Calgary Courts Centre

In 2002, the Province began exploring P3 options for the construction of the Calgary Courts Centre, a $300 million consolidated courthouse complex. When bids were finally fully evaluated in 2004, the price had swelled to $500 million, and the Province decided to scale back the project and use public, rather than private, financing. During the P3 exploration process, judges expressed concern that too high a degree of private sector participation could compromise their independence.

South Health Campus

The Calgary Health Region also abandoned plans to build the new South Health Campus hospital, the first phase of which is due to open in 2011, as a P3. Health Region President Jack Davis stated that a hospital is "much more complex than an office building," and affirmed that government's expertise in such projects is unmatched by the private sector. Due in part to project delays in considering P3 options, and despite that the government purchased the future hospital site in 2001, full funding was only finally confirmed this year. It is now estimated that the project will cost $1.2 billion, or double the original cost estimates, and will open three years later than originally intended.

Existing P3 hospitals in Canada have proven to be more expensive than public options. It is estimated that the choice to build the Brampton, Ontario hospital as a P3 will cost at least an extra $124 million. In Abbotsford, payments to lawyers and consultants amounted to $24 million before the 35-year contract was even signed. The total project cost rose to $355 million from an initial estimate of $210 million, and the annual cost rose from an estimate of $20 million up to $41 million.

Return to Current P3 Projects in Alberta.