TORONTO - Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG) have awarded a fixed-price contract to EllisDon Infrastructure to design, build, finance and maintain the new Toronto courthouse project located just to the north of Toronto's City Hall at 10 Armoury Street, bordered by Centre Avenue and Chestnut Street.

The contract is valued at approximately $956.4 million, which reflects the payments made during construction, the substantial completion payment, and the monthly service payments before inflation adjustments. This figure does not reflect the total project cost.

IO and MAG selected EllisDon Infrastructure after extensive evaluations following an open, fair and competitive request for proposals process that began in October 2016.

The EllisDon Infrastructure team includes:

  • Developer: EllisDon Capital Inc.
  • Constructor: EllisDon Design Build Inc.
  • Design Team: Renzo Piano Building Workshop and NORR Architects & Engineers Limited
  • Facilities Management: EllisDon Facilities Services Inc. and SNC Lavalin O&M
  • Financial Advisor: EllisDon Capital Inc.

With the award of the contract, the construction is expected to start in the next few months, with an anticipated completion in spring of 2022. The new Toronto courthouse marks the first project in Canada for the award-winning Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

The new Toronto courthouse will include:

  • Barrier-free environment, to allow visitors and occupants to travel throughout the building with ease.
  • Video conferencing to allow witnesses to appear from remote locations and in-custody individuals to appear from detention facilities.
  • Closed-circuit television to enable children and other vulnerable witnesses to appear before the court from a private room.
  • Courtroom video/audio systems to allow counsel to display video evidence recorded in various formats and for the simultaneous viewing of evidence.
  • A single point of entry with magnetometers, baggage scanners, continuous video surveillance, and separate corridors to ensure the security of judges, members of the public and the accused.
  • The project also includes the first learning centre in an Ontario courthouse. This space offers opportunities for the public, justice workers, and students to learn about Indigenous history and issues related to the justice system in Ontario. The learning center will be a safe, inclusive place of dialogue and host to interactive exhibits, teaching opportunities and will house reference materials relating to justice, injustice, truth and reconciliation, as well as Indigenous legal traditions and systems.

The new courthouse will bring together many of Toronto's Ontario Court of Justice criminal courts operating across the city. Amalgamating several courts into one state-of-the-art facility will reduce costs, make operations more efficient and effective, provide for equal access to services, and will ensure the province's real estate portfolio is sustainable, accessible and efficient.

Ontario's plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.

Quick Facts

  • IO and MAG are working together to build the new Toronto courthouse, which will be publicly owned and controlled.
  • The project is being delivered using IO's Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP) model, an innovative way of financing and procuring large, complex public infrastructure projects.
  • In 2015, IO led an archaeological excavation of the new Toronto courthouse site that recovered tens of thousands of artifacts, mainly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Learn more about the archaeology here.
  • The courthouse will be designed to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Silver standard with a focus on energy efficiency, healthy indoor environments and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Ontario is making the largest infrastructure investment in hospitals, schools, public transit, roads and bridges in the province's history. To learn more about what's happening in your community, go to Ontario.ca/BuildON.

Quotes:

“Access to justice in Toronto has taken a step forward today with the awarding of the contract to build the new Toronto Courthouse. This innovative, first-of-its-kind project will reduce costs and ensure equal access to services by all accused, victims, witnesses, and other court users.”
Yasir Naqvi, Attorney General

“Our government's investment in the new Toronto courthouse further demonstrates our commitment to improving and modernizing infrastructure in order to create jobs and build Ontario up.”
Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure

“We are very proud of our AFP courthouse portfolio and are thrilled to once again partner with the Ministry of the Attorney General and work with an incredible team at EllisDon Infrastructure to deliver this world-class project, the first high-rise courthouse project in the province.”
Ehren Cory, President and CEO, Infrastructure Ontario

Learn More

Infrastructure Ontario
Ministry of the Attorney General

Media contacts:

Cary Mignault
Infrastructure Ontario
416-325-2888

Emilie Smith
Ministry of the Attorney General
416-326-2210

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