Worth the delay? Province won't say latest cost for new Fredericton courthouse
CBC
The New Brunswick government won't say how much it's now expected to cost to finish a new Fredericton courthouse, a project the province has twice halted over its cost.
The province announced this week it had awarded a construction management contract to Ontario-based Bird Construction.
The announcement included no update about the cost of the project and the province wouldn't provide the information or details about the other bids.
"While the construction management contract has been signed by Bird Construction, the revised total estimated project cost still requires approval of the government later this spring, following closing of the current tenders by the construction manager," Bruce Macfarlane, a spokesperson for the province, said in an email.
Liberal MLA Chuck Chiasson, the party's infrastructure critic, said he wants to know the new estimated cost of the project.
"I think the province needs to come clean," Chiasson said.
Chiasson said he believes the old cost estimate was an underestimation and that with inflation the cost will only have gone up.
"I don't think by tendering it out to a management company that they're going to realize the savings that they wanted to see," Chiasson said.
"Surprise, surprise," Green Party Leader David Coon said of the lack of details.
"Because it's going to be way higher than the original cost that was quoted back in 2017 and, you know, we're five to seven years out now, and so the cost is going to be a lot higher on top of the money they've already wasted."
In 2017, the Liberal government under Premier Brian Gallant approved a new courthouse in a refurbished Centennial Building.
It was estimated to cost $76 million and would replace the Queen Street courthouse that's had security, flooding and maintenance problems.
It was among the projects Premier Blaine Higgs cancelled after taking office in 2018 after $13 million had already been spent.
In 2021, the Higgs government announced it would go ahead with a new courthouse — on a different site — at an estimated cost of $60 million.
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