Cost estimates for work on the 156-year-old West Block have increased sharply in the past two years, rising above the $1-billion mark in fiscal year 2010-2011 and hitting $1.17 billion in 2011-2012, according to federal spending documents released this week. In fiscal year 2009-10, the estimate was $769 million.
The current estimate is up over last year because the federal government has lumped in $99 million for work on the nearby Sir John A. Macdonald building, according to Public Works and Government Services Canada.
Public Works said the project continues to be on time and on budget.
The estimates and spending figures have the Official Opposition curious to know more, with the NDP Public Works critic saying she wants the minister in charge, Rona Ambrose, to explain the project and its finances to a parliamentary committee.
"I don't think it's an outrage that we are renovating historic buildings. I think Canadians would appreciate that," Linda Duncan said Thursday. "One would have expected that this government would have managed a contract where the cost overruns are not borne by the Canadian taxpayers. So I will be calling the minister to come to our committee and explain what's going on with this contract."
In the last fiscal year, the government doled out about $372 million worth of construction contracts, according to the governments public accounts, and added the Macdonald building renovations to the West Block budget envelope.
So far, the government has actually paid out $242 million to companies that were awarded contracts to work on the West Block, according to spending figures captured in the public accounts. With about $647 million, though, in awarded contracts, the government still has to pay out $405 million, which it plans to do over the next five years. The majority of the spending will come in 2014 ($177 million) and 2015 ($180 million), according to the public accounts.
"Preserving our history, preserving our institutions, both physical and democratic, is a priority for me," Liberal MP Justin Trudeau told reporters. "I just certainly hope that there is proper oversight and there is proper transparency on the work being done and on how the expenses are racking up."
Originally, the project was estimated to cost $769 million, but that number went up to $863 million in February 2011. By the time the public accounts came out in the fall of that year, the total had reached about $1.1 billion. Sheila Fraser, as auditor general, told a Commons committee that the overall price to renovate the three historic buildings in and around Parliament Hill, including associated costs to relocate offices to temporary locations nearby, was likely to be above $5 billion.
An artist's illustration of a proposed glass dome to cover the temporary House of Commons as part of the West Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.
The West Block renovations have thus far been the costliest portion of the work. The West Block rehabilitation includes masonry restoration, seismic upgrades, new windows and a new roof.
"There have been no increases to the approved budgets for the Parliamentary Precinct projects, nor have there been increases in the budgets for the West Block," Public Works spokesman Sebastien Bois said in an email to Postmedia News.
"The West Block Program includes several projects, such as interim accommodations projects and rehabilitation projects for other buildings, and as a result the changes to amounts that appear in the Public Accounts reflect the projects that have been added over the years under that umbrella. The amounts presented in the 2011-2012 Public Accounts now include the Sir John A. Macdonald rehabilitation project which is estimated at $99 million."
Bois said Thursday that the department doesn't yet know the total cost to restore the East and Centre blocks of Parliament. East Block renovations are currently in the planning stages, but work is already underway to rehabilitate the northwest tower of the building. That $13.9 million project is to be completed next year.
When work on the West Block is completed, which the department said on Thursday is scheduled for 2017, there will be a new visitors' entrance and a temporary House of Commons in the courtyard to hold MPs, covered by a $42-million glass dome. Only when that work is completed can work begin in earnest on the Centre Block, home to the House of Commons and Senate chambers, and the East Block, which has meeting rooms and senators offices.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jordan Press
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