British Columbia's BC Hydro announced yesterday that it has signed a contract with ATCO Two Rivers Lodging Group for the design, construction, partial financing, operation and maintenance of worker accommodation at the Site C dam site.

The eight-year contract has a value of approximately $470 million. A rigorous evaluation process concluded that ATCO Two Rivers Lodging Group met BC Hydro's requirements for Site C worker accommodation within the budget established for the contract.

Approximately 360 positions will be created by the construction and operation of the worker accommodation camp.

Two Rivers Lodging Group is a partnership of companies from across Canada. The primary partner ATCO has extensive experience in the area of designing, constructing and operating worker accommodation facilities in British Columbia, Alberta, across Canada and globally.

ATCO has provided high-quality, turnkey workforce lodging solutions in British Columbia for the past 40 years, which include some of the province's most significant resource projects. Recently, ATCO completed a 1,700- person accommodation village for workers on the Rio Tinto Alcan Smelter Modernization Project and a 600-person lodge for the Kitimat LNG project. Site C is just over two months into an almost decade-long construction period.

There are currently about 400 workers on the Site C dam site near Fort St. John. Of these, approximately 80 per cent are from B.C. Employment is going to continue to ramp up over the coming months and years - there are going to be significant economic opportunities for northern and Aboriginal workers and businesses from the construction of Site C.

Several local companies have been sub-contracted to do work on the project. Petrowest Construction from Charlie Lake is doing site preparation work for the worker accommodation camp. In addition, the Fort St. John office of WSP Canada is doing surveying work, Helical Pier Systems out of Fort St. John is conducting pile work for the camp, and Northern Geo out of Fort St. John is doing compaction testing.

The quality of worker accommodation is a key component of the project's labour approach to attract and retain workers for the Site C project. The worker accommodation camp for Site C will be built to house up to 1,600 construction workers, with services and utilities designed to accommodate a total capacity of 2,200, if required.

To minimize the impact on nearby communities, the camp will be selfsufficient and designed to accommodate the fluctuating number of workers. Construction of the Site C Clean Energy Project started in July 2015 and will be completed in 2024. Once built, Site C will provide clean, reliable and affordable electricity in B.C. for more than 100 years.