Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, the project as it was presented would have involved renovating the 4,000 square metres that presently exist and increasing it to 10,600 square metres of total space. It would have meant that substantially the project was new construction more than renovation. There was some renovation and enhancement. Perhaps there is not a clear understanding that part of the enhancement was a significant amount of new construction. I am talking just about YCC. The project as presented was, as I say, to renovate sections of the existing 4,000 square metres and add enough new space so we would wind up with 10,600 square metres in total.
With the level of planning that was done at the time and the estimate of $28.3 million was made, there was a sense that the project could be done for that amount. By May the department had come back and said that their consultant advised it would take over seven years to do what had been proposed for YCC and that it would now cost $35 million. FSC said that if you can shorten the time frame, forget about trying to renovate the 4,000 square metres, just get rid of it and build it all new, would probably cost only $30 million. They subsequently have said that rather than locating the young offenders facility on land adjacent to YCC, you could put them close enough together so they can share certain parts of the facilities, while still maintaining total separation, there are further savings of, I believe $6.4 million. They also identified some ongoing operations and maintenance savings from that collocation.
That, Madam Chairperson, outlines the process. We have gone from a situation where we were proposing to renovate the existing 4,000 square metres, add 6,600 square metres to YCC and a separate stand-alone facility to bring them together. The total savings are substantial if we can do it in the manner proposed. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.