Morrison Hershfield was hired by the Ontario Realty Corporation on behalf of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to provide project administration services and to develop location/site selection criteria for the new Ontario Emergency Management Centre.  The new facility will accommodate the Emergency Management Ontario, the Provincial Emergency Operation Centre, and Public Safety Canada during a provincial crisis

The new facility will accommodate the Emergency Management Ontario, the Provincial Emergency Operation Centre, and Public Safety Canada during a provincial crisis.  The facility has extensive communications and back-up power systems and is designed to provide a “five nines” operation. All critical systems/equipment are designed with an N+1 redundancy, and mechanical systems are designed to handle peak emergency facility occupancy.  Other features include secure areas designated high, medium and low; helicopter landing area, parking areas, teleconference rooms, cafeteria and overnight living areas. 

The client required a needs assessment, a program of requirements, elemental construction costs estimates, site selection criteria and real estate information.  Our knowledge and experience in emergency centre design, combined with mechanical and electrical engineering capability for mission critical facility design, made Morrison Hershfield the ideal consultant to deliver this project. 

Our role included:

• Providing project administration services involving project schedules, meetings, and presentations

• Preparing a Needs Assessment Report to evaluate, confirm and articulate requirements based on the information provided by the Corporation

• Preparing a Program of Requirements to determine the accommodation needs of the program areas

• Developing location/site selection criteria and real estate information based on the planning materials, facility program blocking, stacking models, and identification of site criteria based on the Corporation’s requirements for the new facility

• Developing elemental cost estimates for various phases of the project