A surge in construction work at CFB Esquimalt is bringing jobs and millions of dollars into the Island economy.
A $70-million contract is out for tender this week. The federal government is seeking bids for the fourth of a five-phase modernization of the Canadian navy's West Coast fleet-maintenance facility. The Department of National Defence has called the facility the Pacific Fleet's indispensable "corner garage."
Work generated by the military project is proving to be particularly important because, along with the rest of the country, the capital region's unemployment rate has been climbing. It hit 5.4 per cent in March, compared with 3.3 per cent in the same month last year.
Modernization work at CFB Esquimalt started in the 1990s and continues today. DND expects the full upgrading to be completed by 2015.
Plans call for new buildings and upgrading of older properties to consolidate several work areas. Six years ago, the area, called Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Breton, was spread through more than 60 buildings, some a century old, which were mainly "antiquated by modern industrial standards," DND said.
The $70-million contract is a major component of $266 million worth of work, mainly on Cape Breton, that DND said will create about 1,400 direct jobs during its duration.
June 23 is the closing date for the phase-four tender. A contract is expected to be awarded by July 7, John Laverdi猫re, of DND's Directorate Construction Project Delivery, said yesterday.
Work should be completed by July 2012.
This contract is expected to create about 400 person-years of employment, he said.
Along with construction and renovation, it calls for equipment installation, and includes a new steam-cleaning area, office-lunchroom, and a wastewater treatment facility, tender documents show.
"It's huge," said Greg Baynton, Vancouver Island Construction Association president. "We don't often see facilities like that."
Several local companies are large enough to bid on this project, he said.
Other major construction projects in the region include the $250-million Uptown redevelopment of the Town and Country Shopping Centre, and the $350-million-plus Royal Jubilee Hospital expansion. Victoria Shipyards has won several million dollars' worth of work to upgrade and refit three cruise ships this season. The Atrium, a 200,000 square-foot, downtown office building is under construction, and several developers are proceeding with residential projects.
The Cape Breton project will likely see about $7 million dedicated to the electrical package, said Philip Venoit, business manager of Local 230, of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
About 20 per cent of the local's 1,200-plus members are not working, he said. "It's potential work for a good number of our membership," said Venoit, also president of the Island's Building Trades Council, whose members earn an average of about $30 an hour.
