Gatineau city council scraps plan for arena
Investigations by anti-corruption squads stalled project for 10 years
Gatineau city council voted Tuesday to scrap its plans to build a new Robert Guertin Arena after countless hiccups and an investigation by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad stalled the project for almost 10 years.
Council voted 15-3 Tuesday to cancel construction of a multipurpose centre that would have included a performing arts space after the second round of construction bids was rejected.
“The main reason was that it was too expensive,” Mayor Maxim Pedneaud-Jobin said. “At that price, we had to reflect back on why we were doing this and we felt that the justifications were not strong enough for such a price.”
The vote to cancel the project after already having invested $7 million came only a few months after the city renewed its call for bids, hiking the cost to $74.4 million from the initial estimate of $63.5 million.
The city now hopes the private sector will step in to build an arena for the Gatineau Olympiques once their aging home ice is demolished after the 2017-18 season.
Pedneaud-Jobin said the decision to raise the estimate was taken despite the cost assessment carried out by independent firms, including one that concluded the $63.5 million estimate was high.
Last May, construction was delayed when Pedneaud-Jobin rejected the first set of bids when they came in higher than the city estimated and varied in price by $15 million from the lowest to the highest. Pedneaud-Jobin said there were also concerns with some of the subcontractors listed in the bids.
“That came as a surprise,” Pedneaud-Jobin said. “Not a happy one.”
In an unusual move, Pedneaud-Jobin publicly announced last May the city was handing the bids over to Quebec’s anti-corruption squad (UPAC) for review after getting the “informed opinion” of Gatineau police Chief Mario Harel. On Tuesday, UPAC wouldn’t say if its investigation had concluded.
Six companies submitted bids after the first call for tenders; two were rejected because they missed the deadline. Three of the four companies whose bids were handed over to UPAC served notices of action against the city. None of them has filed lawsuits.
Raymond Brunet, a civil engineer and the president of Ed Brunet and Associates, said he was confident in his company’s $66.2-million bid on the arena construction. In the “war room” on the second floor of Brunet’s building on Dumas Street in Gatineau, staff reviewed estimates from subcontractors as they poured in at the last minute. Brunet’s great-grandfather built the current arena in 1959.
Brunet said the bidding process is complex and often very stressful. He looked for a mix between quality work and a competitive quote, which he compared to an exhaustive database of prices.
Brunet said contractors were unfairly singled out when the mayor called in UPAC to review their bids.
“My problem is you mention that publicly and you don’t mention what are those irregularities,” Brunet said. “You’re painting with one stroke of the brush everybody as colluders and that is my problem.”
The mayor said he wasn’t targeting the bidders or accusing them of wrongdoing. The city just didn’t have the expertise to review the bids, Pedneaud-Jobin said.
Denis Stocker, the vice-president of Beaudoin Canada, whose $70 million bid was the highest, said he’s disappointed how the city handled the project.
“Honestly, I’m not proud of my city,” Stocker said. “It seems like Gatineau has a problem to manage their own projects.”