Costs still unclear for Aurora's new operations centre

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 14, 2017
By Amanda Persico

Aurora’s Joint Operations Centre is now complete but the full costs are still unknown.

Last spring, the town’s operation services - parks, roads, sewers and water, facilities management and fleet maintenance - moved into the 63,000 square-foot, $20.4 million new facility located on Industrial Parkway.

Recently, town staff presented a final report on the project.

Only, it wasn’t final.

The $20.4 million price tag was for building, the building only. And several items were removed from the project to ensure it stayed within budget.

Items such as a green roof, a roadside entry sign, landscaping, wire cages for equipment storage and asphalt paving at the back of the facility were removed from the project.

“These items were on the list at the dreaming stage,” said the town’s CAO Doug Nadorozny.

Coun. Harold Kim called for a more fulsome report, one that includes all costs associated with the project, including any offset costs from the sale of land on Scanlon Court, the site of the town’s former operations centre.

“It’s like I was giving a budget to buy enough evening ware for a few years,” said Kim during a committee meeting. “But it wasn’t a sufficient budget to buy a belt or cufflinks.”

Removing those items cut about $719,000 from the project’s bottom line.

But according to a staff report, the savings would be offset by about $590,000 when some of the removed projects are done at a later date.

“Would we have gotten all of this for the same price tag? Probably not,” said the town’s CAO Doug Nadorozny.

“Instead of going back to get more money to build the project as it was envisioned, aspects were peeled off.”

Costs, especially for a project of this magnitude, are a moving target, he said.

But eliminating certain aspects of a project to ensure the building comes within budget is deceiving, said Coun. Tom Mrakas.

“That’s giving the public a false sense of the cost,” he said. “We’re constantly hearing the project came within budget. It could be over budget, we don’t know.”

Not to mention, the sale of the Scanlon Court centre is still being finalized.

Add to the mix, unforeseen costs due to site conditions at the very beginning of the construction process.

A decision was made two terms ago on how much to spend on the project, Nadorozny said. And when unforeseen costs came up, the “decision was made to live in that budget.”

The appropriate thing would have been to re-evaluate the project budget at the onset of unforeseen costs or when there is any change in the plan, he said.

Items removed from the project are to be discussed during the 2018 budget process later this year, Nadorozny said.

Town staff are in the process of going over the project, step-by-step with a fine tooth comb to establish a fulsome, final report putting the issue of costs to bed.

The report is expected to come back to council in the coming weeks.