Dear Editor,
Oh my God, the contractor has finally come up with a completion date for our new library. It must be true because there is a nice colourful graph to prove it. But wait a second, the graph says it won’t be completed until Sept. 1, 2015. That’s more than eight months away.
Based on their performance so far and the seemingly endless blunders by the contractor to date, can anyone really believe, even for a second, that given another eight months, a whole new set of misadventures are not going to take place delaying the completion date even further? I would definitely mark that date on your calendar in pencil only.
Then comes the matter of who pays for what. The contractor has apparently magnanimously agreed that we don’t have to pay for two roofs. That’s nice, as the last time I checked, I could only see one roof. The question of who is going to pay for the balance of the overrun is going to go to arbitration. Is this going to be binding arbitration?
It appears we will have paid the contractor in full and the arbitrator now decides how much they have to give back? Good luck if that happens. I am sure the contractor is going to drive happily away, grinning from ear to ear into the sunset with a whole backhoe bucket full of our money.
I think my advice to our learned councillors if they are thinking of going into another building project in the next decade: don’t—the taxpayer cannot afford another fiasco like this one and we are tired of being victims.
Jack Templeton
Jasper, Alta.
