New Humber River Regional Hospital plans unveiled

Monte Kwinter, MPP for York Centre, Laura Albanese, MPP for York South-Weston, Mario Sergio, MPP for York West and Mike Colle, MPP for Eglinton-Lawrence joined Humber River Regional Hospital officials at the future home of the new hospital to unveil designs for the new state-of-the-art community facility.

Plenary Health Care Partnerships was announced as the preferred proponent selected to design, build, finance and maintain the new acute care hospital at the event.

The new hospital, located in north Toronto, will have increased patient capacity from 549 beds up to 656 beds. It will enable Humber River to provide a more comprehensive range of acute care services and support for inpatient and outpatient hospital programs. The new facility will offer:

• greater access to high quality health care;
• reduced wait times;
• expanded emergency services;
• increased specialized outpatient services;
• modern diagnostic equipment for better patient diagnosis and treatment; and
• updated infectious disease containment systems to monitor and prevent a broad range of infections.

The project will create spin-off benefits in the community and region with the supplies purchased from local businesses and the potential for hundreds of construction workers to be employed during the project. Construction is expected to begin in this fall.

The selection of Plenary Health Care Partnerships is the result of extensive evaluations following an open, fair and competitive request for proposals process that began in October 2010. The Toronto-based Plenary Health Care Partnerships team includes:

• Developer: Plenary Group (Canada) Inc./HCP Social Infrastructure (Canada) Limited /Innisfree Ltd.
• Design: HDR Architects/C.F. Møller Architects
• Construction: PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
• Facilities Management: Johnson Controls L
• Financial Advisor: RBC Capital Markets

The design and construction of the new hospital will adhere to the guidelines and sustainability principles of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) rating system, with a goal of achieving LEED® Silver certification. LEED® buildings focus on healthy indoor environments, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and efficient use of energy, water and other resources.

Infrastructure Ontario and Humber River Regional Hospital will now work to finalize contract details with the preferred bidder. The project is expected to reach commercial close and financial close this fall, which will mean that relevant contracts have been signed and a financing rate has been set. The project’s cost will be announced publicly at financial close.

Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care are working with Humber River Regional Hospital to build the new facility, which will remain publicly owned and publicly controlled.

Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to delivering some of the province’s larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects, on time and on budget; managing one of the largest real estate portfolios in Canada and providing real estate services, such as asset management and property and land management; and providing the public sector and not-for-profit organizations with long-term financing to renew public infrastructure.