On August 25, 2015, the Government of Saskatchewan announced financial close on a public-private partnership to build 18 new elementary schools on nine joint-use sites, the largest project of its kind in Saskatchewan’s history.

The new schools will include 810 new child care spaces as well as new community space in Regina, Saskatoon, Martensville and Warman. Construction on the publicly owned and operated schools will be complete before September 2017.

In total, the government will invest $635 million in today’s dollars over the life of the contract, which includes: construction-related costs, cost of maintenance over 30 years and cost of rehabilitation to keep the schools in like-new condition.

Joint-Use Mutual Partnership was competitively selected to deliver the schools. The consortium that operates as one team includes: Concert Infrastructure Ltd., Bird Capital Limited Partnerships, Bird Design-Build Construction Inc., GEC Architecture, along with Wright Construction Western Inc., Kindrachuck Agrey Architecture, and Johnson Controls Canada LP.

Gowlings advised Johnson Controls with respect to this transaction with a team that included Darryl Brown, Faithe Holder and Lindsay Wong.