City awards contract for future animal services centre

$15.3 million building to be located in district of Saint-François

(TLN)

The executive-committee of the City of Laval gave its approval last week for the awarding of a $1.72 million contract to the firm Bisson Fortin Architecture + Design to develop plans for Laval’s future animal services centre whose opening is scheduled for December 2018.

Contract awarded

The contract includes the sub-contracting of engineers (SNC-Lavalin), landscapers (Beaupré & Associés), LEED specialists (Lyse M. Tremblay ecoArchitecture) and a 3-D model of the future building (Consortech). The contract was approved by city council on Nov. 1.

“The animal services centre is one of the major priorities for Laval,” said Mayor Marc Demers. “This project is on the design board for a long time and following some in-depth analysis of the needs, we are proud to announce that finally it is beginning to take on life.”

$15.3 million project

According to the city, the centre will be costing $15,300,000. An 18,000 square-metre piece of land owned by the city on Maurice Cullen Place in the district of Saint-François has been reserved for the project. The 3,200 square-metre building will be completed according to LEED standards in order to conform to environmental concerns. The city says the building will include a veterinary clinic, areas for adoption, isolation and isolation of animals, as well as administrative offices.

With the process for construction of the animal services centre underway, the city is now looking for a non-profit organization to which to award the mandate of operating the facility. As such, city council will be issuing a call for tenders soon in order to find out which organizations express interest while gathering information on them.

Managed by non-profit group

“At this stage, the hiring of a provider for the administrative and operational management of the future centre will be essential, since they will be accompanying us in each of the planning and construction stages of the project,” said Laval city councillor Sandra Desmeules, an executive-committee member who is handling the dossier.

Following the city’s receipt of offers from organizations interested in operated the centre, a committee of experts in animal management will be formed in order to make a choice according to predetermined evaluation criteria. Once it opens in 2018, the animal services centre will be the central clearinghouse for actions to be taken in terms of managing animals in Laval.