Redevelopment project to consolidate CAMH mental health and addiction care within revitalized urban community
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Infrastructure Ontario today announced that Carillion Health Solutions has signed a contract to design, build, finance and maintain the next phase of CAMH's redevelopment project on Queen Street West in Toronto.
Today's announcement signifies that all contractual steps have been completed and construction can begin. Carillion Health Solutions will begin mobilizing equipment on site over the next few weeks, with an official groundbreaking ceremony to follow. The construction project will provide a sizeable boost to the regional and Ontario economies by directly and indirectly creating and supporting thousands of jobs.
This phase of redevelopment will see the demolition of the existing administration building on Queen Street West and the construction of three new state-of-the art buildings: the CAMH Gateway Building, the Intergenerational Wellness Centre and the Utilities and Parking Building. The redevelopment project will dramatically transform the 27-acre site at 1001 Queen Street West, bringing CAMH one step closer to achieving its vision of providing high quality, integrated mental health and addiction care in a revitalized urban village. CAMH has a bold, transformational agenda: to change the face of treatment, integrate the hospital with the community and break down stigma.
At the end of this phase of redevelopment, CAMH will have beds for youth experiencing both mental health and substance use problems - the first such dedicated beds of their kind in Canada. These beds will be co-located with CAMH's Geriatric Mental Health Program. A variety of outpatient programs, key central clinical services and all of the support and administrative functions will be created as required by CAMH's Queen Street hub.
CAMH's addictions program will be fully integrated at the Queen Street site and no longer split between different locations. The co-location of addictions and mental health professionals will lead to increased collaboration between CAMH staff and better results for clients, particularly the significant percentage who have addictions and mental health disorders concurrently.
The redevelopment will also contribute to the revitalization of CAMH's Queen Street neighbourhood. CAMH's new Queen Street hub will be designed with a pattern of buildings, street, sidewalks, new shops and open spaces that will integrate with the surrounding neighbourhood and create an urban village. All the new buildings will be designed with environmentally responsible and sustainable features in order to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. The new CAMH buildings will be the first hospital facilities in Ontario and only the third in Canada to achieve this standard.
This phase of the CAMH redevelopment project will be delivered using an Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP) model. Carillion Health Solutions will receive annual payments from CAMH over a 30-year period. Payments cover construction, building maintenance, life-cycle repair and renewal, and project financing. Life-cycle repair and renewal will ensure that heating and cooling systems, windows, floors and roofing structures, for example, are kept in excellent working condition over the 30-year period. The annual payments are comparable to a fixed-rate mortgage with maintenance and repair expenses included and, along with payments made at substantial completion, will total approximately $551 million after 30 years. In today's dollars, this is equivalent to approximately $293 million.
Construction of the new buildings is expected to be completed in 2012.
“We are delighted that we're now getting ready to start construction of this next phase,” said Dr. Catherine Zahn, President and CEO of CAMH. “This phase will begin the transformation of our Queen Street site and go a long way toward breaking down stigma, as well as contribute to revitalizing the Queen West neighbourhood.”
Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care are working with CAMH on the redevelopment. CAMH will remain publicly owned, publicly controlled and publicly accountable. Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to managing some of the province's larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects - ensuring they are built on time and on budget.
Visit www.infrastructureontario.ca for more information.
Contacts:
Michael Torres
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
(416) 595-6015
Tom Boreskie
Infrastructure Ontario
(416) 327-5246
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