Hot deals galore at Crown auction website

Recent surplus asset sales include ORNGE air ambulance

A former ORNGE airplane and thousands of decommissioned law enforcement vehicles were among the items sold by Canada’s Crown asset surplus site over the past year, an analysis of auction sales data shows.

According to the GCSurplus website, roughly 20,000 items were sold between August 2014 and August 2015.

The highest-ticket item sold in that period, a 2010 Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, went for $3.12 million in July. The plane, which featured a custom medevac interior, was originally purchased along with nine other aircraft in 2008 at a cost of $4.56 million (U.S.) per aircraft.

The PC-12 was purchased by Kudlik Aviation, a Quebec City company whose cor- porate affiliate, Kudlik Construction, has numerous building contracts in Nunavut. Jean Labrecque, director of flight operations for Kudlik Aviation, says the plane was first stripped of its medevac interior to accommodate more passengers.

ORNGE originally paid $400,000 for the custom medevac configuration, which was included in the $4.56-million price tag.

“It’s not our best workhorse, but we appreciate it,” Labrecque said.

Since a 2012 Star investigation revealed serious problems at ORNGE — financial and safety related — the agency has been steadily divesting itself of unnecessary vehicles purchased under the governance of ex-CEO Chris Mazza, whose tenure is being looked at in an ongoing RCMP investigation.

GCSurplus is a federal government organization operating under Public Works and Government Services Canada. Its online auction website, launched in January 2009, sells everything from high-end jewelry to pallets of unused printer toner on behalf of municipal, provincial and federal government agencies across the country through a closed bidding system.

According to Public Works, GCSurplus reported gross sales of $53 million for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, with proceeds for the sales returned to the departments or agencies that provided them.

Some of the items for sale have been seized by federal and provincial law enforcement agencies. GCSurplus says that its sales of seized goods were in excess of $3.2 million in 2011 alone.

In April, media outlets including the Star reported when a cache of hockey collectibles, including an autographed Maurice (Rocket) Richard jersey, was offered for sale on the website.