Wednesday, October 02, 2013

This Day In Snookland: SNC Lavelin Comes To....


...Qualicum?

That's right sportsfans.

And it looks like consultants are wild.

As for zero-based budgeting?

Not so much.

The Oceanside Star has the story. Here's their lede:

Qualicum Beach council Monday awarded a contract for $99,993 to SNC Lavalin to do engineering and science work for the town's Waterfront Master Plan.

The town has a $150,000 Gas Tax Innovations Fund grant to develop the plan. Planning director Luke Sales explained that they set aside $100,000 for Phase One of the plan and $50,000 for Phase Two, which will involve more public consultation.

Coun. Bill Luchtmeijer noted that the four bids received on Phase One were all just under $100,000 and wondered if they would have been lower if staff hadn't revealed how much they had to spend.

However Sales and engineering director Bob Weir said their approach was to say, "What can you give us for $100,000," and they feel the resulting bids represented good value for the town.

Their report to council said that even though SNC Lavalin's bid was highest (the four bids were separated by about $3,700), "SNC Lavalin set itself apart through an excellent work plan, a clear understanding of local coastal conditions, and a deeper portfolio of previously related work in the region."...


Hmmmm....

SNC-Lavelin setting itself 'apart' from the rest.

Rumour has it those fine folks are very, very good at that.

In certain jurisdictions at least.


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4 comments:

cfvua said...

Sounds like the councillors need to veto the whole plan. Their staff seems to have been "impressed" by SNC. Seems odd that a company of that size would be bidding on small jobs like this one unless they could just blow the dust off one that they already have on the shelf.

Lew said...

"...a deeper portfolio of previously related work in the region."...

Indeed. I wonder what percentage of the total funds distributed under the Gas Tax Agreement between the Federal Government and the UBCM since 2005 created that deep portfolio?

RossK said...

cfvua--

Ya - and why is their money tossed around for this kind of spade work that should be part of the actual proposal anyway?

_____

Heckuva question Lew.

Maybe this is something that we can Norm Farrell interested in looking into.

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kootcoot said...

$100,000 doesn't even cover a day's worth of SNC Lavilan's bribery budget......

"even though SNC Lavalin's bid was highest"

So was their bribe, most likely!