AHCC and AHA Complete P3

On December 7, 2004, Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre Inc. (AHCC) and AHA Access Health Abbotsford Ltd. (AHA) reached financial close on a public-private partnership (P3) for a major British Columbia hospital and cancer centre facility. This is the largest P3 completed in BC to date, with an estimated capital cost of $355 million. AHA also issued, on December 7, $209 million of fully amortizing fixed indexing annuity bonds, series A, as the first tranche of the financing for the project.

The P3 agreement provides for the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of a new 300-bed regional hospital and cancer centre in Abbotsford, BC. The new facility will be 60,000 square metres. The private partner, AHA, will provide facility management services over the 30-year operating term, including general management, helpdesk, food, housekeeping, laundry/linen, material, plant, protection, patient portering, utilities management and parking.

After development is completed the public partner, AHCC, will be owned by Fraser Health Authority and the Provincial Health Services Authority/BC Cancer Agency (PHSA/BCCA). All health care services will remain the responsibility of Fraser Health and PHSA/BCCA. The new facility is expected to be completed by 2008 and the P3 arrangement will run to 2038.

AHCC and its project manager, Partnerships British Columbia Ltd., were represented by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP with a team that included David Little and Paul Wilson (P3), Don Weaver (financing), Helmut Johannsen (construction), Norm Trerise (labour/privacy), Linda Huynh, Paul Armitage and Randal Dhaliwal. UK advisors were David Hunter and Simon Hancock of Bevan Brittan LLP. AHCC was also represented on labour issues by Peter Gall, Q.C., of Heenan Blaikie LLP.

AHA was advised by Bob Bauer, Greg Southam, Brian Clark and Elise Sieradzki (infrastructure/P3), Derek Vesey and Peter Westcott (project finance) and David Smith and Ian Crosbie (tax) of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP (DWPV). Lawson Lundell LLP provided local counsel to AHA with a team that included Neil Marshall, Ed Wilson and Paul Bradley.

Fraser Health was represented by in-house counsel Shelley Wrean, and Max Collett (real estate) and Jay LeMoine (commercial) of Bull, Housser & Tupper. PHSA/BCCA was represented by Stuart Lang of Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang. The Province of BC was represented by William Pike, Michael Shepherd and William Ehmann of the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Legal Services Branch.

The consortium was made up of ABN AMRO Bank Canada, NV (advised by DWPV); PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. (advised by Doug Stollery, Q.C., of Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer LLP); Johnson Controls LP (advised by in-house counsel Steven Richards and by Darryl Brown and Jay Hayden of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP); and Sodexho MS Canada Ltd. (advised by in-house counsel Kenneth Johnson).