U of R residence building costs $9M over budget

The Saskatchewan government says it's trying to help the University of Regina deal with multi-million dollar cost overruns onits new residence.

Construction of the new facilitythat willhouse 600 students and provide90 daycare spacesbegan this spring.

The building wassupposed to cost $74 million, but is now projected to be more than $9 million over budget, putting the total costat about $83 million.

The university told the government about the extra costs a couple of weeks ago.

Louise Greenberg, the deputy minister of advanced education, is trying to figure out what went wrong.

"I don't believe there's any mismanagement," said Greenberg. "I believe the costs are high. We've got a hot economy. There has been an increase in costs. Regina is booming," she said.

Greenberg said the government isn't going to offer the school more money, but it will try to help.

"Our ministry staff are going to work with the University of Regina staff to start looking at the various costs to see how they can mitigate and if there's any way to reduce some of the costs that are coming in now," she said.

The project is scheduled to be ready for students by the fall of 2015.