School expansion projects | Overheating in construction drives up costs

School expansion projects have experienced cost overruns of 100% over budget, so that in one year the government had to pay $424 million more than it had originally planned. Overheating in the construction industry is largely responsible for this increase.

Marie-Eve Morasse
The Press

Those who have embarked on renovations in recent years have seen how much prices in this sector have increased. For the expansion and construction of schools, Quebec taxpayers have a collective bill that climbs by 424 million, the result of 61 requests for “additional contribution” that school service centers have made to the Ministry of Education since 1^er March 2021.

At the Laval school service center (CSSDL) alone, the government had to pay nearly $57 million more than expected for five projects. Among these is the construction of a special school for students with disabilities or social maladjustments, the budget of which has increased from $26 million to $48 million.

At the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center (CSSMB), in Montreal, it is 30 million more than Quebec had to take out of the coffers for four projects.

The expansion of Saint-Louis Elementary School in Pointe-Claire, for example, cost double what was planned in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (2019-2029).

For the addition of 12 classes and a double gymnasium, the lowest bidder was asking for 19.9 million, or 9.9 million more than what was listed in the PQI two years earlier. Quebec authorized the additional funding last fall.

At the Ministry of Education, it is said that the additional 424 million disbursed in one year are explained by “multiple reasons”, including “the addition of classes or common spaces during the project […] special site conditions, the addition of asset maintenance works […]current construction market conditions or other unforeseen factors over which the Ministry has no control”.

The CSSMB notes for its part that “the value of projects has increased significantly in recent months”.

Each time major projects are carried out in schools, she specifies, the service center takes the opportunity to carry out work to maintain assets, to “limit the impact” on students.

Of the 19 million spent on the expansion of the Paul-Gérin-Lajoie-d’Outremont school, 3 million are devoted to maintaining the existing building in good condition. For this project, the Department authorized additional funding of nearly $8 million over what had been established two years earlier.

Rising cost of materials

To explain the explosion in the cost of certain projects, the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center cites in particular the rise in the price of raw materials, such as steel and wood, but also “the dazzling increase in prices related to wall- drapes [fenêtres]or nearly 40% in recent months.

The Laval school service center has a similar explanation. “With the overheating in the construction sector, particularly in the greater metropolitan area, we have been forced to revise certain budgets upwards to carry out our school construction projects”, writes Yves Michel Volcy , CEO of the CSSDL.

Even before the pandemic, construction costs were rising in Quebec. In 2019, school expansion and renovation projects cost 30% more than expected.

Three years later, it’s still “very volatile and very complex” in the industry, explains Guillaume Houle, spokesperson for the Association de la construction du Québec (ACQ).

Between October 2020 and October 2021, he says, the cost of oil and ferrous metals increased by almost 75%.

“Oil equals anything made of plastic, fuel for heavy machinery. As for ferrous metals, we can think of anything steel in a project [de construction] says Mr. Houle.

While the effect of the pandemic may start to fade, comes the war in Ukraine, which deprives the world of construction of Russian and Ukrainian materials. “It’s creating pressure on the supply at the moment,” observes Guillaume Houle.

Despite the increase in project costs, the Department considers that, “considering the space needs observed in the network, the realization of projects already authorized is essential”.