OTTAWA — Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose has ordered a review of a controversial contract following revelations that changing a doorbell in a federal government building cost Canadian taxpayers $1,000.
“Those expenses are clearly over the top and of great concern to me,” said Ambrose, pointing out the contracts were handled by the department, not the minister’s office.
Ambrose said she has asked her deputy minister to review the “massive” contract, adding the spending was unacceptable and “insulting to the average taxpayer.”
The comments came after documents obtained by LaPresse under the access to information law revealed that keeping the public works department’s building in Gatineau clean and in good repair has been costly.
For example, extra cleaning for the minister and the deputy minister’s offices costs $18,000 every six months. Two plants for a civil servant’s office cost nearly $2,000. The plants cost between $175 and $200 each wholesale.
The bills are part of a $6-billion contract awarded in 2004 to Profac, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, to manage 320 federal government buildings.
The contract costs the federal government nearly $550 million a year. The contract, which originally ran to 2009, has been extended to 2011 and could be extended to 2015.
The company and the public works department say the costs are within industry norms and many of the higher bills are the result of doing the work at night, plus Quebec provincial standards which stipulate that workers must be paid a minimum of four hours as well as overtime for jobs done after 4 p.m.
Opposition MPs were quick to condemn the spending as well as Ambrose’s decision to blame it on officials in her department.
“It was galling to hear Minister Ambrose stand up to say that was the ministry, not the minister, and then sit down,” said NDP MP Thomas Mulcair, pointing out that ministers are responsible for the actions of their departments.
“The government tells us it has to tighten its belt and clean up,” Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said. “Look at how they clean up. They pay $1,000 bucks to change a light or a doorbell.”
elizabeth.thompson@sunmedia.ca
