Cost Of Prince Of Wales Police Station Jumps By $60 Million

Gasoline and eggs are not the only thing that have gone up in price over the last two years.

The cost of the new Ottawa Police Service facility has gone up by $60 million.

The new police facility will be located on Prince of Wales Drive, adjacent to Carleton Lodge just north of Manotick’s village boundary. It will replace the Greenbank and Leitrim police stations. The 218,000 square foot facility will include a new 911 Communications Centre.

Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs presented a report to the Ottawa Police Services Board last week.

“There are two main facilities that have reached their end of life and are identified to be returned to the City once their operations can be accommodated at other locations; this includes the Leitrim and Greenbank facilities,” the report said. “A 2020 Building Condition Audit of Greenbank identified that funding of over $9 million would be required to simply address basic building maintenance and operating costs over a 13-year period. Leitrim will be further impacted by City road works along Bank Street and Leitrim Road as early as Q2 2023, making operational deployment from this location nearly impossible. Therefore, time is of the essence to relocate operations and dispose of this facility.”

In 2021, the Ottawa Police Services Board approved the new facility with a price tag of $118.2 million. The plans for the station were drawn up in 2013.

During the COVID pandemic, plans for the new facility were put on hold as labour and material shortages resulted in a high cost for construction. The new cost of the police facility is $178 million.

“Since 2013, the OPS has only added our Queensview location to our facility portfolio, with an expansion to the facility in 2017,” said the report. “In 2019 our Swansea location was updated with seasonal storage. The last significant new acquisition of space to OPS facilities occurred in 2009 when our Huntmar location in Kanata was added, meeting the needs of population growth and demands in that area.

“However, steady staff growth, demands for service, and adjustments to operations translate to capacity issues and space pressures on the existing real estate portfolio.”

The report says that the OPS will need more space for an expanding staff.

“It is expected that the City of Ottawa will grow by more than 1.4 million residents over the next 25 years, according to the City’s Official Plan. This growth directly impacts calls for service, and the OPS must keep pace. Additionally, the City and Province are poised to increase residential development to address an ongoing housing crisis. As it pertains to OPS staffing levels, the Mayor has pledged to grow the sworn complement and the

OPS has developed its own staffing plan after several years of no growth. An increase to the staffing complement is anticipated to require a minimum increase of 54,000-square-feet of facility space by 2026.

“As city growth, densification, and demand for service increases, so does the requirement for adequate facilities to support police operations. Investment in the OPS by means of new, realigned, or expanded facilities is critical in ensuring the infrastructure exists for police to deliver its required services in the appropriate and corresponding geographical area.”

If a contact is awarded for construction in 2023, the new facility could be operational by 2026.