County of Brant Council committed to providing its share of additional funding needed for the John Noble Home Bell Court Redevelopment expansion project during the regular Council meeting on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
Bell Court is a unit in the John Noble Home that has been vacant for many years. The redevelopment of Bell Court started back in 2019 as a ten-bed addition to the current 156-bed facility, however, it was expanded to 40-beds in 2023.
The unit will be used to accommodate those living with dementia and memory loss through the facility’s Day and Stay Program.
While the substantial completion date was originally set for April 2, 2025, Jeff Salmon, an HDR architect providing construction advisory services for the John Noble Home project, said there were seven change orders that have not only pushed the completion date back by 12 months, but have also led to an increase of $1.6 million in project costs, bumping up the total price to just $30 million.
“These relate to a variety of items such as asbestos abatement, which was uncovered during the demolition of the existing building in a number of concealed areas; delays also occurred due to structural interferences uncovered at existing piers and the foundation, as well as the need to implement shoring, and reinforce and make the existing roof structure above the chapel safe,” said Salmon. “These represent seven of just over 80 approved and pending change orders on the project to date, and the result of these seven in particular, saw schedule impacts, extending the baseline schedule for substantial completion from April 2, 2025 to January 28, 2026.”
He said that on top of all of that, a sprinkler project was added to the Bell Court Redevelopment construction, and because of that, there was approximately another $700,000 in costs and seven-months to deliver.
Salmon did note that they were able to negotiate with the contractor and achieve a two-month reduction in construction, bringing that substantial completion date to November 28, 2025. He said If all goes as planned, the unit should be opened by February 2026.
Because the John Noble Home is owned and operated by the County of Brant and the City of Brantford, it’s up to the two municipalities to share the cost of the $1.6 million increase.
With the split being around 28 per cent for the County, and 72 per cent for the City, it’s up to the County to provide $448,000 (to be funded through debt to be repaid from development charges and the tax levy, as well as through the County’s share of the 2024 JNH operating surplus).
During the meeting, both Councillors John MacAlpine and John Bell, who sit on the John Noble Home Committee of Management, said while the increase and delays are not ideal, HDR has been a helpful addition in making sure it didn’t go any further.
“I think it’s worthwhile reflecting on the fact that this is a $30 million project,” said Bell. “We have never built a $30 million project in the County. The staff of John Noble Home, as good as they are, don’t have the skills in project management, which is why we asked HDR to come along, and they’ve been incredibly helpful. They managed to draw down the requests of the main contractor for extra costs by, I think, close to a million dollars, so that they’re really paying their way.”
MacAlpine added another perspective on the increase.
“Back in June 2023, we had the initial budget of $27,872,291. The current ask is an increase of only about six per cent, so I just wanted to keep that in perspective,” he said. “…Especially considering the rate of inflation in the construction industry has been running at 5.6 per cent, so this is actually almost below the rate of inflation and a lot of that’s to do with HDR.”
After some clarification in regards to the funding as well as the JNH 2024 operating surplus, the vote was later carried unanimously.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
