Redford says MLA offices will be built

Premier argues shelving project will waste money

Stopping an ongoing $275-million redevelopment for MLA offices would be a waste of the money already spent, Premier Alison Redford said Monday.

Redford said the construction work on the Federal Building in Edmonton, which began in 2009 under premier Ed Stelmach, has already cost the government $175 million, but if she took the advice of opposition critics and shut the project down because of the current fiscal crisis, that money would be lost.

“It’s not a decision I would have made, but it was made and now we have to make the best of these cir- cumstances,” she said in an interview with CBC Radio.

Redford said the 11-storey building, which will house MLAs, legislature staff and finance officials from the Annex and Terrace buildings, is nearly 80-per-cent complete.

The final tenders for the interior of the building are expected to be let by the end of March.

Just before Christmas, on the same day Finance Minister Doug Horner announced a severe shortfall in resource revenue as a result of the low price Alberta is getting for its oilsands bitumen, a Tory-dominated legislature committee approved $4 million to be spent on a visitor centre, gift shop and 80-seat theatre on the main floor of the building.

Redford revealed in a TV address last week the province will face a $6-billion revenue shortfall as a result of the “bitumen bubble.”

Stefan Baranski, the premier’s spokesman, said it makes no economic sense to further delay the Federal Building project given the Terrace Building and Annex are near the end of their lives and would require millions of dollars of repairs.

The restoration of the Federal Building was initially slated to cost $356 million, but the figure was reduced to $275 when the recession hit. However, unexpected major structural repairs, which have delayed the planned 2011 completion date, are likely to inflate the final cost.

No new cost estimate has been released.