Seniors’ homes: “Lost bet”, the new prices are even higher

The resumption of seven tenders deemed too expensive, which were canceled between June and September 2021, have resulted in even higher bids in recent weeks.

Sometimes the exact same contractor remains the lowest bidder the second time around, but with a higher price. Result in this case: an additional cost of $7.5 million for the seniors’ home in Carignan, in Montérégie, and $4.4 million for that of Saint-Hilarion, in Charlevoix.

The prize for the biggest increase goes to the Trois-Rivières seniors’ home, with an increase of nearly $10 million between the first and the second call for tenders, or an 18% increase.

In total, the surplus payable of $44 million corresponds to the value of a seniors’ home.

The price of materials continued to climb, to the chagrin of Quebec

It’s a lost bet, comments the spokesperson for the Association de la construction du Québec, Guillaume Houle. But he does not blame the government.

He recalls that until January 2022, it was expected that the situation would return to normal in the price of building materials, which had exploded due to the pandemic.

Except that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia changed the situation. We must also add the pandemic which has paralyzed the port of Shanghai, in China, for several weeks.

” There have been so many fluctuations since the start of the pandemic that entrepreneurs have to protect themselves against rising costs and because the supply chain is completely out of order. We have difficulty getting the materials ordered on time. »

The context you mention, combined with the labor shortage in the construction industry, is putting strong pressure on costsrecalls the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), which manages calls for tenders for seniors’ homes for the government.

After canceling the first calls for tenders, the SQI had revised certain contractual requirements, postponed stages or deadlines, or even cut work into batches. But all this was not enough to obtain lower prices.

” The SQI uses different strategies to counter adverse outcomes [peu ou pas de soumissionnaires, résultats trop élevés] and we cannot predict the reaction of the current market. […] Although the practice of relaunching calls for tenders has regularly given good results in the past, the current context being unprecedented, it did not ensure any certainty of obtaining better results. »

The results of the second calls for tenders are still being analysed. Could they be canceled again?

When the SQI considers that the price submitted is not the right price, it gives itself the opportunity to cancel the call for tenders, to change the supply strategy, to combine several lots, or to separate them according to the contextreplies Martin Roy.

The cost of building materials increased by 35% between October 2020 and October 2021, recalls the Association de la construction du Québec. Between December 2021 and January 2022, the price of wood has increased by almost 150% and the price of steel by 75% between 2020 and 2021.

The first seniors’ homes to be delivered should be those in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines and Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, in the Laurentians, in early August, followed by Saguenay and Roberval in mid-August.

Construction of 34 of the 46 seniors’ homes has already begun.

Last I heard, the total planned budget was $2.4 billion.

Nearly a million dollars to build a bedroom

The lowest bid for the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield seniors’ home is $67.5 million for 72 spaces, or $938,000 per space just for construction costs.

The average construction cost per space is around $600,000, according to our compilation, but that does not include all the costs that may be added.

According to our information, the government is planning, for example, $500.5 million in service costs, or $143,800 per space.

We realize that the bill always goes uplaments the Liberal critic for seniors, Monique Sauvé.

” This project of a generation will ultimately be the debt of a generation. »

The opposition parties ask to abandon the vast project

The SQI plans to deliver at least 2,600 of the 3,480 places planned in seniors’ homes in the fall of 2022, as promised by the Legault government.

Above all, do not consider the construction of additional seniors’ homes before having done a real reflectionbelieves Monique Sauvé.

Like the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire, it agrees to complete the work already begun.

The subject of seniors’ homes should be talked about again, Wednesday, in the National Assembly, while the Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais, will be questioned by the opposition parties as part of the study. credits from his ministry.