"A scandal to come?" -- a letter to the National Post editor Mar. 16, 04
Gary Switzer from Toronto alerts us to yet another multi-million waste of our money. He claims that Mr. Cardinal, a leading native architect, is pitching the idea of an eighty-four million dollar--$84,000,000--Native conference center. For the building proposed, the construction costs, plus furnishings, would come to $577 per sq. ft. Yet only about a quarter of the building is not used conventionally.
Switzer has done his homework on this scam. It makes me think he is in the construction end of things. Using the estimates of a Mr. Helyar, said to be the leading construction consultant in Canada, he claims these costs are wildly inflated. He says that to erect a 30 storey skyscraper in Ottawa is only $155 per sq. ft. Even to construct a high quality condominium is $175 per sq. ft. Finally, you could construct a hospital with all its nooks and crannies for around $310 per sq. ft.
This must be stopped -- now. Believe me, Paul Martin, the Auditor-General should have a field day with this one. If you fund it, it will show that you really have lost touch with how the average Canadian would view this chicanery. You could also save yourself the recurring nightmare of the inevitable cost over-runs -- sort of like the gun registry with feathers. We can thank Mr. Switzer for bringing this to our attention.
