Bluenose II schooner rebuild to cost at least $20M

The bill for the rebuild of the Bluenose II schooner has grown to nearly $20 million, according to the latest figures released on Tuesday by the Nova Scotia government.

The Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage says taxpayers have contributed $19,572,990 to date.

That figure doesn't include the cost of installing a hydraulic steering system on the vessel. That modification was needed in order to properly manoeuvre the schooner's new three-tonne steel rudder.

The final bills for the steering system fix aren't in yet, but the equipment and installation are expected to cost about $350,000.

About $4.5 million worth of work also remains in dispute between the province and the Lunenburg Shipyard Alliance, which is the consortium hired to do the work on the Bluenose II. 

Although there was a $14.4-million budget for the project, the builders submitted dozens of "change orders" which added to the overall cost. Some of those change orders are now in dispute.

Nova Scotia Auditor General Michael Pickup is scheduled to table a report tomorrow, which will detail what his office has discovered about the cost overruns and delays that have plagued the Bluenose II reconstruction project.

Missed deadlines

The plan to rebuild the schooner first surfaced in the province's last Progressive Conservative budget on May 4, 2009.

"We will be investing $14.4 million over two years to upgrade Nova Scotia's sailing ambassador, the Bluenose II, in partnership with the federal government," Finance Minister Jamie Muir said at the time.

That budget never made it to a vote. The government of Rodney MacDonald was defeated on a money bill later that day and Nova Scotians tossed the Tories out in a general election a month later.

It wasn't until December 2009 that the New Democratic government signed a deal with the project management firm MHPM Project Managers Inc. and with design consultants Lengkeek Vessel Engineering Inc. to rebuild the schooner.

The estimated bill was still $14.4 million, with the cost to be shared equally by the federal government and the province. To qualify for the federal share, the rebuild had to be completed by March 31, 2011.

Nearly four years since missing that deadline, the Bluenose II still has to undergo more trials before it can resume its role as Nova Scotia's sailing ambassador.

What we hope to learn tomorrow from Pickup's report:

• What drove up the price of the rebuild well beyond the original estimate?
• What role did the tight deadline — to meet Ottawa's infrastructure program — play in the overruns?
• How closely did the province monitor the project?
• Midway through the reconstruction, the decision was made to have the ship certified by American Bureau of Shipping. Who made that decision and why?
• Premier Stephen McNeil has called the project a "boondoggle," which is a government-funded project with no purpose other than political patronage. Was that the case?