PM kicks off construction on new Canadian Forces facility in St. John’s

[Nfld Sapper]

PM kicks off construction on new Canadian Forces facility in St. John’s
21 October 2010
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today kicked off construction on a new multi-purpose facility at the Canadian Forces Station in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.  The new facility is part of the Canada First Defence Strategy which is modernizing the Canadian Forces.  This project will create local jobs and will improve conditions for Canadian Forces personnel working in St. John’s. 

“In building new facilities for Canadian Forces St. John’s, we are creating jobs, sustaining long-term economic activity and, most importantly, supporting the work of our men and women in uniform,” said Prime Minister Harper. 

The Government will replace 16 buildings in St. John’s with a single modern, multi-purpose facility.  The new facility will provide enhanced training, operational and family resource support to military personnel stationed in the province.  More than 630 direct jobs are expected to be created over the course of the project.

In making the announcement, Prime Minister Harper praised the impressive work done by the Canadian Forces to help the residents of Newfoundland rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor.

“In response to Hurricane Igor, we saw members of the Canadian Forces from this province standing shoulder-to-shoulder with colleagues from across the country, using their courage and expertise to help their own friends and neighbours in their hour of need,” the Prime Minister added.  “You did a great job; you earned the thanks of the people of this province and the admiration of all Canadians.”

Under the Canada First Defence Strategy, the Government is providing stable and predictable defence funding in four key areas: personnel, equipment, readiness and infrastructure.  The Government will increase the size of the Canadian Forces and replace the military’s core capabilities, as well as provide unprecedented opportunities for Canadian industry in its reach for global excellence, by working together to modernize the Forces.

 

[Captsapper@gmail.com]

NFLD Sapper, 

Where are they building this new facility?  Are they building it down at the bottom of the hill where stores and transport are, or up near the drill hall?  One of the things I liked about the reserve units at CFS St John's when I was there was that each had their own building and were all surrounding the central drill hall.  You never had to fight for classroom space as you each had your own.  Buildings were older but overall it was a great setup.

 

[chrisf]

They're bull-dozing all the original base structures, and building a 3 floor armoury where the current vehicle compound stands.

The only seperate building will be the MFRC, who are getting a new building behind the armoury.

The remainder of the area will become housing. This includes the PMQs, as well as a few provincial government sites, including the former janeway, the former forestry building, etc.

The plans I saw were dated 2003, and were (in my oppinion) undersized. Was not impressed. The design concept is sound, just not enough room. Barrels of office space, very little in the way of actual working spaces. As well, there are a lot of facilities which will be shared facilities, class rooms, etc, as opposed to the current situation, where units have their own class rooms to access as required. (The majority of the third floor however is composed of a wet and a dry mess, lots of mess space...)

Upside, a reduced asbestos diet. The current buildings are vintage maybe 1943? They've been renovated repeatedly, but there's only so much you can do with a 70 year old building.

 

[Captsapper@gmail.com]

With units going from their own space to sharing resources there will be some issues/growing pains.  I have not been there for ten years but I remember that Thursdays was the training night for all the units and after the training was done there was always an interesting hour or two in the mess.  Currently I am in an facility with four units and all the units parade on different schedules in order to have better access to shared resources.  In my opinion it works great for training for the individual units but as a result mess life is pretty dismal in comparison to what I remember from St John's.  Hopefully the units can figure out a way to make it work.

 

[Shock]

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2010-09-18/article-1772957/Pleasantville-marches-on/1

The article contains some unrelated environmental info but I linked it to show what will be replacing the current buildings for those of you interested.

 

[chrisf]

Speaking of enviromental, they ran into some unexpected enviromental road blocks while tearing down the former janeway hospital (Which a long time ago was the base hospital). Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they run into similar enviromental road blocks tearing down the remainder of the former base properties.

Destruction of the former vehicle compound, supply section, and military police station started within the last two weeks.