The Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development and Infrastructure Ontario has announced that Peel-Halton Partnership (PHP) has been selected to design, build and finance the three new children's treatment facilities PPP project.

The selection of PHP is the result of an open, fair and competitive procurement process that began in January 2013. Key members of PHP's team include Bondfield Construction Company Limited (developer and constructor), Stantec Architecture (lead architects) and Rocklynn Capital Inc. (financial advisors).

The fixed-price contract between PHP and ErinoakKids is for CAD$163.33 million. The project is being financed by five banks: Toronto-Dominion Bank, United Overseas Bank Limited, Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada, and Business Development Bank of Canada.

The team beat out competition from two other bidders:

• Kids Health Infrastructure Partnership: Carillion Canada Inc, Bird Design-Build Inc, Zeidler Partnership Architects, Mitchell Architects and Investec Capital Markets.
• PCL Partnerships: PCL Constructors Canada Inc, NORR Limited and Montgomery Sisam Architects.

The redevelopment project will allow ErinoakKids to consolidate programs and services into three state-of-the-art children's treatment centres, in Brampton, Oakville and Mississauga, and enable it to continue its mission to help children and youth with physical, developmental and communication disabilities achieve optimal levels of independence, learning, health and well-being.

The new facilities are scheduled to open in early 2017 and will offer:

• autism services, including intensive behavioural intervention and applied behaviour analysis
• infant hearing and blind low-vision services
• physiotherapy and occupational therapy
• speech and language services
• assistive devices resource services
• medical, nursing and specialty medical services
• respite services (at Brampton location only)
• family support services

The Brampton facility, the largest of the three, will be approximately 121,000 square feet, the Mississauga site will be approximately 93,000 square feet and the Oakville location will be approximately 73,000 square feet.

Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure, commented:

"Today's announcement signifies that the vision for ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development is on its way to being realized. Children and families will benefit greatly from having consolidated services, while construction of the facilities will stimulate Ontario's economy by creating hundreds of jobs."

Bridget Fewtrell, President and CEO, ErinoakKids, added:

"ErinoakKids is truly pleased to reach this milestone in our redevelopment project. We thank the Government ofOntario for its investment, and look forward to working with the project team to bring to fruition accessible facilities that are appropriately designed to meet the needs of the children and youth with disabilities whom we are privileged to serve across Peel, Halton and Dufferin County."