Bluenose II steering system repair cost to be double expectations
Original tab for steering system was $350K
The price tag for fixing the Bluenose II is rising, yet again.
The cost of equipment and installation for the vessel's hydraulic steering system had been pegged at about $350,000, but is now expected to cost twice that, the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal said Friday.
The hydraulic steering system was needed to properly manoeuvre the schooner's new three-tonne steel rudder.
Geoff MacLellan said department officials believe the $350,000 figure was true at a "particular snapshot in time."
"I have been in full briefing mode with staff on the Bluenose II restoration file and wanted to bring something to your attention related to the hydraulic steering component," MacLellan said in an email Friday.
"We now feel the full cost of this particular task could be in the $700,000 range."
The news comes on the heels of a damning report released on Wednesday by Nova Scotia Auditor General Michael Pickup.
Pickup said the restoration of the Bluenose II is delayed and over-budget because of poor planning, weak oversight and the decision to hand the job to a government department with very little experience managing construction projects.
When the restoration was announced in 2009 by the province and the federal government, the budget was set at $14.4 million. Half of that budget was to come from a federal infrastructure fund — but the federal government pitched in only $4 million because the project failed to meet deadlines.
Finger pointing
With Friday's new figure for the steering system, the bill for the Bluenose II rebuild has now grown to more than $20 million. An additional $4.5 million is still in dispute between the province and the Lunenburg Shipyard Alliance, which is the consortium hired to do the work on the Bluenose II.
Earlier this week, Pickup made it clear who dropped the ball on the restoration project.
"I think the people accountable, I think we're pretty clear, that is the government and mainly the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage who were responsible to initiate and plan this," he said after releasing his report on Wednesday.
"They were the ones responsible to enter into the contracts with the various parties, they're the ones with responsibility for oversight," he said.
Hours after Pickup's report was released, Premier Stephen McNeil announced the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal would oversee the completion of the Bluenose II project.