Costly projects will be unsustainable
Editorial appeared in Fort McMurray Today Sept. 8, 2006
Is it a good thing when there's just one bidder on an expensive, taxpayer-funded, public project?
Is it a good thing when the bid price is 73 per cent higher than the estimate three months ago?
Is it a good thing when politicians hold their noses and vote to accept the tender because the alternative is to get in the way of the police doing a good job?
Is it a good thing when an expensive bid is rubber-stamped in fear of a retendering coming in even higher?
Is it a good thing when a revamp of jail cells downtown is postponed because the new Timberlea building is over budget? (The existing basement jail at city hall is not ambulance-accessible and does not meet federal standards.)
One hopes lots of money wasn't earmarked for prisoner comfort.
A perfect storm sucked the pockets of taxpayers a lot drier this week when these circumstances combined.
The new police station -- a building almost everyone, except criminals, perhaps, support -- will live up to former mayor Doug Faulkner's worst fears: it has become a Taj Mahal.
That term is normally associated with edifices that are so beautiful and over-the-top that they deserve to be one of the wonders of the world, not structures used daily for a down-to-earth cause: law enforcement.
No one's suggesting this is the case for the new police station in town. It will likely be a functional building for the boys and girls in blue, with environmental features added in.
But the price tag makes it seem as if we're getting a Rolls Royce when it will probably resemble a Volkswagen Beetle. Practical, yet expensive.
And we're paying for it.
Regional council OK'd spending between four and five times the original price.
Why so much?
* The project was delayed
* The market was hyper-inflated
* It took forever to find a suitable site
* A bigger population required a bigger detachment
In the end, these are all lame justifications.
It could have been built more quickly. Growth could have been taken into consideration earlier. As for sites -- just pick one!
In private industry, the person in charge of a debacle like this would likely be fired. The reason many people have low regard for public servants is that when they fail, it's spectacular. And it costs us, not them.
Bring on the new police detachment. Under the contract between Wood Buffalo and the federal government, it's a local responsibility. The existing cop shop, just a decade old (previously, it was in Gregoire Park) was poorly thought out, most now realize.
If locals want good policing, it's a cost that must be borne.
There's a big but, however.
If too many more projects go the same way as this one and the $107-million MacDonald Island redevelopment, the level of municipal indebtedness will likely force Wood Buffalo into bankruptcy at some point.
Civic employees and politicians alike will all point at someone else, blaming them for the mess.
It will be a mess of their own making. Lots of bad decisions were made to arrive at this situation.
Elections are three years apart, and the foresight by politicians often extends that far and no more.
The average citizen is left holding the bag. The empty money bag.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
Is it a good thing when there's just one bidder on an expensive, taxpayer-funded, public project?
Is it a good thing when the bid price is 73 per cent higher than the estimate three months ago?
Is it a good thing when politicians hold their noses and vote to accept the tender because the alternative is to get in the way of the police doing a good job?
Is it a good thing when an expensive bid is rubber-stamped in fear of a retendering coming in even higher?
Is it a good thing when a revamp of jail cells downtown is postponed because the new Timberlea building is over budget? (The existing basement jail at city hall is not ambulance-accessible and does not meet federal standards.)
One hopes lots of money wasn't earmarked for prisoner comfort.
A perfect storm sucked the pockets of taxpayers a lot drier this week when these circumstances combined.
The new police station -- a building almost everyone, except criminals, perhaps, support -- will live up to former mayor Doug Faulkner's worst fears: it has become a Taj Mahal.
That term is normally associated with edifices that are so beautiful and over-the-top that they deserve to be one of the wonders of the world, not structures used daily for a down-to-earth cause: law enforcement.
No one's suggesting this is the case for the new police station in town. It will likely be a functional building for the boys and girls in blue, with environmental features added in.
But the price tag makes it seem as if we're getting a Rolls Royce when it will probably resemble a Volkswagen Beetle. Practical, yet expensive.
And we're paying for it.
Regional council OK'd spending between four and five times the original price.
Why so much?
* The project was delayed
* The market was hyper-inflated
* It took forever to find a suitable site
* A bigger population required a bigger detachment
In the end, these are all lame justifications.
It could have been built more quickly. Growth could have been taken into consideration earlier. As for sites -- just pick one!
In private industry, the person in charge of a debacle like this would likely be fired. The reason many people have low regard for public servants is that when they fail, it's spectacular. And it costs us, not them.
Bring on the new police detachment. Under the contract between Wood Buffalo and the federal government, it's a local responsibility. The existing cop shop, just a decade old (previously, it was in Gregoire Park) was poorly thought out, most now realize.
If locals want good policing, it's a cost that must be borne.
There's a big but, however.
If too many more projects go the same way as this one and the $107-million MacDonald Island redevelopment, the level of municipal indebtedness will likely force Wood Buffalo into bankruptcy at some point.
Civic employees and politicians alike will all point at someone else, blaming them for the mess.
It will be a mess of their own making. Lots of bad decisions were made to arrive at this situation.
Elections are three years apart, and the foresight by politicians often extends that far and no more.
The average citizen is left holding the bag. The empty money bag.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
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