Nathan Phillips skating rink reno goes $750,000 over budget

The cost of replacing the skating rink at Nathan Phillips Square has risen by $750,000, to $2.7 million, due to “unforeseen site conditions,” a council committee was told Thursday.

Councillor Doug Ford blamed the cost escalation on mismanagement, while other members of the government management committee were more forgiving.

Officials discovered they needed to install a missing support wall around the concrete slab that they had believed was already there because it appeared on the drawings.

Tories must explain growing pricetag for Parliament Hill renovations, NDP says

OTTAWA - Construction companies have been awarded more than $600 million for work on the West Block building on Parliament Hill, but the federal department in charge says the estimated price tag for the whole renovation job has now reached almost $1.2 billion.

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.

Parliament Hill reno costs quietly soar above billion-dollar mark

OTTAWA - The cost to repair Parliament Hill's crumbling West Block has quietly passed the billion-dollar mark, newly released documents show.

The revised work estimate for the heritage structure appears on a single line of the federal public accounts for the fiscal year 2011-12, released this week.

The price tag for the renovation has soared since 2005, when Treasury Board approved $769 million to restore the building.