Funding pushed back for U of A’s $249-million renovation project

2022 opening for dentistry/pharmacy facility still on track

The majority of first-year funding for the University of Alberta’s $249-million dentistry and pharmacy building renovation project is being pushed over into the next financial year, but the move shouldn’t affect plans for its 2022 grand opening, a university spokesman said.

In this year’s March budget, the NDP government committed $149 million over four years to overhaul the aging main campus centrepiece starting with $52 million this financial year.

However, because of delays in getting the project to tender due to timing issues, the university only requires $10 million of the original sum.

The remaining $42 million will be rolled out over the length of the project, Andrew Sharman, the U of A’s vice-president, facilities and operations, said Monday.

A further $100 million will be required from the government for the final two years of the project.

Sharman said that central to the refurbishment has been the decommissioning of the Slowpoke nuclear reactor, which was launched in 1979 and used to produce radionuclides.

Because of the tight security around its removal, site tours have been curtailed and the university is still waiting for a licence to abandon from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Sharman said.

That licence, which releases the site from federal regulatory oversight, can take six to eight months, he said.

Instead of having money sitting unused, Sharman said the university went back to the government with a different cash flow regime over the same six-year period.

“It means we will have a bit more activity than we had initially planned in the last two years, but that’s fine,” Sharman said.

“I’m still hoping to have people in the building at its 100th anniversary in 2022.”

Sharman, who admitted the university’s original plan was “probably a little bit overly optimistic,” said the tender for the design will go out in January.

Removal of hazardous materials has already been completed in the west wing and the same work is underway in the east wing.

Work will begin in the centre of the building as soon as the abandonment licence is issued, he said.

Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt last week said he wasn’t concerned by the change in timing.

“They are already doing preliminary work, but they are not getting it done as fast as we had initially anticipated,” Schmidt said. “We recognize these things happen and not always does a construction project go according to plan.

“We are committed to making sure the dentistry pharmacy reconstruction happens, but we are also willing to be patient with the understanding that it’s going to take a little bit longer than originally anticipated.”