UPDATE - December 15, 2018


​                                                               December 15/16, 2018
Dear Parishioners,                            
   We are pleased to provide you with this update on the construction of our new Shrine church.                            
Project Status
  • The civil work of the site which includes site grading and tie-ins of most all of the utilities (storm water, sanitary, water lines) is completed
  • Working with Fortis to have primary power brought onto site prior to steel arriving on-site in February.   All electrical conduits from property line to the building are complete.  Natural gas line to be installed Spring 2019.
  • AltaLink has replaced and relocated the two high voltage power poles that cross our site.
  • The foundation of the building started with the drilling of 141 piles, some as large as 16” in diameter and drilled to a typical depth of 33 feet and as deep as 60 feet.  All piles and pile caps are installed and complete.
  • The concrete foundation of the building is backfilled and complete.
  • Two light poles that are currently in the middle of the new drive aisle will be relocated by the end of December.  This will allow the main access off Palliser road to be complete. 
  • The steel members are slated to arrive in late February and will be erected in the beginning of March.  Fortunately, our steel is being manufactured at specialty shops in Europe and Eastern Europe to avoid the large tariffs that would have been applied had the steel been ordered from the United States.
  • Our new Architect, NORR completed a comprehensive review of the prior architect and engineers’ drawings and re-certified them for construction.  The revised Issued for Construction drawings were submitted to the Town of Canmore on October 18th.

Project Timelines
We are pleased to announce that the official dedication and opening of the new Shrine Church will take place on Friday May 1st, 2020, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and the start of the Marian month of May.  We have locked this date into Bishop McGrattan’s calendar and will begin planning a weekend of celebration of this most momentous and joyous occasion. 
MODCO’s construction schedule forecasts that the new Shrine Church will actually be completed earlier in the Spring of 2020 so we plan to have a couple of months to settle into the new building before the opening dedication celebration.
​
Project Cost
Working with NORR’s revised drawings and the updated project schedule, MODCO completed a full re-costing of the project in November/December, 2018.  While many of the sub trades’ tenders remained the same, the all-in cost of the project has moved from $15.1 million to $16.4 million, representing an increase of $1.3 million or 8%.  We absorbed additional costs in transitioning our consultant teams in addition to the revised tendering.  The items that saw the largest price increases include: civil work, pilings, HVAC and steel.  It is important to note that we are still carrying a $500,000 contingency in the project cost.

​The following table shows summarizes our new financial situation for the project.

($ million)                                 May-18               Dec-18
Building Cost                              $15.1                  $16.4
Land Donation                             $3.3                     $3.3
Total Project                              $18.4                   $19.7

 Financing
Land Donation                           $3.3                      $3.3
Sale of Existing Site                  $4.1                      $4.1
Donations To-Date                    $4.0                      $4.0
 
Amount Still To-Raise
                                                     $7.0                     $8.3
Total                                         $18.4                   $19.7

Percent Funded To-Date        62%                      58%

​Fundraising Strategy
We are pleased that the effort to sponsor key elements of the new Shrine that was launched in May of this year has raised over $300,000.  Once the steel begins to be erected in March and the skeleton of the new Shrine emerges, we are planning to relaunch our fundraising efforts for the project in earnest.  We and the Diocese believe that our magnificent Shrine will be a special place of worship, not just for our Parish in Canmore but for the Diocese as a whole, the Catholic Church in Canada and throughout the world.  We also believe that there will many Marian organizations and pilgrimage groups that will be keen to visit and support our new Shrine.  Accordingly, starting in March 2019, we are planning to reach out to a number of identified wealthy donors throughout Western Canada who could be interested in supporting the construction of the new Shrine.
While we might not be able to pay for all of the project costs before our opening ceremony in May 2020, we believe that once we open the doors in 2020, many donors will emerge to help us pay off our remaining mortgage….it is sort of like the saying from the movie Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come”. 
It is important to note that the Diocese is aware of all of these new financial numbers and is fully supportive of completing the entire project rather than leaving some elements unfinished.  As a Shrine, it must have a long-term vision.

Closing
We have all come a long way on this journey to build our new Shrine church but we believe that we have made very substantial and positive progress on the project in the past six months.  NORR has been a breath of fresh air for all of us and allowed us to get this project back on track with a clear line of site on the completion date and project costs.
We ask for your continuing prayers for our project and all of the construction people working on the site.  We thank your again for your generosity and support for all members of the project team.

In Jesus through Mary.

The Steering Committee.