expensive than the original estimate of $162.5 million put forward in July, when council first awarded the contract to the Safe Community Partners IPD team.
And why, after initially rejecting the extra parking as too expensive, staff is now recommending council approve $17.4 million for more underground spaces is also unclear.
Bryan said paying for the extra underground parking now would free-up a nearby City-owned parking lot for future redevelopment when it would otherwise be needed for the RCMP.
"That space is currently valued at much higher," he said.
But that explanation is not included in the report posted on the RCMP building project page.
The city has budgeted $190 million for the new RCMP headquarters in its 2023-27 financial plan.
Under the new plan, it would reallocate $29.5 million from its city hall redevelopment project since that project "requires further operational and costing review," according to the report going to council tonight.
Burnaby Mounties have outgrown old facility
The current Burnaby RCMP detachment at 6355 Deer Lake Ave. was built in 1967 and served as a courthouse before being re-purposed into the local RCMP headquarters.
A 2020 study found the facility was already 2,685 sq. m. (28,903 sq. ft.) too small for the detachment’s needs and would be 4,074 sq. m. (43,849 sq. ft.) too small in 20 years.
The city had originally considered building the new RCMP facility at 6161 Deer Lake Ave., right next to the current headquarters, and hired an architect in 2021 to produce a conceptual design.
In 2022, however, city council approved "further study," and the Norland location was approved in March 2023.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
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