Stuart Lake, looking east towards
Fort St James

Starting next week, tree clearing begins on the land where the Stuart Lake Hospital replacement will stand. This is an exciting step for the Stuart Lake Hospital project that brings us closer to a new, modern hospital for the people in the Fort St. James area.

Tree clearing must take place while the ground is still hard. Luckily, we have very hard ground here in February. Taba, a locally owned and operated company, has been contracted for site preparation. Tree flagging is their first step, which begins this weekend, and equipment will arrive onsite early next week. Falling and clearing should start soon after that.

We’ve had lots going on behind the scenes, but until now we haven’t had boots-on-the-ground news to offer. We’re in the procurement phase of the process with design development ongoing, which means we’ll be reaching out to the community for input and to connect about the project.

Stay tuned - we’ll have more information to share soon!

People in Fort St. James and the surrounding area are one step closer to a modern hospital as a preferred proponent has been selected for the design phase.

"Our government is moving forward to deliver a new hospital in Fort St. James with the selection of a preferred proponent and signing of the design-early works agreement," said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. ͞This announcement means we are closer to seeing what the hospital will look like and getting shovels in the ground."

Northern Health requested and received proposals from three shortlisted proponents for this stage of the procurement process, the design-early works agreement (DEWA). Those teams were Clark Builders, Graham Design Builders LP and SBW Wright Construction JV.

As a result of the evaluation process, in co-ordination with Northern Health and Infrastructure BC, Graham Design Builders LP was selected as the successful proponent.

The new hospital is expected to be three times larger in building size than the current facility with 27 beds, including 18 long-term care beds. There will be an emergency department with two treatment rooms, a trauma bay and ambulance bay. A laboratory and diagnostic imaging will be part of the new facility.

The hospital will include a primary care centre to consolidate services offered in Fort St. James at one location, reducing the distance patients and staff need to go for medical appointments, community health services, diagnostic imaging and lab services.

For more information, see the full media release.

The Stuart Lake Hospital Replacement project continues to remain on track in terms of scope, schedule budget and quality.

Northern Health has requested and received proposals from three shortlisted proponent teams. Their responses are in regards to the first stage of the procurement for a Design Early Works Agreement (DEWA). The responses are currently being evaluated through an established process in coordination with Northern Health and Infrastructure BC. Evaluations will continue through the beginning of December into early 2021.

The current proposal phase evaluates the proponent proposals for design using the DEWA contract. Once the DEWA is signed, the successful Design Builder will pursue getting a Design Build Contract to provide Northern Health with the design and construction of the replacement facility in Stuart Lake. We are expecting to finalize the DEWA contract in January.

On June 18, 2020, the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Stuart Lake Hospital Redevelopment Project closed and Northern Health received five responses from design-builder teams. Northern Health, with Partnerships BC, completed their evaluation and recommended a shortlist of three teams to proceed to the next stage of the process.

The next step in this process will be the release of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the project to the three proponents shortlisted in the RFQ, this was issued on August 4th, 2020. This RFP process is open only to the top three companies that were shortlisted through the initial RFQ process. They are Clark Builders Design-Builder, Graham Design Builders LP, and The Design-Builder joint venture (JV) partnership between Smith Bros. and Wilson (BC) Ltd. (SBW) and 1229917 BC Ltd., a corporation wholly owned by Wright Construction Western Inc. (Wright).

The first RFP closes in October 2020, and Northern Health, with their consulting team, will evaluate the proposals to select one team to execute a Design Early Works Agreement and then proceed to the next stage, the second RFP for the construction.

A request for Qualifications (RFQ) is a process that allows organizations to consider proposals based on the experience and qualifications of firms interested in submission (a straight tender considers only price). A scoring matrix is included in this process, so that bidders understand what the organization is looking for. This assists in eliminating potential issues, including the avoidance of unqualified bidders submitting the lowest bid. An RFQ also encourages bidders who might otherwise not submit if the field of competition appears too large and the chances of bid success are presumed low. Putting together an accurate yet competitive tender price is a lot of work. If there is a higher likelihood that an unqualified bidder could put in a low bid then this discourages qualified and appropriate bidders from submitting.

Bidders passing the RFQ (usually up to three) are then able to respond to the next step of the procurement (a Tender or Request for Proposals, RFP) which then results in a Construction Contract (this type of contract requires that the contractor agree to be responsible for job execution at a set price).

The replacement of Stuart Lake Hospital in Fort St. James was announced by BC Premier John Horgan on January 18, 2020. Northern Health is now moving quickly to move the project forward and start the work of procurement, and ultimately construction.

Better care is on the way for people in Fort St. James and the surrounding region. The Stuart Lake Hospital replacement project has received the official green light, with government approval of the concept plan.

“It’s a go! This new hospital has been needed for a long time, and is why Premier John Horgan and I made it a key priority in our efforts to improve health care throughout northern B.C.,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “The new hospital will bring better acute, primary and community care for people living in Fort St. James, local First Nations and the surrounding area. For a growing senior population in the region and for the economy as a whole, it is an essential public service.

The business plan phase - now underway - will finalize details such as scope and budget for the replacement of Stuart Lake Hospital. This stage takes approximately 12 to 18 months – current planned submission for review by government is end of 2019

When the Business case has been developed and completed the plan will be submitted to government for scope and funding approval. Upon completion of Business Planning the project will move into procurement followed by construction. All costs will be finalized in the business planning phase.