Moncton awards landscaping contract for RCMP memorial

WATCH ABOVE: Moncton City Council has awarded the contract for the landscaping surrounding the new RCMP memorial that will be erected along the riverfront. Global’s Alex Abdelwahab has the details.

MONCTON – In a special City Council Meeting Monday afternoon, Moncton awarded the landscaping contract for the RCMP memorial.

The memorial site will be along the river front, behind the Moncton Press Club. It will include an esplanade with trees and benches, and a monument remembering the events of June 4, 2014, and the RCMP officers killed and injured.

Council awarded the contract to J.K. Fraser and Son Ltd, of Indian Mountain, in a 5 to 3 vote, with Deputy Mayor Shawn Crossman and Councillors Paulette Theriault and Pierre Boudreau voting against it.

The contract was for $317,457.73 and includes supplying and installing asphalt, new lights, trees, topsoil, sod and mulch, along with completing the landscaping and foundation for the site.

All the work must be completed by Nov. 30.

Catherine Dallaire, general manager of parks, leisure, culture and heritage for the city told reporters it was important that the work be completed this fall, as the city can never predict how long the winter will last.

She added that one of the benefits of the winning bid is that they plan to use similar materials in their plaza as the Downing Street project, so the river front will have a unified look.

The landscaping makes up almost half of the cost of the $750,000-project, which is being split between three levels of government. Ottawa will pay half the cost, while the province and city will split the other half.

“The city’s 25 per cent includes in-kind, so our actual cost, our out of pocket cost will be below $100,000,” Dallaire said.

Mayor George LeBlanc admitted that the landscaping was more expensive than the city had planned, but said there was a competitive bid process and they went with the lowest bid.

“It was a little more than what we had budgeted for and so we expect that we will be bringing it down to meet our budgetary abilities,” he said.

There were four companies that bid for the project, but one bid was rejected as it didn’t meet the project requirements.

Work is expected to begin on the site within the next couple of weeks.

The contract for the monument was awarded earlier this year to sculptor Morgan MacDonald from St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The completed memorial is expected to be unveiled on the second-anniversary of the shootings.