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.