HALIFAX – Newly released documents show the consultants in charge of the restoration of the Bluenose II have been paid more than three times what the Nova Scotia government had budgeted for.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, citing documents obtained through federal access laws, says Ottawa-based MHPM Project Leaders Inc. has been paid $1.3 million so far.
The company’s contract in 2009 shows the province originally committed to a tender of $375,000.
Federation spokesman Kevin Lacey says the province should take over the project, which blew its budget back in 2011.
The restoration itself – already two years behind schedule – has cost about $1.6 million more than the projected cost of $16 million.
However, Heritage Minister Tony Ince says the overruns were inevitable and the company has done good work on the restoration.
Ince says he isn’t sure whether it was the province or the company that vastly underestimated the work involved.
Peter Kinley, a partner on the project as CEO of Lunenburg Industrial Foundry, has blamed the cost overruns on higher safety standards of the American Bureau of Shipping.
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