MPI to put $35M into upgrading claims centres

March 8, 2008
Winnipeg Free Press
Written by: Murray McNeill

Manitoba Public Insurance is launching the biggest overhaul of its claims centre operations in more than two decades and giving the provincial construction industry a $35-million shot in the arm in the process.

That's how much the Crown corporation plans to spend over the next two years to build four new full-service centres -- three in Winnipeg and one in Selkirk -- and to bring 15 of its existing centres up to full-service standards. Two of the new centres replace existing ones, and two are addtions to the corporation's service-centre network.

MPI officials say the purpose of the building program, which is to be announced on Monday, is to boost customer convenience by doubling the number of MPI centres where drivers can go to access MPI's full range of insurance and driver licensing services.

The four new centres will be built to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver standards. All existing centres will be upgraded to international environmental standards endorsed by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

The new Winnipeg centres will be the first new buildings MPI has built in Winnipeg in 23 years.

MPI president and CEO Marilyn McLaren and corporate affairs vice-president John Douglas said the capital works program is designed to address current and future customer needs.

"We're investing today to meet our customers' needs tomorrow," McLaren said.

They said the two new Winnipeg additions to the service-centre network are being built because of changing population growth patterns within the city and the growing number of claims being handled.

They noted the city's south and northeast quadrants are among the fastest-growing areas of Winnipeg, and opening service centres there will provide motorists living or working in those areas with more convenient access to services. MPI says 27 per cent of the 140,000 claims it handled last year involved claimants who lived in the north and south ends.

Douglas noted that in a number of communities, customers still have to go to one location if they have an insurance claim, and to another if they want to renew their driver's licence or vehicle registration.

"This is one way for us to ensure that if you go to a claim centre and need to have something done to your licence... we can handle all of that," he said.

McLaren said the corporation is also committed to doing business in an environmentally sustainable way by building to LEED silver and BOMA Go Green Plus standards.

That includes things like installing geothermal heat-pump systems in all four of the new service centres. Douglas and Crystal Bornais, sustaintable buildings co-ordinator for Prairie Architects, said it's difficult to say how much building to LEED silver standards adds to the cost of a building project. Some industry officials have estimated it adds about three per cent.

"The hard part is that there are no two green buildings that are going to be the same," Bornais said. "One project that achieves silver might have done so using geothermal heat and solar panels, and one might have done very cost-efficient measures, doing better insulation and looking at more of the design and collecting solar passively."

Bornais, said there are no LEED silver buildings at the moment in Manitoba, although there is one LEED gold building (Mountain Equipment Co-op) and one LEED certified building (Integra Credit Union).

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

-- With files from Larry Kusch

The master plan

Here are some of the highlights of MPI's new capital works program:

A total of $35 million to be spent over the next two years.

Four new 28,000-square-foot service centres will be built at a cost of $8 million to $10 million each. Three will be located in Winnipeg and one in Selkirk.

Thirteen existing centres will be expanded or upgraded at a cost of between $30,000 and $100,000 each.

Two of the four new centres -- one at the corner of Bison Drive and Barnes Street and one at Gateway and Springfield roads -- will be additions to MPI's service-centre network. The other two -- one at Main Street and Church Avenue in Winnipeg and the other in a new retail power centre in Selkirk -- will replace smaller, outdated facilities in those areas.

Construction of the new Winnipeg centres is expected to get underway late this year or early next year, with all three operational by the end of next year. The new Selkirk centre will be completed within the next two years.

The four new centres will be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver standards, as required under provincial guidelines announced in 2006. Existing centres will be upgraded to international environmental standards endorsed by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

The conversion of existing claims centres to full-service centres will begin in Brandon this fall and roll out in Winnipeg next The master plan spring. Rural centres will be converted in 2009.

The location of the two new Winnipeg centres was based on the results of a study by a demographics research team which looked at such factors as where customers live and do business with MPI, city population growth patterns, housing stock and potential housing starts.

-- Source: MPI

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