Edmonton paying more to build fire halls, rec centres than neighbouring communities: report

Fire halls and recreation centres in Edmonton are more expensive and take longer to build than in neighbouring communities, according to a new municipal report comparing capital projects.

Edmonton city council had asked earlier this year for an analysis to see the cost breakdown between Edmonton projects and those within satellite municipalities.

Colliers Project Leaders Inc., commissioned by the city to do the study, found multiple cost drivers, including the number of policies and bylaws builders have to navigate, and the city's commitment to making construction as green as possible.

"With each of those policies being adopted, there are incremental costs added and that increment adds up pretty quickly," said Lindsey Butterfield, vice president of government relations and policy for BILD Edmonton Metro, a real estate and development agency, during the city's executive committee meeting Wednesday.

The committee reviewed the report's findings during the meeting.

The report compared different construction projects, such as Edmonton Fire Station No. 31, in the southwest area of Windermere, and Fire Station No. 9 in Leduc County, just south of Edmonton.

The fire halls are close in size and offer similar amenities. They were built at different periods, but the report shows the Leduc County station took much less time and a fraction of the cost to build.

Construction on the Windermere station spanned from 2017 to 2022, and cost nearly $15.6 million total, the report shows.

Fire station No. 9 in Leduc County, meanwhile, was finished in 2023. It took one year to build and cost about $5.7 million, the report shows.

Edmonton's project was more expensive, in part, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation was higher from 2021 to 2023, the report says.

The City of Edmonton, however, was also following a sustainable building policy. In 2021, while construction was underway, the project team was asked to pursue net-zero standard, which added $3 million minimum to the price tag, the report says.

The "ambitious sustainability revised target" differed from Leduc's approach, "which was clearly to not pursue any third-party program or set any sustainability goals," the report says.

Edmonton city managers noted Wednesday that energy-efficient buildings cost more to build, but less to operate long-term. 

"When we do a design, we do it based on all of the policies being integrated into it… like the climate resilience policies," said Pascal Ladouceur, branch manager of infrastructure planning and design.