Police chief defends plan for $233-million training centre
Facility would go next to police station already facing cost pressures from poor soils
Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News
Posted: Apr 27, 2026 5:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
Chief Eric Stubbs is defending plans to build a $233-million training centre next to another Ottawa Police Service (OPS) construction project that’s already facing cost pressures due to poor soil conditions.
Police say the proposed 82,000-square-foot training centre is needed after a partnership for space at Algonquin College fell through.
It's slated to go on three hectares of land in Barrhaven, right next to the new south-end police station at 3505 Prince of Wales Dr. that OPS has been building at an estimated cost of $187 million.
According to an update last month, that structure’s pile foundations — long, thin supports driven into the ground to support the building — needed to be extended due to unfavourable soil conditions. That drove up costs by about $10 million and extended the construction timeline.
Stubbs said there have been lessons learned that can prevent a repeat of those problems when and if work on the new training centre begins. OPS was seeking budget approval from the Ottawa Police Service Board on Monday.
“The people who were building didn’t know what they didn’t know,” he said. “Well, they now know, so that can be built into how they approach another construction on that property if it occurs. So that learning lesson, if you will, from that first building will be applied to the second.”
Stubbs noted that the south station project is still expected to come in under budget since the cost pressures will be covered by a contingency buffer.
Police foresee a 2031 completion date for the new training centre. The budget includes a 25 per cent escalation to account for potential cost overruns.
OPS had previously delivered its training at Algonquin College under a longstanding agreement. Two years ago, the college served police with a termination notice to exit all spaces by March of this year. After negotiations, OPS got an extension to 2033 for the firing range only.
According to a report to the police service board, losing the college facilities has forced OPS to train its members at eight different sites spread across the city. It calls that “inefficient” and warns that it puts compliance with legislated training requirements at risk.
The new training centre is expected to include a 50-metre firearms range, other “dynamic training spaces” and a three-storey parking garage.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/po...or-233-million-training-centre-9.7179052
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