While it’s good to see the Pembina Lodge expansion is nearly ready to take on residents, the news that the Westlock Foundation is in need of extra money isn’t.
It’s particularly disconcerting to learn that the foundation is short a combined $3 million, covering both the operations and capital side of the project.
Now, some degree of forgiveness can be allowed in the case of the $1 million shortfall on the operating side of the books.
As foundation board chair David Truckey said, the foundation hired new staff for the scheduled opening of the expansion, and with the opening delayed, those workers were being paid while the foundation was not receiving and revenue from an empty building.
It would not have been good planning had the foundation not been prepared for the original opening date, so this misstep, while unfortunate, can be viewed as a reasonable cost overrun.
The capital side, on the other hand, has gone so far over budget that the foundation is in the process of applying for a $2 million loan to cover those costs.
Now, it has to be said that the actual cost overrun is closer to $500,000, and that the remaining $1.5 million is a result of additions to the project.
But the point remains — what was supposed to cost $14 million is now looking to come in at closer to $16 million, a 14 per cent increase.
That is unacceptable, despite it being so common.
He even goes so far as to say that cost overruns of this nature are something that people should expect.
No. What people should expect is that a project should be completed for the budgeted amount.
It is simply not acceptable that publicly funded projects are expected to go over budget as common practice.
It was the same with the Spirit Centre, although nobody could have predicted the contractor would go belly up. That didn’t make it better, but it was at least understandable.
Regardless, it has simply become accepted fact that public projects will go over budget, and that just isn’t right. It’s no wonder that municipal taxpayers are so hesitant to spend money, when it’s never certain how big the bill will be.
