'It's a mess': Aurora councillors upset operations centre over budget

Costs for Aurora's Joint Operations Centre balloon to $27M.

Yorkregion.com
April 18, 2017
By Amanda Persico

Aurora’s new Joint Operations Centre was touted as a project delivered on time and on budget.

But after several council meetings and a number of staff reports, the project does not measure up and councillors want to see an independent audit and comprehensive report on lessons learned.

The centre on Industrial Parkway north was more than $1.5 million or 7 per cent over budget.

The final construction costs amount to about $22.1 million, compared to the initial $20.5 million budget.

But that does not include $4 million for the land or $1.49 million in deleted projects - ballooning total costs to more than $27 million.

Several projects, amounting to more than $817,000, were - only to be added on to the 2018 budget - to ensure the project remained under budget.

“This was supposed to be something to be proud of,” said Coun. John Abel. “It’s a mess. Claiming the project was on time and within budget is not enough.”

Completing projects such as landscaping, installing way-finding signs, rear parking paving, asphalt, security officers and office furniture, will now cost the town about $1.49 million.

Completing asphalt work at the time of construction would have cost an additional $617,000.

Completing it now almost doubles the cost to $1.1 million to deal with erosion issues and remove makeshift ramps and mini-roads that were built.

There still are a number of projects not budgeted for, including designing and building a staircase at the back, making the dumpster area operational and applying topsoil at the back of the building.

Staff presented a report pinpointing where the project went wrong and listed a number of lessons learned such as:

• A standardization of the town’s project management process;

• Improved financial reporting;

• Each major project should have a project manager as well as a financial analyst to monitor project finances;

• Greater clarification on the role of steering committees and project scope; and

• Clear separation of pre-construction, design and construction costs.

“While short and concise, this is not comprehensive enough,” said Coun. Wendy Gaertner. “This is our opportunity to make something good out of a bad situation.”