SaskPower grants $95M contract to finish operations hub at GTH (2024)

SaskPower has announced that the concluding work on a new operations centre at the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) in Regina is now underway with a contractor selected to finish the project’s second phase.

PCL Construction has been awarded a contract, valued at $95 million, to conduct the work on the second part of the Regina Operations and Maintenance Complex (ROMC).

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“Phase 2 of the ROMC project will provide centralized accommodations for SaskPower’s transmission, distribution and safety groups, which will improve efficiency and overall site access,” stated SaskPower president and CEO Rupen Pandya in a news release Monday.

The project will “centralize operations and reduce operating costs through lower maintenance requirements,” he continued.

Announced in 2021, SaskPower said consolidating six of its 13 offices into this new facility was a solution to aging infrastructure and to streamline operations.

In tandem with the new complex, SaskPower has also committed $4.5 million to purchase a building at 2101 Scarth St. and $120 million for a five-year renovation plan at its headquarters on Victoria Avenue.

Phase 1 of the new facility cost $100 million and began in 2021. It was completed earlier this year. Fleet, metering services and several logistics groups have already relocated there. The second phase will see the addition of warehousing, distribution and transmission operations.

More than 800 employees are expected to be based out of the GTH facility once fully complete, about half the Crown corporation’s payroll.

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Construction on Phase 2 is expected to conclude in 2026. PCL anticipates the contract will bring in as many as 150 workers on site.

Minister responsible for SaskPower Dustin Duncan has said the consolidation to one hub will save about $1 million every year in operating costs and improve service delivery for SaskPower customers.

In contrast, the Saskatchewan NDP has critiqued the project since its inception, claiming in 2021 that government was leveraging the Crown to fill land space at the GTH, which was floundering at the time the facility was first announced.

Then-leader Ryan Meili called the Crown’s use of 110 acres of land at the transport hub a way to “provide cover for a failed project,” which then-minister responsible for the GTH Don Morgan disputed.

As of 2023, the GTH Authority has sold 1,010 acres of land to tenants since the hub was completed in 2010, with 497 acres still available.

Most recent transactions include a five-acre purchase by trucking company Cam Transport, another 15 acres by 4Tracks, and a $38-million deal with Cargill to house a planned canola crush plant that broke a dry spell for the hub authority.

A news release from Cargill in July said the plant has reached the halfway point in its construction and plans to open in 2025.

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