Sub refit decision unfair to taxpayers and Atlantic Canada: May

CALGARY – Green Party leader Elizabeth May is denouncing a federal decision to award a refit contract for Halifax-based submarines to a British Columbia company as unfair to Atlantic Canada. The Department of Public Works has awarded the $1.5 billion contract to a west coast company in violation of the Treasury Board’s own rules.

“Why was the normal process of tendering and the usual Treasury Board guidelines circumvented?” asked Ms. May. “Why would the federal government avoid rules put in place for transparency and a fair bidding process and spend over $1 million per sub to bring them through the Panama Canal, adding 4,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere?”

Ms. May noted that facilities already exist in Atlantic Canada for refitting the subs and that each submarine will have to undertake a 90-day trek down through the Panama Canal and up to British Columbia, burning over one million litres of diesel fuel.

“This case proves in spades that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no interest in fairness for Atlantic Canada. And it proves that Peter MacKay’s role in defending Atlantic Canadian interests at the cabinet table amounts to window dressing,” said Ms. May. “Moreover, it demonstrates that old-style politics trumps value for dollar with taxpayers’ funds.”

Ms. May said the process for awarding the contract has been unfair from the beginning. The government has wrongly classified the project as a maintenance project when in reality it is a refit. This should have ensured that, as a project over $100 million, it would be treated as a Major Crown Project and submitted to a Senior Project Advisory Committee for consideration.