Serco contract pushed back to 2016 at 5 Wing Goose Bay

The company that provides site services at 5 Wing Goose Bay has had its contract extended.

Serco, which provides everything from meals to firefighting on the base, has an 11-year contract with the federal government which was set to expire in March 2014.

But last week, employees received a memo indicating the new expiry date had been pushed back to March 2016.

Bernie Bolger, president of the National Defence Employees Union, Local 90215, accuses government of playing politics.

"We've been made promises, and we haven't seen too many promises come through yet ... so that's the way I look at it — it's politics — politicians making the decisions," said Bolger.

"So I don't know what's going on, it's beyond me the reason [why] this RFP is not ready."

Bolger believes the contract was extended because government wasn't ready to request new proposals.

"To me, my reason it's not ready is because there's no plan in place. We don't know whether we'll have work beyond 2016, we don't know how many people are going to be working beyond 2016 — the community is being held ransom, it's the same thing," Bolger said. 

CBC has requested comment from Serco, the National Defence department and the Public Works and Government Services department.