B.C. LIBERALS REDEFINE ‘ON TIME, ON BUDGET’
Record shows major projects are often late, over cost estimates
Another day, another bogus claim from the B.C. Liberals that a major capital project is on time and on budget.
This time it was Peter Fassbender, cabinet minister for local government and provincial liaison to TransLink, talking about the Evergreen rapid transit line linking the Tri-Cities to the existing SkyTrain system.
“It is going to be on time and on budget,” Fassbender told reporters at a media event in Port Moody Monday, where he announced funding for “welcoming plazas” at stations along the 11-kilometre route of the line.
With the project now said to be 85 per cent complete, Fassbender repeated variations on the theme of the day a half-dozen times: “The project will be on time and on budget … from my understanding the project will be on budget” etc.
As he spoke, the government circulated a news release announcing the latest target date for the line to be running: “Early 2017.” The same release pegged the provincial government contribution to the $1.43-billion project at “$586 million.”
Alas for Fassbender, a check through the government’s online news archive turns up a news release from February 2009 — “New transit line to reduce congestion, improve mobility and create jobs” — announcing the green-lighting of the Ever- green line in time for that year’s provincial election.
“The province has committed $410 million to the project,” it said. “Construction is expected to be completed in 2014.” A further check of the archive produced an earlier release that added a note of precision to what was said to be a “realistic” completion date: “August 2014.”
So the line that was going to be operating in the summer of 2014 won’t be in service until early 2017, or 2½ years behind schedule. And the initial provincial government commitment of $410 million has ballooned to $586 million an overrun of 43 per cent.
Some of the delay is a product of widely reported difficulties in construction of the tunnel and guideway for the Evergreen line. The Liberals maintain the costs associated with those will be covered by the builder or the contingency portion of the project budget.
Ottawa’s contribution to the overall cost is capped at $424 million, the region is on the hook for $400 million, and “other partners” are in for $21 million.
However, most of a hopedfor contribution from private sector partners failed to materialize, leaving the provincial government on the hook for the balance. The $173-million increase in the provincial commitment dates back to the fall of 2011 and it hasn’t increased since then, which is where the Liberals get off saying the project is now on budget.
But when I challenged Fassbender Monday over the on-time, on-budget claim, he conceded that it would depend where one started the calculation — before all the revisions in the budget and construction schedule or afterward.
Standard fare for the B.C. Liberals, as regular readers of this space may recall.
On the four-lane South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) linking Tsawwassen to Highway 1 at the Port Mann, the Liberals originally budgeted for it to be completed in 2012 at a cost of $1 billion. Instead the road opened in late 2013 at a cost of $1.264 billion.
Since Ottawa capped the federal contribution to the cost-shared project at $365 million, B.C. was forced to pick up the entire overrun. Thus, the provincial share grew from an initial $635 million to $899 million, an increase of 42 per cent.
Still, that didn’t keep the Liberals from announcing that the SFPR had opened — you guessed it — “on time and on budget.”
Nor is that the only example where the federal government practice of capping contributions to cost-shared projects put provincial tax- payers on the hook for a huge cost overrun.
The Vancouver Convention Centre expansion project was projected to cost $495 million when the B.C. Liberals launched into it way back in 2002 without even a semblance of a business case or proper cost estimating.
The feds fixed their contribution at $223 million, and refused to increase it, no matter how many times the Liberals pleaded for additional funding as construction fell way behind schedule and the budget soared.
When all the bills were totalled, the cost was $841 million, a 70 per cent overrun in most reckonings — but not as the B.C. Liberals saw things. Instead, they claimed the convention was under budget because the finished cost was less than the $883million figure they’d concocted in a late-in-the-day worst-case scenario.
Compounding the outrage, the Liberals tried to count the supposed $42 million “saving” on the convention centre as a contribution to the cost of putting a retractable roof on B.C. Place.
The re-roofing was launched with a guesstimated cost of $100 million to $150 million, followed by a supposedly firm budget of $365 million, and finished at $514 million, an overrun of more than 41 per cent.
So to recap, the provincial share of the overrun on the convention centre was 70 per cent and in the 40 per cent range on the other three examples mentioned above. Three of the four were behind schedule as well.
Still, the B.C. Liberals can’t help themselves. “On time and on budget,” just rolls off their collective tongues, no matter how many times the news releases in their own archive put the lie to the claim.
On time and on budget, just rolls off their collective tongues, no matter how many times the news releases in their own archive put the lie to the claim.